MS. Bodl. 517
Summary Catalogue no.: 2580
Contents
Begins in Book II, chapter 12 'piscator iaculo transfixum [?] mortuum sternit' and finishes the last page with the end of the 42nd chapter of Book VII
Often in a shorter form than the printed editions
Laura Cleaver notes that this is the earliest surviving copy of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum ('The Circulation of History Books in Twelfth-century Normandy', in The Concept of the Book, ed. by Cynthia Johnston (2019), p. 57), adding that 'van Houts concluded that its text is likely to be the closest to William's original version' (Elisabeth M. C. van Houts, Gesta Normannorum Ducum: een studie over de handschriften, de tekst, het geschiedwerk en het genre (1982), pp. c-ci and cxxi-cxxii)
Physical Description
Condition
'Parts of thirty-three folios survive, and the losses included the first quire [...] a large initial in red and green at the start of book five has been partially excised where folio 17 is torn' (Cleaver, 'The Circulation of History Books in Twelfth-century Normandy', p. 57)
Cleaver comments that the 'highest-quality volumes have large, unbroken folios, cut from the middle of skins to create regular, rectangular leaves' and, in contrast, 'Bodleian Library MS Bodley 517 used the whole skin, including its uneven edges' (Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman world, 1066-1272 [2018], p. 39)
Decoration
Pächt and Alexander i. 455
Style of initials as in manuscripts from Lyre, now at Évreux
Good initials, mutilated.
The only major initial that has survived is on folio 26v; sketched but not coloured, it contains two dragons biting foliage, 'motifs that were popular in Normandy' (Cleaver, 'The Circulation of History Books in Twelfth-century Normandy', p. 57, with a picture of this initial on p. 58)
Cleaver observes that the initials are in the same ink as the text, which is an indicator of 'less expensive volumes'. Even so, the addition of the initials seems 'to have been treated as a separate phase of work, as spaces have been left for them. It is probable that the maker of the volume intended to add rubrics and colour throughout, and notes have been left in the margins for the rubricator indicating the text to be added in red paint, but this stage was never completed' (Cleaver, Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman world, 1066-1272 [2018], p. 43)
Maniculae written below the bottom line appear on fols 7, 7v, 10, 13, 22 (Cleaver, Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman world, 1066-1272 [2018], p. 43)
History
Provenance and Acquisition
On fol. i, in John Twyne's hand, is 'Dudo ut opinor' (Andrew Watson, 'John Twyne of Canterbury (d. 1581) As a Collector of Medieval Manuscripts', The Library, 8 [1986], p. 151)
Presented by Thomas Twyne in 1612
Record Sources
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2023-04-24: Description revised to incorporate all the information in the Summary Catalogue (1922)