| General description: | One folio (f. 144) has been left blank between 'Agravain' and the 'Queste'. This allows the 'Agravain' to end with a full quaternion and the 'Queste' to begin in a new quaternion. The transition between the two texts is also marked by a change in scribe (e.g. marked by the absence of 'tongued' 'e' in final position); the final quire 199-206 is written by the scribe of the Agravain. |
| No. of illustrations: | 2 |
| General illustration: | The 'Agravain' opens with a single column image (f. 1ra; height: 11 lines) in a scarlet frame. The background, now blue, was originally gilt. The vertical limits of the frame are marked by two turrets. The image, which is heavily worn, shows a mounted knight leaving a city.
The 'Queste opens with a similar single column miniature in a scarlet frame with gilt border (f. 145ra). Again, the blue background, shows traces of goldleaf. The images shows another mounted knight leaving a city or castle. |
| General decoration: | Subdivisions are marked by pen-decorated puzzle initials (red, blue; height: 8 lines). The text is further structured through pen-decorated initials (height: 2 lines; red and blue, penwork in contrasting colour). Puzzle initials and pen-decorated initials alike are accompanied by j-borders in red and blue, spanning the full height of the column. |
| Evidence of readership: | Manicula throughout the 'Agravain' part of the manuscript. Only one occurence in the 'Quest'e (f. 191: 'Or dit li contes du seint gra / al'), but it is not certain if this is the same hand. Reference marks (crosses) on f. 78 and 109. Nota bene on ff. 131 and 191. Annotations in French/Italian in a 14th-c. cursive hand on f. 49va: 'chome lanc. fu priso e miso en prison', f. 63vb: 'dolorosa' added in lower margin to accompany 'roine' in the text,
f. 70rb: 'morgheine apris Lanc. e tient en prison' written in upper margin, f. 115: 'mesire G conte les aventures [...]', f. 131v.: 'Inci (with cedilla) finiste la guerre di Cladasa', f. 132v: 'Quant la roina trouo [...] / la bela figlia le roi Peles'. On f. 144: drawing of capital letter 'g'. On the verso side of f. 206 is a text on the nine worthies, again written in Italian. The 'Io so' formula may suggest that these are text composed to accompany images. Further annotations in Latin on the same folio.
Trancription (Nicola Morato and Dirk Schoenaers): [f. 206v] [pagani] / Jo so hector che fra greci piu volte / seppi sencza voltar dar mo(r)te a mille <these first two lines are repeated in another hand next to the original lines> / E un di isproueduto maccise acchillle / Cesare so che Roma e il monde vinci / cola forcza cu(m)la sfata e cu(m) lo ardire / fi una lege e si me fe morire / Jo so Re allexandro che de mondo / mi manco poco auer lo arbitrio appeno / E el piu bel víuere vi ??(n)c ??i meno / [Judey] / Jo so Re dauide che vinci il grande / Golias . e . filiste(us) . ma piu me gioua / víncí me stesso e no(n) fu menore proua / Jo so il possente Juda macchabeo / che bi nellarme prosp??err ??i fortuna / Trenta duy volte vinci . e perdey vna / Jo so il victorioso Jesoe / che [...] un vinci [...] p??iu?? li adu[..]ey / sempre cu(m) poco vinci e may perdey / [(christ)iani] / Jo so Re artus che fu la piu famosa [...] ??co(n)te?? / de Caualieri erranti che ??auassere?? fo spe / E la fatie dorgania sime destrusse / Jo so il Re de (jhersusalem) go??de??freda / p(er) p(er) casa[..] e forte p(er) natura / gentile p(er) acti e victor p(er) fortuna / Jo se Re Carlo mano Jmperatore / se nel mio tempo il ??re fu au??esmo alczay / [...] un sen . i piu che nollo [...]ay / <other hand> Airtourus // <illegible annotations in the lower margin> / <next to ‘Cesar’ and ‘Alexander’ : Ast Ego q(ui) díuum Incedo Regina iouisq(ue) / Et soro(r) et congiuns una cu(m) gente toct an(n)os <’Aeneid’, I, 46-7> / <drawing of four flowers> /<other hand> Dum sumus in mundo viuamus / in corpore mundo / Dum furtuna perid nullus / amicus erit // <other hand, in very light, or otherwise faded ink> dum sumus in mundo viuamus corpore / mundo mundo viuamus corpore mundo gaudea[mus] / dum leo est magnanimus ludunt simul / (et) leopardus eius morte perit per du??...?? / leo / <other hand> Quia si non moratur non / Quia […] //
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| Foliations description: | Three sets of foliation. The modern foliation, in arabic numerals in the upper right corner of the recto side of the folio runs from 1 to 206. A second, 14th- or 15th-c. sequence, in roman numerals above the b-column, has the same numbering but is not visible after f. 201. This sequence indicates the folios originally belonging between current f. 17 and f. 18 in the right order. A third set of numbers appearing as from f. 61, in roman numerals in the lower margin, generally runs one folio behind.t At the en it jumps from f. 178 to f. 200, from f. 209 to f. 300 and from f. 309 to f. 400. |
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