Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.27(2)

The Geste of King Horn, with fragments of other Middle English verse texts

Contents

Introduction: This single quire of fourteen leaves evidently once formed part of a larger manuscript, made probably in the first quarter of the fourteenth century (though some scholars have proposed dates as early as the third quarter of the thirteenth century, and as late as the mid-fourteenth century). Of the three Middle English verse texts it contains, only the middle one - King Horn - is complete: at the front, Floris and Blaunchfleur begins imperfectly, while at the back, The Assumption of Our Lady, ends after just 240 lines. Nothing of the rest of the manuscript is known to survive. Nothing is known either of the manuscript's origins or of its ownership until it came into the possession of the antiquary Joseph Holland (d. 1605). It is generally agreed that it was Holland who was responsible for having this quire bound with a manuscript anthology of Chaucer's writings (now MS Gg.4.27(1)). Certainly Holland owned both manuscripts: they each contain his characteristic mark of annotation (a curved line above two dots, as on f. 10r of this volume). Holland made various interventions in MS Gg.4.27(1): most notably, supplying textual deficiencies in the mutilated manuscript on added leaves, inserting materials such as a frontispiece and other texts and apparatus, and also foliating the manuscript in black ink. Unlike Chaucer's works, the texts in Gg.4.27(2) have not survived widely in manuscript copies, nor were they disseminated in printed editions until the nineteenth century. It is therefore not surprising that Holland did not - or, rather, was likely not able to - 'restore' the imperfect copies of Floris and Blaunchfleur or The Assumption of Our Lady to something like their complete form, in similar manner to his treatment of the Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, and other Chaucerian texts. However, if Holland did indeed bind the two together, it is curious that his foliation did not include leaves that were physically part of the manuscript. This may reflect Holland's awareness that these works were not Chaucerian, and that he bound them in owing to the fact that they too were verse texts written in Middle English, and therefore had a generic connection with the contents of the rest of the manuscript. Alternatively, they may have come into his possession after he had foliated the rest of the manuscript, but before he had had it rebound with his supplementary leaves. After Holland's death, these manuscripts almost certainly passed through the hands of Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), to whom the University Library is indebted for a substantial portion of its holdings of Middle English manuscripts. His collection of manuscripts and printed books came to the Library in July 1664. The inventory of Holdsworth's manuscripts (preserved in two copies, now MS Dd.8.45 and MS Ff.4.27), compiled by William Crowe, gave only brief descriptions of the books' contents; the entry that most likely refers to the volume - '51. Chaucer's Workes' - makes no mention of these leaves. Indeed, they appear to have been generally overlooked until John Mitchell Kemble added the following note to the manuscript (this note is now preserved separately to MS Gg.4.27(2), among the Hollandian additions to MS Gg.4.27(1)): Note: after p. 482b of this volume are inserted fourteen folios in parchment containing a fine copy of the fragment of Floriz and Blauncheflur. A copy of King Horn and a poem on the assumption of our Lady. To the best of my knowledge these have never been noticed. The full contents of the manuscript were first described in published form in 1858, in the third volume of the Catalogue of manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge. These leaves were bound between the end of the Supplicatio amantis and before Chaucer's Retraction and other Hollandian additions. The pencil numbering - §21, §22 and §23 - at the beginning of each text in MS Gg.4.27(2) refers to the numbering in that catalogue. However, they were not long afterwards subject to further rearrangement by Henry Bradshaw, who began his career at the University Library in November 1856, but whose contact with the manuscripts and printed books properly began from 1859 onwards (he was subsequently appointed University Librarian in 1867, in which post he served until his untimely death in 1886). (This matter is dealt with in greater detail in the description of MS Gg.4.27(1)). It was in the course of this rearrangement that Bradshaw had these present leaves removed from the manuscript and reclassified as 'MS Gg.4.27.2', the remainder thereby becoming 'MS Gg.4.27.1'. In his personal copy of the catalogue of manuscripts (now Cambridge, University Library, Adv.c.77.52), Bradshaw had noted against Gg.4.27, 'out on a bond 14th Novr 64'. Records of Bradshaw's borrowing of the manuscript are preserved in H.R. Luard, A chronological list of the graces, documents, and other papers in the University Registry which concern the University Library (Cambridge, 1870). Entries nos 755 and 760 confirm that by February 1866, the manuscript had been separated into two volumes thereafter referred to as 'MS Gg.4.27.1' and the King Horn leaves as 'MS Gg.4.27.2' (see: Beadle (2019) for further details). The separation of the final running number by a full-stop reflects 19th- and early 20th-century practice, though brackets were also in use during this period and is the preferred approach today. The state of MS Gg.4.27(1) at the time of Bradshaw' death - bound or unbound - is not known, but it was certainly rebound in 1896; these covers are preserved with the manuscript. Perhaps MS Gg.4.27(2) was bound at that point too, if it had not already been. When the two manuscripts were the subject of two separate, unpublished descriptions by M.R. James (now UA ULIB 7/3/74/35), he noted that the binding of each was 'new'. MS Gg.4.27(2) was rebound once more in 1983, at Cambridge University Library; similar rebinding of MS Gg.4.27(1) followed fourteen years later. Dr James Freeman| Medieval Manuscripts Specialist| Cambridge University Library

