MS. Ashmole 828
Summary Catalogue no.: 7451
Prose Lancelot Cycle, Branch 3. xiv1/4.
Contents
Imperfect. It is unclear whether the complete Lancelot Cycle was once present, but it is clear that at least some text has been lost from this volume. The ending of the text is not extant: in its current condition it cuts off mid-line at the foot of folio 100v. (For this extract, see Kennedy ed. (1980), I p. 414 line 9. Further text citations to this edition.) Folios missing, with loss of text, between fols. 70 and 71 (Lancelot p. 231 line 12-p. 257 line 8); 71 and 72 (Lancelot p. 260 line 17-p. 279 line 29), 75 and 76 (Lancelot p. 292 line 10-p. 298 line 10); 94 and 95 (Lancelot p. 362 line 10-p. 388 line 5); 97 and 98 (Lancelot p. 397 line 22-p. 404 line 13). Folio 7 mutilated with loss of text (Lancelot p. 18 line 15-p. 20 line 24; p. 20 line 34-p. 21 line 10).
MS. Ashmole 828 is labelled ‘As’ in the stemma of Lancelot manuscripts (see Kennedy, II p. 1). Contains the b variant of the ‘Birth of Merlin’ tale which gives the version of Robert de Boron. Kennedy identifies strong textual connections between ‘As’ and ‘KP’ (Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. Q.b.6).
Edited in Lancelot du Lac: The Non-Cyclic Old French Prose Romance, Vol. 1: The Text, ed. Elspeth Kennedy (Oxford, 1980; online edn. 2022). Available online at Oxford Scholarly Editions Online.
Physical Description
Collation
1-88 (fols. 1-64), 96 (fols. 65-70), 106-6 (all missing), 116-5 (fol. 71, first-third and fifth-sixth folios missing), 126-5 (fol. 72, first-fifth folios missing), 138-2 (fols. 73-78, fourth and fifth folios missing), 14-158 (fols. 79-94), 166-6 (all missing), 176-3 (fols. 95-97, first-third folios missing), 186-3 (fols. 98-100, first-second and sixth folios missing).
Condition
Parchment otherwise in good condition. Minor wear to gold ground on several miniatures. Miniature on folio 97v in poor condition.
Layout
Ruled in graphite: single horizontal and vertical bounding lines extending the full height and width of the page; ruled in two columns of equal width for 42 lines. Catchwords ruled with frame. Ruled space: 270 × 175 mm.
Hand(s)
Northern French textualis formata (textus rotundus), by a single hand.
Decoration
36 column miniatures (typically 9-10 lines high) and one larger miniature occupying approximately the top quarter of folio 1r. All executed by the same artist/school. This style has been associated with a group of secular manuscripts produced in northern France, perhaps Thérouanne (see Stones, 1996). Each miniature is encased in a frame of alternating red and blue with white detailing and illuminated corners. The ground is illuminated, sometimes worn away. Miniatures coloured in washes of pale blue, red, green, and orange, with red and black detailing. In the majority of cases, the miniatures appear at the conclusion of a tale with an illustration of the narrative. (For the literary interpretation of these miniatures and their accompanying bas-de-page, see Dover (1997).) Description of miniatures based on ‘Handlist to MS. Ashmole 828’, Arthuriana, vol. 19(4) (2009): 12-21, with reference to Sommer's (S) editions (1909-1913).
- Fol. 1r: Conflation of two scenes. Scene 1: On the left, the two brothers: Ban de Benoyc and Bohort of Gaunes (S III 1/1–5). Scene 2: On the right, King Ban accompanied by Queen Elaine leaves the castle of Trebes to appeal to Arthur. They are accompanied by a squire holding the infant Lancelot and a young servant driving a packhorse laden with treasure (S III 7/20–37).
- Fol. 3r: Banin looking through the window at the top of a tower sees two hundred knights on horseback coming toward the castle, in parties of twenty (S III 9/5–10).
- Fol. 5r: Conflation of two scenes. Scene 1: King Ban, on the hilltop, watches his castle burning (S III 12/29–38). Scene 2: In the left corner, the queen sees the damsel [Dame du Lac] carrying Lancelot into the lake. She tries to jump into the lake, but a squire restrains her (S III 14/39–15/3).
- Fol 6v: Queen Evaine, wife of Bohort of Gannes, flees by ship from the Castle of Gannes with her two children. There are two horses on the boat, a squire on the left, and two people on the queen’s left (S III 17/1–4).
