(Q16865)
Statements
28 November 2023
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The siege of Thebes].
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Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451
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Dodesham, Stephen
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Lyle, Robert, active 15th century
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Swyntoun, John
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Campbell, Duncan, active 16th century-17th century
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Breadalbane, John Campbell, Earl of, 1762-1834
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Manuscripts, English (Middle)--England
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Manuscripts, Medieval--Massachusetts--Boston
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ca. 1430
15. century
1430Gregorian
1430Gregorian
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Extent: 76 leaves ; parchment, ill. ; 270 x 180 (193 x 114) mm
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Ms. codex.
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Title devised by cataloger based on explicit (74r: Explicit destruccio civitatis Thebas); date of production from Edwards.
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Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
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Secundo folio: Among the oist ...
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Collation: Parchment, fol. ii (early/contemporary parchment) + 76 + ii (early/contemporary parchment) ; i2 1-98 104 ; modern pencil signatures in lower right corner, first recto of each quire, signed A-I. Catchwords in lower right corner, last verso of each quire, that on fol. 72v possibly added later. Modern arabic pencil foliation, upper outer corner of each page.
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Layout: Single column, 33 lines. Bounding and ruling lines in black ink, upper writing line doubled.
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Script: Written in a gothica cursiva antiquior formata (Anglicana) by the scribe Stephen Dodesham (see Edwards and Doyle) in black with red rubrics.
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Decoration: Two-line initials in colors throughout. Six-line initials in gold and colors with a border of vines and acanthus in gold and colors at the beginning of each part: fol. 1, 3v, 17, 40v.
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Binding: Ca. 18th-century calf over boards, spine gilt in compartments, title gilt on black spine labels, "DESTRUCTION/ OF/ THEBES" and "BY/ LYDGATE/ M.S.," decorative head- and tail-bands, board edges gilt, edges green, two paper flyeaves at front and back with Pro Patria watermark, paper pastedowns, original parchment pastedowns and flyleaves retained, two at front and back, final flyleaf...
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Origin: Written in England in the 1430s (see Edwards) by the scribe Stephen Dodesham (d. ca. 1482). The hand of Stephen Dodesham has been identified in twenty manuscripts (see Doyle, p. 115), including two other copies of The Siege of Thebes (Beinecke Library MS 661 and Cambridge University Library Add. MS 3137). Although he was late in life a Carthusian at Witham in Somerset and then at...
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Provenance: An early owner (possibly the first) has written several inscriptions on fol. 76: "Te deum laudamus te dominum confitemur" twice, and "Pour dieu Remembres Vous de moy/Remembres Vouys de moy pour dieu" Doyle believed this hand to be English (Bawcutt, p. 81). Belonged to the Lyle family at the end of the 15th century, who owned estates near Renfrewshire, just west of Glasgow in...
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Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased by the BPL from L. and P. Robinson in 1947 (cat. 76, nr. 233).
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Call number: MS f Med.94.
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Former call number: MS 1521.
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Bibliography: P.J. Bawcutt, "The Boston Public Library Manuscript of John Lydgate's Siege of Thebes: its Scottish Owners and Inscriptions," Medium Aevum LXX (2001): 80-94; A.S.G. Edwards, "Beinecke Manuscript MS 661 and early fifteenth-century manuscript production," Beinecke Studies in Early Manuscripts: Supplement to Yale University Library Gazette 66 (1991): 181-96; A.I. Doyle, "Stephen...
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4 December 2023
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