Language(s): Middle English

1. 1r-5v
Floris and Blaunchfleur
Incipit: || 1r: Heo tok ferþ a wel fair þing / Of hire finger a riche Ryng
Explicit: 5v: þat we him mote louie so / þat we mote to heuene go

DIMEV: 824 lines.

DIMEV 3686
NIMEV 2288.8
Lumby (1866)
2. 6r-13r
The Geste of King Horn
Rubric: 6r: Horn
Incipit: 6r: Alle beon he bliþe / Þat to my song lyþe
Explicit: 13r: Iesus þat is of heuene king / Ȝeue vs alle his suete blessing

DIMEV 1530 lines.

Most recent edition only listed below; for others, see the Bibliography.

DIMEV 312
NIMEV 166
Hertzmann et al. (1999)
3. 13v-14v
The Assumption of Our Lady
Rubric: 13v: Assumpcioun de nostre dame
Incipit: 13v: Merie tale telle ihc þis day / Of seinte Marye þat swete may
Explicit: 14v: Marie ansuerde wiþ milde steu[en] / A sonde me al while er fram||

DIMEV: Lines 1-240 only.

DIMEV 122
NIMEV 2165
Hackauf (1902)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r: Glade and bliþe hi weren alle
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: i + 14 + i leaves. 220-250 × 130-160 mm.
Foliation:

[i] + 1-14 + [ii]

Foliation in pencil in the lower right-hand corner of the rectos. This system of foliation is used for references in this description.
Foliation:

(1)-(28)

Pagination enclosed in brackets, in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos only (so only odd numbers written into the volume).

Collation

A single quire of 14 leaves, with irregular edges.

No leaf signatures.

No quire signatures.

 No catchwords.

Layout

200-210 × 125-145 mm. Two columns, 39-42 lines, frame and line ruling in leadpoint, written below top line. The first letter of each line of verse is separated from the rest, and the scribe placed a punctus at the end of each line.

Hand(s)

Folios 1r-5v written in Anglicana formata, and ff. 6r-14v in Anglicana, both by the same scribe (see Parkes and Beadle (1979-80), p. 68). For a detailed analysis of the hand, and the use of abbreviations and punctuations, as well as corrections to the text by the scribe and another, see Allen (1984), pp. 4-5.

Decoration

Plain initials in red or blue, 2-4 lines.

Headings written in red.

Binding

Binding of quarter brown leather and marbled paper sides. Rebound at Cambridge University Library, 1983.

