Detail View: Medieval Collection: Dido, Queen of Carthage

Image Number: 
JRL0927356dc
Reference Number: 
English MS 2
Previous Accession Number: 
Crawford MS 2
Link to Catalogue: 
Image Title: 
Dido, Queen of Carthage
Alternative Image Title: 
Envoy
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: 
47v
Image Sequence Number: 
047v
Description: 
Fall of Princes. Book two: Dido fortifies Carthage and holds funeral rites for her husband. She then bids goodbye to her friends and kills herself by plunging a knife into her heart. After her death she was worshipped as a goddess of chastity. Boccaccio notes that Ovid writes of Dido's affair with Aeneas but that he Boccaccio is choosing to write only of her goodness, not of her failings. An illuminated initial 'O' introduces the envoy which praises Dido for her nobility and innocent purity. 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--Manuscripts
Subject: 
Literature, Medieval--Manuscripts
Subject: 
Mythology in literature
Subject: 
Literature, Medieval
Subject: 
Poetry, Medieval
Subject: 
English literature
Category of Material: 
Manuscripts
Sub-Category: 
Codex
Technique Used: 
Handwriting
Medium: 
Ink
Support: 
Vellum
Places Covered: 
Tunisia: Tūnis: Carthage
People Covered: 
Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D.
People Covered: 
Aeneas (Legendary character)
People Covered: 
Lydgate, John, 1370?-1451?
People Covered: 
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375
People Covered: 
Dido (Legendary character)
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: 
500
Image Creation Technique: 
Digital capture by Heritage Imaging, The University of Manchester Library
Date Image Added (yyyy-mm): 
2009-10
Metadata Language: 
eng-GB