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Update MS_Ashmole_44.xml #830

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Update MS_Ashmole_44.xml
charlotte-e-ross Oct 4, 2024
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Update MS_Ashmole_44.xml
charlotte-e-ross Nov 21, 2024
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77 changes: 71 additions & 6 deletions collections/Ashmole/MS_Ashmole_44.xml
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<title>MS. Ashmole 44</title>
<title type="collection">MSS. Ashmole</title>
<respStmt>
<resp>Summary description</resp>
<persName>Elizabeth Solopova</persName>
<persName>Matthew Holford</persName>
<resp when="2024-10">Cataloguer</resp>
<persName>Charlotte Ross</persName>
</respStmt>
</titleStmt>
<publicationStmt>
Expand All @@ -34,35 +33,100 @@
<idno type="SCN">6925</idno>
</altIdentifier>
</msIdentifier>
<head>Mid-fifteenth century single-text codex of <title>The Wars of Alexander</title></head>
<msContents>
<msItem class="#romances" n="1" xml:id="MS_Ashmole_44-item1">
<locus>(fol. 1r-97v)</locus>
<title key="work_15500">The Wars of Alexander</title>
<incipit><hi>W</hi>hen <hi rend="superscript">folk</hi> ere festid &amp; fed fayn wald þai here <lb/> Su<ex>m</ex> farand þinge eft<ex>ir</ex> fode to fayn<ex>e</ex> þar<ex>e</ex> hert<ex>es</ex></incipit>
<explicit>Tiree &amp; Tasse &amp; Tessale our<ex>e</ex> tributars er<ex>e</ex> <lb/> Poliponens &amp; Pentapol &amp; Palestyne þ<hi rend="superscript">e</hi> riche</explicit>
<note>The longest and most complete witness of <title>The Wars of Alexander</title>. This version is imperfect, containing lines 1-5803 lines out of a possible 6300 originally. There is one other witness of this text, Dublin, Trinity College MS 213 olim. MS D.4.12, which only preserves a portion of the text (lines 678-3424 and 3485-3553). These witnesses are very similar in their scribal dialect, variants, and content, leading Gert Ronberg to suggest that they may have been copied from the same exemplar (1985, p. 604).
<p>123 lines are missing from between lines 722 and 846, containing the end of Anectanabus's speech and the beginning of Alexander's. Hoyt N. Duggan and Thorlac Turville-Petre suggest that this is due to the loss of a singleton leaf which was once attached between folios 12 and 13 (1989, p. x). This lacuna is not noted in Stevenson's 1849 edition.</p>
<p>There is a contemporary running title to the text at the head of folio 1r, now faded and illegible.</p>
<p>The text of Ashmole 44 is edited in <title>The Wars of Alexander</title>, eds Hoyt N. Duggan and Thorlac Turville-Petre, <title>Early English Text Society</title>, S.S. 10 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, for the Early English Text Society, 1989).</p></note>
<textLang mainLang="enm">Middle English</textLang>

</msItem>
</msContents>

<physDesc>
<objectDesc form="codex">
<supportDesc material="chart">
<support>paper</support>
<support>paper
<watermark>One watermark throughout: a set of scales resembling Briquet 2401 (dated c.1437), following Duggan and Turville-Petre (1989, pp. ix-x). Folded in quarto.</watermark></support>
<extent>ix + 97 + ix
<dimensions unit="mm" type="leaf">
<height>222-225</height>
<width>144-147</width>
</dimensions>
</extent>
<foliation>Foliated in modern ink.</foliation>
<collation>1<hi rend="superscript">16</hi>, 2<hi rend="superscript">12</hi>, 3<hi rend="superscript">20</hi>, 4<hi rend="superscript">12</hi>, 5<hi rend="superscript">20</hi>, 6<hi rend="superscript">12</hi>, 7<hi rend="superscript">12-7</hi> (only first-fifth folios remaining, attached as singletons; sixth and seventh leaves are stubs.). The size of the last quire is uncertain, but watermarks suggest that it once contained at least ten folios. Twelve has been suggested here for coherence with the rest of the collation. No catchwords or leaf signatures present. </collation>
<condition>Page edges worn and fragile, but binding sound. Some staining to first folio and outer leaves of quires. Slight damp staining from folio 71 onwards. Overall paper condition good.</condition>
</supportDesc>
<layoutDesc>
<layout columns="1" writtenLines="25 34">Three-sided frame ruled in plummet for the left vertical margin and both upper and lower horizontal margins. Single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of the page. Text in one column, of between 25-34 lines per page but predominantly 31-2 lines. Written space:
<dimensions type="written" unit="mm">
<height>145-175</height>
<width>110-125</width>
</dimensions>
</layout>
</layoutDesc>
</objectDesc>
<handDesc hands="1">
<handNote script="cursivaAntiquior">
One scribe throughout, writing in a current Anglicana of the mid-fifteenth century. Passus headings written in a more ornate bastard Anglicana with final secretary <q>s</q>, by the same hand. The text has been corrected with care using a combination of expunction, underlining, over-writing, and marginal notations (see Duggan and Turville-Petre, 1989, p. ix-x).