History

Origin: First quarter of the 14th century ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

10r: annotation mark in the margin (a curved line above two dots), also found in other manuscripts known to have belonged to the antiquary Joseph Holland (d. 1605) (see, for example: London, British Library, Cotton MS Vespasian E.v , ff. 18v, 19r, 19v). Holland was apparently responsible for having this quire bound together with what is now MS Gg.4.27(1), which contains Holland's ownership inscription on ff. 5r (now erased, but located directly beneath the border flourishing in the lower margin) and 516v (also erased, but located directly beneath the Cambridge University Library stamp in the lower margin). MS Gg.4.27(1) also contains Holland's annotation mark, on ff. 166v and 213v. There is a note by 'J.M.K.' - i.e. John Mitchell Kemble (1807-1857) - in a volume containing other leaves that were added to MS Gg.4.27(1) by Holland: see MS Gg.4.27(1), f. (2r . This confirms that the leaves now bound separately as MS Gg.4.27(2) were at that time, and probably originally, positioned after f. 516v of MS Gg.4.27(1) (f. 482v by the foliation in ink, the numbering added by Holland and the only foliation sequence in the volume at the time that Kemble saw it).

Almost certainly one of the manuscripts of Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), Master of Emmanuel College .

Acquired by the University Library in July 1664. Probably no. 51 in the inventory of Holdsworth's manuscripts compiled by William Crowe (MS Ff.4.27 / Dd.8.45).

Additional Information

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library). For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.

Custodial History

By February 1866 at the latest, but probably not before November 1864, Henry Bradshaw had the leaves containing King Horn and other fragmentary Middle English texts removed from MS Gg.4.27. In his personal copy of the catalogue of manuscripts (now Cambridge, University Library, Adv.c.77.52), Bradshaw had noted against Gg.4.27, 'out on a bond 14th Novr 64'. Records of Bradshaw's borrowing of the manuscript are preserved in H.R. Luard, A chronological list of the graces, documents, and other papers in the University Registry which concern the University Library (Cambridge, 1870). Entries nos 755 and 760 confirm that by February 1866, the manuscript had been separated into two volumes thereafter referred to as 'MS Gg.4.27.1' and the King Horn leaves as 'MS Gg.4.27.2'. See: Beadle (2019) for further details. (The separation of the final running number by a full-stop reflects 19th- and early 20th-century practice, though brackets were also in use during this period and is the preferred approach today).

It is unclear whether Henry Bradshaw had MS Gg.4.27(2) rebound during his lifetime or whether the manuscript was left unbound at the time of his death in 1886. Certainly, MS Gg.4.27(1) was bound in 1896 by Stoakley (late Hawes) and it may be that MS Gg.4.27(2), if it had not already been bound by that time, was rebound by Stoakley as part of the same job.

The manuscript was rebound at Cambridge University Library in 1983 (see Binding).

Bibliography

    Editions:

    Horn et Rimenhild: recueil de ce qui reste des poëmes relatifs à leurs aventures composés en françois, en anglois, et en écossois dans les treizième, quatorzième, quinzième, et seizième siècles Bannatyne Club Publications, Michel, Francisque Xavier (Paris, Imprimé pour le Bannatyne Club par Maulde et Renou, 1845) King Horn: with fragments of Floriz and Blauncheflur, and of the Assumption of Our Lady, from a ms. (GG 4.27.2) in the Cambridge University Library; also, from mss. in the British Museum, the Assumption of Our Lady (Add. Mss. 10036), and fragments of the Floyres and Blancheflur (Cotton Vitellius D.III) Early English Text Society. Original Series, Lumby, J. Rawson (London, published for the Early English Text Society by Trübner & Co, 1866, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42713) Specimens of early English Clarendon Press series, Morris, Richard (Oxford, 1, Clarendon Press, 1872) Alt- und mittelenglisches Übungsbuch: zum Gebrauche bei Uinversitäts-Vorlesungen und Seminar-Übungen, mit einem Wörterbuche Alt- und mittelenglisches Übungsbuch, (Wien, Leipzig, W. Braumüller, 1897) King Horn: a Middle-English romance, Hall, Joseph (Oxford, Clarence Press, 1901) Die älteste mittelenglische version der Assumptio Mariae Englische textbibliothek, (Berlin, E. Felber, 1902) Middle English metrical romances, (New York, Prentice-Hall, 1930) Floris and Blauncheflur: A Middle English romance edited with introduction, notes and glossary, De Vries, Franciscus Catharina (Groningen, 1966) 'King Horn'. An Edition Based on Cambridge University Library MS Gg. 4.27 (2) Garland Medieval Texts, Allen, Rosamund (New York/Londres, Garland, 1984) Four romances of England: King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston Middle English texts, (Kalamazoo, Mich., Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1999) King Horn: an English medieval romance [translated into Japanese], (Tokyo, [private press], 2010)