- (miniature excised, fragment surviving - see ‘Condition’) Formerly fol 7r: Queen Evaine of Guannes joins Queen Elaine of Benoic at the Abbey of Moustier Royal.
- Fol. 8v: Pharien with sword in hand surprises Claudas with his wife. Claudas escapes through a window (S III 23/1–3).
- Fol. 10r: Claudas leaves with a faithful servant, both on horseback, to visit Arthur in Great Britain (S III 28/34–36).
- Fol. 13r: Lancelot is taught by a master to shoot a rabbit with his bow and arrow. A lady watches from the castle window (S III 33/28–37).
- Fol. 16r: A friar dressed in black and accompanied by a squire, both on horseback, sees Queen Elaine lamenting at the place where she has lost her husband and her child (S III 41/10–14). A tower from the building in the background of the miniature, likely the Royal Minster, extends beyond the frame and into the space between the columns of text. A golden rooster sits on top.
- Fol. 17v: Adragain (the black friar) comes to Arthur’s court and chastises him while he is at table (S III 45/17–22).
- Fol. 19r: Saraide, holding two dogs on leash, comes to King Claudas’ court and chastises him at his table for keeping Lionel and Bohort (S III 49/1–8).
- Fol. 22v: Conflation of two scenes. Scene 1: On the left, Saraide leads Lionel and Bohort by the hand. In the text, the children have taken the form of greyhounds; in the miniature, they are represented as humans (S III 56/32–57/11). Scene 2: Within an architectural setting, Dorin lies dead; Claudas raises his sword to kill the two greyhounds, thinking they were the children (S III 56/10–16).
- Fol. 23r: Claudas sees his son dead (S III 58/4–6).
- Fol. 32v: Within an architectural setting, the Damsel of the Lake [Dame du Lac] speaks kindly to Bohort and Lionel who are unhappy to be separated from their master (S III 80/4–9). Three trees to the left and a river in the lower margin with fish.
- Fol. 36v: Leonces and Lambegues, after meeting Lancelot, ride away on their horses. Leonces asks Lambegues whether he knows the boy who had called Lionel cousin. On the left, a castle and two trees (S III 90/17–20).
- Fol. 37v: Within an architectural setting, the Barons, having freed Pharien from the tower, kneel and implore him to help them make peace with Claudas (S III 92/9–14).
- Fol. 43r: Guarded by a valet, Pharien with his wife, sons and nephew, all on horseback, arrive at the castle of the Damsel of the Lake [Dame du Lac]; with a face watching from the window (S III 104/22–26).
- Fol. 43v: Within the Royal Minster (a church with elaborate bell-tower and cross surmounted by a cock),Queen Evaine, who has died, lies in a bed with hands crossed, attended by her sister and a group of nuns. On the left, two trees (S III 107/28–31).
- Fol. 44v: Within an architectural setting, King Arthur, celebrating Easter at Carihaise, stands at a banquet table with plates of fish, a pitcher, and a chalice (S III 107/34–38).
- Fol. 45v: Lancelot, riding a horse and holding a bow and arrow, chases a stag through the forest; a hunting dog with white collar chases the stag (S III 111/22–24).
- Fol. 49r: While practicing archery in the forest, King Arthur, riding on horseback, meets two horsemen bearing a litter with a wounded knight. Arthur’s squire holds a bow and three arrows. The first horseman carries a whip (S III 119/12–32).
- Fol. 53v: Lancelot, riding in full armor on horseback, rejoins the messenger of the Lady of Nohaut (also a knight on horseback) and his squires at the entrance of a wood (S III 132/1–3).
- Fol. 58r: Lancelot, as the White Knight [Le Chevalier Blanc] jousts with a knight before the gate of the castle called La Doloreuse Garde; both knights ride horses and are in full armor (S III 144/37–41). Above the second gate stands the copper statue of a knight armed with a battle-axe; the statue, which was placed there by magic, will fall when the castle’s conqueror passes the first gate (S III 144/4–16 and 151/33–36). The lord of the castle witnesses the fight from a window in the tower (S III 151/1), which extends above the frame of the miniature. Two helmets rest on top of the tower (S III 152/18–20).
- Fol. 62r: On his way to deliver the news of Lancelot’s victory at La Doloreuse Garde to King Arthur’s court, a knight in full armor, riding a horse and holding a shield decorated with an animal (perhaps a griffin or lion), meets Alibon, the son of the vavasour of the Queen’s Ford, who tells the knight to hasten to Arthur’s court with the good news (S III 153/18–38).
