Details

Subject(s)

• Charlemagne Emperor 742-814—Romances [Browse]
• English literature—Middle English, 1100-1500—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Manuscripts, English (Middle)—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]

Former owner

• Eleye, John [Browse]
• Farmer, Richard, 1735-1797 [Browse]
• Steevens, George, 1736-1800 [Browse]
• Gilchrist, Octavius, 1779-1823 [Browse]
• Heber, Richard, 1773-1833 [Browse]
• Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872 [Browse]
• Fenwick, John Edward Addison, 1824-1848 [Browse]
• Fenwick, Katherine Somerset Wyttyenbach, 1823-1916 [Browse]
• Garrett, Robert, 1875-1961 [Browse]

Bookseller

• King, Thomas [Browse]
• Evans, R. H. (Robert Harding), 1777-1857 [Browse]
• Sotheby's (Firm) [Browse]
• Bernard Quaritch (Firm) [Browse]

Donor

Garrett, Robert, 1875-1961 [Browse]

Related name

Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Garrett MS. 140 [Browse]

Library of Congress genre(s)

• Romances [Browse]
• Fiction [Browse]

Getty AAT genre

• romances (medieval narratives) [Browse]
• manuscripts (documents) [Browse]

Medium/​Support

parchment rdamat

Summary note

An anonymous Middle English romance in 3,274 lines, written in East Midland dialect and translated from an Anglo-Norman text that survives in the British Library in London (Egerton MS. 3028). The text belongs to a group of Charlemagne romances concerning the Saracen Fierabras or Firumbras and the destruction of Rome.

Notes

• Incipit: ""[G]od in glorye of myghteste moost, That al thinge made in Sapience, By vertue of woorde and holy goost, Gyvinge to man grete excellence ..."
• Explicit: "And gif vs ioye of the beste, That of here Gestes rede. Here endithe the Romaunce of the Sowdon of Babyloyne And of fferumbras his sone who conquerede Rome And Kynge Charles off ffraunce with xii Dosyperes toke the Sowdon in the feelde And smote of his heede."
• Ms. codex.
• Title from explicit (fol. 41r).
• Collation: Parchment ; fol. i + 41 ; pagination in ink ; modern foliation in pencil.
• Layout: 38-41 lines per page; ruled.
• Description: Leaves of different widths throughout.
• Origin: England in the middle of the 15th century.

Binding note

Later binding. England, probably in the late 18th century. Quarter-bound in calf and marbled paper over pasteboards. Rebacked.

Language note

Middle English;

Script

Secretary.

Provenance

Early provenance unknown. In the late 16th or early 17th century owned by John Eleye (probably a variant of Eley or Ely). Later owned by Rev. Richard Farmer (1735-1797) and after his death sold by Thomas King in 1798 to George Steevens (1736-1800). King sold it again in 1800 to Octavius Graham Gilchrist (1779-1823). In 1824 sold by Robert Harding Evans to Richard Heber. Evans sold it again in 1836 to Sir Thomas Phillipps. It passed from his collection to Rev. John Edward Addison Fenwick and his wife Katherine. In 1898 sold at Sotheby's London to Bernard Quaritch who sold it in 1905 to Robert Garrett (1875-1961), of Baltimore, Maryland, Class of 1897, who donated it to Princeton University Library in 1942.

Source acquisition

Gift; of Robert Garrett, Princeton Class of 1897, 1942.

References

• Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, pages 322-324.
• Ricci, S. de. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, volume 1, page 893.

Other format(s)

Also available in an electronic version.

Place name(s)

England

Other title(s)

Sowdon of Babyloyne

OCLC

1091908295

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