</handNote>
</handDesc>
<decoDesc>
<decoNote type="histInit">There are two inhabited initials in the manuscript, executed in the same ink as the text and likely by the same scribe. They mark the beginning of the text and the beginning of a Passus. The text opens on <ref target="https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/72f3f3f4-bc78-476a-bbcb-0578d4686135/surfaces/6c1b8b88-22f9-4b19-a31c-f70eb23732af/">fol. 1r</ref> with a 6-line initial <q>W</q> decorated with a face and embellished with a zig-zag design. A five-line inhabited <q>N</q> occurs on folio 9v.</decoNote>
<decoNote type="flourInit">When they do not contain an inhabited initial, the beginnings of Pasuses are marked with a running title and a variety of lombardic initials, in the same ink as the main text and likely by the same scribe. Two-line initials occur at folios 4v, 15v, and 55r. Larger three-line initial are also used, as on folios 19v, 25r, 29v, 34v, 45r, 52r, 75v, 87v, 94v, and 97r. More ornate four and five-line initials with additional flourishes appear on folios 40r, 49r, 59v, 63r, 65r, 69r, 73v, 79r, 81v, 84v, and 91v.</decoNote></decoDesc>
<additions>The initials <q>R. R.</q> and <q>R. ANON</q> are written in the lower margin of folio 1r - see <title>Provenance</title>.
<p>The summary catalogue number <q>6925</q> and the note <q>XXVII Paper Alexandri <gap reason="illegible"></gap> Eng Poem . imperf.</q> appear on the first paper flyleaf, and the notes <q>Ash 44</q> and <q>Ms Ashmole 44</q> on the upper pastedown. These pages are likely original to Ashmole's binding. The shelf mark <q>A.44.</q> is written in the lower margin of folio 95r. These notes were likely added when the manuscript joined the Ashmolean's collection - see <q>Provenance</q>.</p></additions>
<bindingDesc><binding notAfter="1692" notBefore="1617"><p>Late seventeenth-century calf binding over pasteboards typical of Elias Ashmole's style. The edges of both boards are decorated with concentric tool framing. The head, tail, and panels of the spine display the same style of tooling in horizontal frames. The spine shows four raised sewing supports covering thick cords, without end bands. The sewing supports are laced into the boards using shortened single-hole lacing without channels.</p>
<p>The binding has been rebacked since the manuscript left Ashmole's collection. The spine is covered in a separate piece of leather from the boards, of the same colour, that extends under the board-covers. On to this leather, a portion of the former (Ashmolean) spine has been adhered. This piece of leather covers the three central spine panels and raised sewing supports. The shelf mark <q>ASH. 44</q> is embossed on the third spine panel in Ashmole's typeset. Above this is Ashmole's embossed crest featuring his quartered heraldic design. The board-covers show evidence of having been lifted up at the spine-edge to allow for the spine-cover to be adhered beneath them. </p>
<p>The inner rear board bears an inscription typical of the Bodleian's in-house bindery, with the initial <q>W.</q> and the date <q>16-12-55</q> - likely the date of the rebacking.</p>
</binding></bindingDesc>
</physDesc>
<history>
<origin>
<origDate calendar="Gregorian" notAfter="1460" notBefore="1440">15th century, middle</origDate>
<origPlace>
<country key="place_7002445">English</country>
<country key="place_7002445">English, likely north</country>.
Gisela Guddat-Figge suggested an origin of Northern England (1976, p. 246), supported by Duggan and Turville-Petre (1989, p. xxv). <ref target="http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/ihd/elalme/elalme_frames.html">LALME</ref> describes the scribe's dialect as <q>substantially of Durham, or possibly S[outh] Northumberland, but with odd features of apparently N[orth] W[est] Midland origin</q>. For a detailed analysis of this and the Durham manuscript, see Gert Ronberg (1985).