- Fol. 63r: Having arrived at the cemetery outside of the castle La Doloreuse Garde, Gauvain and his companions discover a grave with one of Arthur’s knights buried within; the coffin is inscribed with a false inscription (S III 155/36).
- Fol. 63v: Gauvain and his companions, all on horseback, meet a vavasour (servant of the lord of La Doloreuse Garde), sitting in a boat and holding a rudder, who invites them to visit his castle which sits on a rock in the Humber River. Upon reaching the castle, they are captured and thrown into a dungeon (S III 158/32–40).
- Fol. 64v: While Lancelot and the Damsel of the Lake are having dinner, a messenger arrives to tell them of a damsel who was mourning the fate of Gauvain (S III 160/4–15).
- Fol. 66r: On his way to deliver Gauvain from La Doloreuse Garde, Lancelot, riding on horseback in full armor in a wood, meets an old, bearded hermit with a tonsure riding a mule (S III 163/22–30). On the left, the hermitage stands on a hill surrounded by water (S III 164/15–21).
- Fol. 69r: Still searching for Lancelot, Gauvain, riding in full armour on a horse, meets one of the maidens, also riding a horse, of the Damsel of the Lake (S III 175/18–21).
- Fol. 70r: After being wounded in a fight with another knight (S III 174/36–42), Lancelot is carried in a curtained litter drawn by two horses, one with a rider. On the left, a squire, riding on horseback, tells Lancelot, who opens the curtain, that the King of the Hundred Knights had captured the Lady of Nohaut (S III 177/30–39).
- Fol. 76r: After being arrested and imprisoned by the Lady of Malohaut for killing the son of her seneschal, Lancelot is released and allowed to sit next to the lady, who asks him for his identity (S III 228/15–18).
- Fol. 88r: On the left, Galehot, the Lady of Malohaut, and Lorre of Carduel sit together next to a pavilion (S III 257/38–258/5). On the right, Lancelot declares his love for Queen Guinevere (S III 258/28).
- Fol. 93r: Galehot and his retinue, all on horseback, conduct Lancelot to Sorelois (S III 269/12–13).
- Fol. 93v: On the left, within the castle at Logres, Guinevere and the Lady of Malohaut speak to each other about their lovers (S III 271/12–14). On the right, Arthur chastises Gauvain and his companions for failing to find the knight with red arms (S III 272/40–42).
- Fol. 96v: Within an architectural setting, Helain de Taningues kneels before Gauvain and asks to be dubbed a knight (S III 298/4–15).
- Fol. 97v: (damaged) The Lady of Roestoc, accompanied by Segurades, Hector, and her cousin, rides on horseback from Roestoc to Arthur’s court. Her dwarf, who is tied to her palfrey’s tale, is being punished for a wrongdoing (S III 297/18–298/3).
- Fol. 98v: Within an architectural setting, Queen Guinevere has the marvelous shield [Ecu Marveilleux] of the Damsel of the Lake placed in her robe; on the shield are the images of a man and a woman. A face is at the window of the tower (S III 308/17–19).
- Fol. 99v: After having left Helain de Taninques, whom he had dubbed, Gauvain arrives on horseback in full armor at a hermitage, called Bien Fait, where a monk, bearded and tonsured, greets him at the door (S III 309/38–310/2).
37 inhabited borders throughout, containing a variety of human and animal heads, grotesques, and hybrid forms. All executed by the same artist/school. The colour pallet differs slightly to that of the miniatures, executed predominantly in grey with washes of pale red and blue and detailing in orange and black.
Alison Stones attributes the decoration of a group of manuscripts, including MS. Ashmole 828, to a workshop established in Northern France, perhaps Thérouanne (see Stones (2018), p. 205). This group includes Paris, BnF, fr.749; Turin, Biblioteca nazionale Universitaria, L III. 12 and Bologna, Archivio de Stato b.1 bis.n.9. On the identification of the Bologna fragments, see Longobardi,(1994).
Comparable examples of historiated borders in the Lancelot cycles in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson Q.b.6 and MS Digby 223; and London, British Library, MS Royal 14 E. iii and MS Royal 20 D. iv. Description of borders based partially on ‘Handlist to MS. Ashmole 828’, Arthuriana, vol. 19(4) (2009): 12-21, with reference to Sommer's (S) editions (1909-1913).- Fol. 1r: Left margin: hybrid grotesque deer leaping away from the text. Lower margin: two knights jousting on horseback. Lower right corner: ape juggling with two sticks, second ape playing musical instrument.
