Detail View: Medieval Collection: Atreus and Thyestes

Image Number: 
JRL0927304dc
Reference Number: 
English MS 2
Previous Accession Number: 
Crawford MS 2
Link to Catalogue: 
Image Title: 
Atreus and Thyestes
Parent Work Title: 
Fall of Princes
Alternative Parent Work Title: 
Falle of Pryncys
Creator: 
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
Creator Role: 
Author
Display Creator: 
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
Date Created: 
15th-16th century
Page: 
21v
Image Sequence Number: 
021v
Description: 
Fall of Princes. Book one: Atreus pretends to be overwhelmed with joy at reconciling with Thyestes and Thyestes stays with his brother at his house. Meanwhile Atreus cuts the throat of Thyestes children has them roasted and serves them up to him in a meal. Unwittingly Thyestes eats the meal. Small illuminated and coloured initials introduce the verses. The written space is 285 x 200 mm in two columns and the script is rather an ugly and unstable anglicana formata.
Language Code: 
enm-GB
Subject: 
English literature
Subject: 
Literature, Medieval
Subject: 
Mythology, Greek--Poetry
Subject: 
Mythology, Greek, in literature
Subject: 
Poetry, Medieval
Subject: 
Literature, Medieval--Manuscripts
Subject: 
Mythology in literature
Subject: 
English literature--Manuscripts
Category of Material: 
Manuscripts
Sub-Category: 
Codex
Technique Used: 
Handwriting
Medium: 
Ink
Support: 
Vellum
People Covered: 
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
Item Height: 
417 mm
Item Width: 
292 mm
Current Repository: 
John Rylands University Library, The University of Manchester, U.K.
Provenance: 
Fairfax, Brian, 1676-1749, the commissioner of customs and a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Provenance: 
Child, Francis, Sir, 1735-1763, of Osterley Park, Middlesex.
Provenance: 
Lindsay family Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, former owner
Rights Holder - Image: 
The University of Manchester Library
Rights holder - Work: 
The University of Manchester Library
Access Rights: 
Creative Commons License
References: 
Tyson, Moses, 'Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library' (1928), p.7.
References: 
Parts of this catalogue have been reproduced from Ker, N.R., 'Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 400. By kind permission of Oxford University Press
References: 
Bergen, Henry, 'Lydgate's Fall of princes.' (London: Pub. for the Early English Text Society by H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1924-27.)
Bibliographic Citation: 
Morgan, Margery M., 'A specimen of early printer's copy: Ryland English MS 2', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 33 (1950), pp. 194-6.
Notes: 
Ostensibly the work is an adaptation of Laurent de Premierfait's 1409 translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's 'De casibus vivorum illustrium', a collection of moralized tragedies, extending from Adam to King John of France, that were designed to illustrate Fortune's fickle nature and the downfalls brought on by sinful living and unjust government.
Date Captured (yyyy-mm-dd): 
2009-08-11
Multi Page Number: 
240
Image Creation Technique: 
Digital capture by Heritage Imaging, The University of Manchester Library
Date Image Added (yyyy-mm): 
2009-10
Metadata Language: 
eng-GB