</origPlace>
</origin>
<provenance>The initials <q>R. R.</q> and <q>R. ANON</q> are written in the lower margin of folio 1r in an early hand, possibly of the fifteenth century. This same hand copies several single and two-compartment <q>a</q> also in the lower margin. Ethel Seaton theorises that this manuscript may have been owned by Sir Richard Roos (c. 1410-1482) because of the similarity to the poetic device <q>I roos anon</q> she identifies in <title>La Belle Dame Sans Mercy</title> (1961, p.111).</provenance>
<provenance>There is little evidence for the early provenance of the manuscript. The scribal dialect has been located to the North of England, perhaps to County Durham (see Duggan and Turville-Petre, 1989, p.xxv; and LALME). Duggan and Turville-Petre suggest that the scribe was copying from an exemplar containing West Midland forms, which are visible in scribal errors and mistranslations (p. xxv).</provenance>
<provenance>The manuscript was later owned by <persName key="person_27215170">Elias Ashmole</persName> (1617–1692). The date at which he acquired it is uncertain, but in a letter dated the 23 January 1656 he writes to Henry Oxinden of Barham, Kent, to say that he will be lending him <q>an Alexander which is true and good</q> (British Museum Add. MS. 28003, fol. 334; edited in <title>Autobiographical and Historical Notes</title>, ed. Josten, vol. 2, p. 687). In his reply of the 6 May 1656, Oxinden acknowledges the receipt of a book on Alexander the Great (British Museum Add. MS. 28003, fol. 341; edited in <title>Autobiographical and Historical Notes</title>, ed. Josten, vol. 2, p. 690).</provenance>
<provenance>The manuscript was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum by <persName key="person_27215170">Elias Ashmole</persName> in 1692 as part of his donation of 1,100 printed books and 600 manuscripts.</provenance>
<acquisition>The manuscript was kept in the Ashmolean until 1860, when the collection was transferred to the Bodleian Library.</acquisition>
</history>
<additional>
<adminInfo>
<recordHist>
<source><ref target="https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about">Summary description</ref> abbreviated from the Quarto Catalogue (W. H. Black, <title>A descriptive, analytical, and critical catalogue of the manuscripts bequeathed unto the University of Oxford by Elias Ashmole Esq....</title>, Quarto Catalogues X, 1845). <listBibl>
<source>Description by Charlotte Ross (Oct. 2024). Previously described in the <ref target="https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about">Summary description</ref> abbreviated from the Quarto Catalogue (W. H. Black, <title>A descriptive, analytical, and critical catalogue of the manuscripts bequeathed unto the University of Oxford by Elias Ashmole Esq....</title>, Quarto Catalogues X, 1845). <listBibl>
<bibl facs="aeh0039.gif" type="QUARTO">Quarto Catalogue, col. 68</bibl>
<bibl facs="aeh0040.gif" type="QUARTO">Quarto Catalogue, col. 69</bibl>
<bibl facs="aaq0482.gif" type="SC">Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 2, p. 1123</bibl>
</listBibl>
<listBibl type="WRAPPER">
<listBibl type="PRINT">
<head>Printed descriptions:</head>
<bibl>Briquet, C. M. , <title>Les filigranes : dictionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu’en 1600</title>, 4 vols (Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1923), vol. 1.</bibl>
<bibl>Guddat-Figge, Gisela, <title>Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Middle English Romances</title>, (München: W. Fink, 1976), 246-7.</bibl>
<bibl>Ronberg, Gert, <q>The Two Manuscripts of "the Wars of Alexander": A Linguistic Comparison</q>, <title>Neophilologus</title> 69.4 (1985): 604-10.</bibl>
<bibl>Seaton, Ethel, <title>Sir Richard Roos, c. 1410-1482 : Lancastrian Poet</title> (London: R. Hart-Davis, 1961).</bibl>
<bibl><title>The Alliterative romance of Alexander from the unique manuscript in the Ashmolean Museum</title>, ed. Joseph Stevenson. (London: Roxburghe Club, 1849).</bibl>
<bibl><title>The Wars of Alexander</title>, eds Hoyt N. Duggan and Thorlac Turville-Petre, <title>Early English Text Society</title>, S.S. 10 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, for the Early English Text Society, 1989).</bibl>
<bibl><title>The Wars of Alexander: An Alliterative Romance Translated Chiefly from the Historia Alexandri Magni de Preliis. Re-Edited from Ms. Ashmole 44, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and Ms. D.4.12, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin</title>, ed. Walter W. Skeat, <title>Early English Text Society</title>, E.S. 47 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, for the Early English Text Society, 1886).</bibl>
<listBibl type="ONLINE">
<head>Online resources:</head>
<bibl>C. H. Josten (ed.), <title>Elias Ashmole: His Autobiographical and Historical Notes, his Correspondence, and Other Contemporary Sources Relating to his Life and Work</title>, Vol. 2: Texts 1617–1660, <title>Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (2013)</title></bibl>
<bibl>M. Benskin, M. Laing, V. Karaiskos and K. Williamson. <title>An Electronic Version of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (LALME)</title>, [http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/ihd/elalme/elalme.html],Edinburgh: 2013.</bibl>
</listBibl>
</listBibl>
</listBibl>
</source>
</recordHist>
</adminInfo>
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</sourceDesc>
</fileDesc>
<revisionDesc>
<change when="2024-09-01"><persName>Charlotte Ross</persName> Revised with consultation of original.</change>
<change when="2017-07-01">First online publication.</change>
<change when="2017-05-25"><persName>James Cummings</persName> Up-converted the markup using <ref target="https://github.com/jamescummings/Bodleian-msDesc-ODD/blob/master/convertTolkien2Bodley.xsl">https://github.com/jamescummings/Bodleian-msDesc-ODD/blob/master/convertTolkien2Bodley.xsl</ref></change>
</revisionDesc>
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