- Fol. 3r: Upper margin: rabbit. Lower margin: Hybrid form with a human head with hat.
- Fol. 5r: Lower margin: a hunter with a bow shoots at a rabbit, with dog running between them.
- Fol. 6v: Left margin: human head with hat. Lower margin: wolf-like animal jumping.
- Fol. 7r: Lower margin: ape holding round shield and sword.
- Fol. 7v: Upper margin: squire pointing a lance at a unicorn. Right lower margin: ape playing bagpipe with a face ornamented on the pipe.
- Fol. 8v: Right lower margin: bearded hybrid with a pointed hood.
- Fol. 10r: Lower margin: two hybrids, one male and one female, wearing hats, look towards each other
- Fol. 13r: Lower margin: hunter aims with bow and arrow at a stag. In the left corner, an ape is blowing a trumpet.
- Fol. 16r: Lower margin: a hunter aims a lance at a rabbit. Left margin: face.
- Fol. 17v: To the left of the miniature: a face. Right lower margin: unicorn leaping.
- Fol. 19r: Upper margin: a crowned face. Lower margin: a dog chases a rabbit.
- Fol. 23r: Lower margin: ape standing on tendril and blowing a horn.
- Fol. 32v: Lower margin: rabbit and squirrel.
- Fol. 37r: Upper margin: hybrid figure with human face, in the right corner a female figure admires herself in a mirror. Lower margin: a dog chases a stag.
- Fol. 37v: Lower margin: crowned head, and a jumping rabbit.
- Fol. 43r: Lower right margin: a rabbit looks to the right at a stork. In the top right corner of the folio, a tonsured head.
- Fol. 43v: on the far left, a young man juggles two bowls with sticks. Upper margin: female face with a veil, and a small grotesque.
- Fol. 44v: Upper margin: an archer shoots and arrow at a rabbit.
- Fol. 46r: Upper margin: hybrid grotesque with long neck and female face wearing a veil.
- Fol. 49r: Lower margin: lion.
- Fol. 54r: Upper margin: rabbit, face looking at the text. Lower margin: hybrid with long neck and human face.
- Fol. 58r: Lower margin: a stag leaps towards the text, with a dog chasing from below. Monkey in lower right corner.
- Fol. 62r: Right margin: the head of a young man. In the lower margin: an ape scratches his rump with one hand and extends a cup to a second ape who drinks from it; with a bell on the ground between them.
- Fol. 63r: Upper margin: a squirrel. Grotesque between columns of text. Lower margin: squirrel eating a nut.
- Fol. 64r:Lower margin: rabbit leaping.
- Fol. 64v: Upper margin: hybrid with long neck. Lower margin: rabbit leaping.
- Fol. 66r: Lower margin: human face, and a unicorn leaping up to the text.
- Fol. 69r: Lower margin: hybrid grotesque with human face. In central margin: a lion's head.
- Fol. 70r: Upper margin: a grotesque. Central margin: a human head.
- Fol. 71r: Upper margin: a hybrid dragon grotesque. Lower margin: a dog chasing a rabbit.
- Fol. 76r: Lower margin: a sitting lion.
- Fol. 93r: Upper margin: a crowned human head. Left margin: a human head. Lower margin: a hybrid figure with human face looks up at the text.
- Fol. 93v: Upper margin: a crowned human head. Central margin: a grotesque face.
- Fol. 96v: Upper margin: a human head. Lower margin: a rabbit.
- Fol. 97v: Lower margin: two human heads, and a monkey in profile.
- Fol. 98v: Lower margin: a human head, and a hunter aiming a bow and arrow at an ape’s rump.
- Fol. 99v: Left margin: a human face. Lower margin: a hybrid grotesque with a mitered bishop’s head holding a crozier.
18 inhabited initials (typically 4 lines high), by the same artist/school throughout. Executed in the same colour pallet and style as the miniatures.
- Fol. 10r: crowned man in profile in the letter C.
- Fol. 22v: stag in profile in the letter O.
- Fol. 37r: crowned man in profile in the letter O.
- Fol. 44v: griffin in profile in the letter C.
- Fol. 46r: man in profile wearing a hat in the letter O.
- Fol. 49r: crowned man in profile in the letter C.
- Fol. 54r: monkey in profile in the letter O.
- Fol. 58r: knight's head in profile in the letter Q.
- Fol. 62r: veiled head of a woman in profile in the letter O.
