Manuscript, on vellum, in a single hand, containing the text of Chaucer's Canterbury tales; selections from the Confessio amantis of John Gower; and the anonymous poems Speculum misericordis, The adulterous Falmouth squire, Partenope of Blois, The vision of Tundale, and The gast of Guy
Alternative Title:
Delamere Chaucer
Description:
In Middle English., Layout: double columns of 39-44 lines., Script: English bookhand., Decoration: blue and red penwork initials., and Binding: nineteenth-century full red morocco.
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400. and Gower, John, 1325?-1408.
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, Manuscripts, Medieval, and Narrative poetry, English (Middle)
Manuscript fragment, on vellum, in a single hand, of text from Book IV of Gower's Confessio Amantis
Description:
In Middle English., Taken from the Stafford Gower (Huntington Library MS EL 26 A 17) and used as binding waste., Layout: double columns of 36 lines (complete columns are of 46 lines), Script: formal bastard anglicana., Decoration: initials in gold, red, blue and purple., and Byname: Stafford Gower (fragment)
Subject (Geographic):
Connecticut and New Haven.
Subject (Name):
Gower, John, 1325?-1408.
Subject (Topic):
English literature, English poetry, and Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscript on parchment in Anglicana (Scribes 1 and 2) and Secretary script (Scribe 3). The text is the third recension of the Confessio Amantis, written in 1392-1393.The manuscript was produced around 1400 or the beginning of the fifteenth century in the same manner as the other surviving manuscripts from this time, presumably under the author's supervision and Also contained are the Latin and French poems "Explicit iste liber," "Epistola super huius," "Quam cinxere," "Traitie," "Carmen de variis in amore passionibus," and "Carmen super multiplici viciorum pestilencia."
Description:
In Middle English, Latin and French., There are red and blue 1-3 line initials at small and large paragraph breaks. Books II (f. 13r), V (76r), VI (125r), VII (140r), and VIII (175v) contain initials with full page demi-vignette borders in gold, red, blue, green, orange, and brown., Rubrications at running titles, initials, Latin commentary., Binding: yellow morocco on wooden boards, by Douglas Cockerell and Son, 1962., and Sir George Meyrick, Bart., who sold the manuscript after his father's death in 1960, said that the manuscript had been in his family's possession for over 100 years and that in 1775 the house was almost destroyed by fire. Many family papers were lost and perhaps it was then that the manuscript became damp and mildewed.
"Portrait of John Gower; bust, in profile to the right; wearing chaplet of roses around his head; in a rectangle frame, set within architectural details; a tablet below, with his three principal works in front, and a further book open to a page with an illustration of his monument in Southwark Cathedral; the portrait taken from his effigy on this monument."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from text in image., Place of publication from printmaker's place of activity., Text below image: "Honoratiss Dno Ioanni Levison Gower Domino Gower; hanc effigiem humillime D.D. / G. Vertue." per image in British Museum online catalogue, registration no.: G,1.338., Description based on imperfect impression; sheet trimmed with loss of text below design., and In white paper frame with green gouche, yellow wash, and black ink frame: 420 x 360 mm.