Bibliography

    Manuscript descriptions:

    Poetical works [of] Geoffrey Chaucer: a facsimile of Cambridge University Library MS. Gg.4.27, Parkes, M.B.Beadle, Richard (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1979) Catalogue of manuscripts containing Middle English romances Münchener Universitäts-Schriften : Philosophische Fakultät, Guddat-Figge, Gisela (München, W. Fink, 1976) Anglo-Norman literature: a guide to texts and manuscripts Anglo-Norman Text Society occasional publications series, Dean, Ruth J.Boulton, Maureen Barry McCann (London, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999) Middle English Romances: Floris and Blancheflour Database of Middle English Romance, McDonald, Nicola (2012, http://www.middleenglishromance.org.uk/mer/21) Middle English Romances: King Horn Database of Middle English Romance, McDonald, Nicola (2012, http://www.middleenglishromance.org.uk/mer/33)

Bibliography

    Secondary literature:

    Joseph Holand, Collector and Antiquary Modern Philology, Caldwell, Robert A. (40, 4, 295-301, 1943, http://www.jstor.org/stable/434142) Religiöse Dichtung im englischen Hochmittelalter: Untersuchung u. Edition d. Handschrift B. 14. 39 d. Trinity College in Cambridge Münchener Universitätsschriften. Philosophische Fakultät. Texte und Untersuchungen zur englischen Philologie, Reichl, Karl (München, Fink, 1973) Manuscripts of English courtly love lyrics in the later Middle Ages Manuscript studies, Boffey, Julia (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1985) A linguistic atlas of late mediaeval English, McIntosh, AngusSamuels, M.L.Benskin, Michael (Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 1986) The date and provenance of King Horn: some interim reassessments Medieval English Studies Presented to George Kane, Allen, Rosamund S. (Woodbridge, 99-125, Boydell & Brewer, 1988) The relationship of the Vernon and Clopton Manuscripts Studies in the Vernon Manuscript, Turville-Petre, Thorlac (Cambridge, 29-44, D. S. Brewer, 1990) Catalogue of sources for a linguistic atlas of early medieval English, Laing, Margaret (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1993) Rereading Middle English romance: manuscript layout, decoration, and the rhetoric of composite structure, Evans, Murray J. (Montreal; London, McGill; Queen's University Press, 1995) "Chaucer's scribe", Adam and the Hengwrt project Design and distribution of late medieval manuscripts in England, Mosser, Daniel W. (York, 11-40, York Medieval Press in association with the Boydell Press and with the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, 2008) The Trinity Gower D scribe's two Canterbury Tales manuscripts revisited Design and distribution of late medieval manuscripts in England, Thaisen, Jacob (York, 41-60, York Medieval Press in association with the Boydell Press and with the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, 2008) Miscellaneity and history: reading sixteenth-century romance manuscripts English Manuscript Studies: 1100-1700, Boro, Joyce (15, 123-151, 2009) Joseph Holland and the Idea of the Chaucerian Book Manuscript Studies: A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, Cook, Megan L. (1, 2, 165-188, 2016, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/635585) Bradshaw’s Chaucer: Some Preliminary Observations Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Beadle, Richard (16, 4, 557-574, 2019, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27099640) The Poet and the Antiquaries, Cook, Megan L. (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019, https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.9783/9780812295825/html) Chaucer's early modern readers: reception in print and manuscript, Singh, Devani (Cambridge, University Press, 2023)

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