Detail View: Medieval Collection: Hercules before Boccaccio

Image Number: 
JRL0927314dc
Reference Number: 
English MS 2
Previous Accession Number: 
Crawford MS 2
Link to Catalogue: 
Image Title: 
Hercules before Boccaccio
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: 
26v
Image Sequence Number: 
026v
Description: 
Fall of Princes. Book one: Althaea is suddenly overcome with anger and casts the brand she removed back into the fire, calling out to the Fates that they have killed her brothers and she has killed her own son to avenger their death. Althaea then kills herself by putting a sword through her heart. Hercules (Heracles) appears next before Boccaccio, he was terrible to look upon and held a mace in his hand. 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: 
English literature--Manuscripts
Subject: 
Mythology, Greek--Poetry
Subject: 
Poetry, Medieval
Subject: 
Literature, Medieval--Manuscripts
Subject: 
Mythology in literature
Subject: 
Mythology, Greek, in literature
Subject: 
Literature, Medieval
Category of Material: 
Manuscripts
Sub-Category: 
Codex
Technique Used: 
Handwriting
Technique Used: 
Illumination (image-making process)
Medium: 
Ink
Support: 
Vellum
People Covered: 
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375
People Covered: 
Hercules (Roman mythology)
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: 
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: 
Tyson, Moses, 'Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library' (1928), p.7.
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: 
290
Image Creation Technique: 
Digital capture by Heritage Imaging, The University of Manchester Library
Date Image Added (yyyy-mm): 
2009-10
Metadata Language: 
eng-GB