- Fol. 63r: knight's head in profile in the letter O.
- Fol. 64v: rabbit in profile in the letter O.
- Fol. 66r: man in profile wearing a hat in the letter C.
- Fol. 69r: the heads of a man and veiled woman in profile in the letter M.
- Fol. 70r: man in profile in the letter Q.
- Fol. 93v: man in profile in the letter O.
- Fol. 96v: a grotesque in profile in the letter O.
- Fol. 97v: woman in profile in the letter O.
- Fol. 99v: man in profile in the letter C.
Other initials are illuminated on a ground of red and blue with white detailing. (Pächt and Alexander i. 573, pl. XLIII)
Heraldic shields appear throughout the miniatures and in the inhabited border of the first folio. They may or may not refer to specific families. They are:
- Fol. 1r: one shield or with cross throughout sable; and one shield gules with one chevron argent;
- Fol. 53v: one blank shield, one tarnished;
- Fol. 58r: one blank shield; one barry of eight sable and or, with roundels argent;
- Fol. 62r: shield azure, with rampant lion argent;
- Fol. 63v: shield azure, with rampant lion or; shield gules, a saltire argent (now tarnished);
- Fol. 66r: shield gules, three bends gules;
- Fol. 69r: shield azure, with rampant lion or, one fess gules;
- Fol. 70r: shield argent, three bends gules (now tarnished);
- Fol. 99v: shield azure, with rampant lion or; shield gules, a saltire argent (now tarnished);
Fol. 1r: the initials (?) ‘rf’ are written in a later hand in the lower margin.
Fol. 88v: ‘Henry the ryg’ written in a later hand and partially erased.
Fol. 100v: ‘A 828’, the shelf-mark, written in ink below the last passage of text.
Modern notes in pencil on flyleaf iii v.
Binding
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 six raised sewing supports covering thick cords, without endbands. The sewing supports are laced into the boards using shortened single-hole lacing without channels. The board edges are tooled with a repeating zig-zag pattern, also typical of Ashmole's bindings.
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. The shelf mark ‘ASH. 828’ is embossed on the third spine panel, in a typeset that is similar, but not identical, to Ashmole's typeset (varying in the height of letters and thickness of vertical strokes in characters ‘A’ and ‘4’). Ashmole's embossed crest is absent (see e.g. MS. Ashmole 44). The board-covers also show evidence of having been lifted up at the spine-edge to allow for the spine-cover to be adhered beneath them. The inner rear board bears an inscription typical of the Bodleian's in-house bindery, with the initials ‘R. H.’ and the date ‘12-12-56’. The edge of the text block has been stained red on all three sides.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Alison Stones attributes the decoration of a group of manuscripts, including MS. Ashmole 828, to a workshop established in Northern France, perhaps Thérouanne (see Stones (2018), p. 205; 1996).
D. J. A. Ross and Alison Stones later identified a manuscript in Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France fr.749, , containing the Estoire del saint Graal and Merlin, which they suggest was decorated by the same artist(s) as MS. Ashmole 828 (Ross and Stones, 2002). Monica Longobardi identified fragments of a manuscript in Bologna, Archivio di Stato b.1 bis.n.9, that contain miniatures by the same artist(s). She argues these fragments once belonged to a companion volume to MS. Ashmole 828; see Longobardi,(1994). It has not been possible to compare these fragments against MS. Ashmole 828.
The early provenance of MS. Ashmole 828 is unclear. There are no indications of a patron or early owner. The heraldry depicted on the knights' shields (see ‘Decoration’) does not appear to relate to any specific family.
The related manuscript BNF fr.749 was likely in England by the fifteenth century, according to an English inscription on folio 338v. It was purchased, in England, by Louis of Bruges, Lord of Gruuthuse, whose coat of arms appear in the lower border of fol. 1r, and was later gifted to King Louis XII. The inventory of the King's Library in 1518 records ‘(number 68) La destruction de la Table ronde’, identified as BNF fr.749 (see Omont (1913), p. 24; and (1908), p. 217). There is no evidence to suggest that MS. Ashmole 828 and BNF fr.749 were circulating together at this point; however, it is the type of provenance one would expect for this quality of manuscript, as the King's Library did contain several manuscripts of the Lancelot cycle alongside the BNF copy (items 2471 and 2440-4, Omont (1908), pp. 381-2;, items 733 and 720, Omont (1909), pp. 299-300; items 522 and 441, Omont (1910), pp. 29, 25; and items 7171 and 7172, Omont (1913), p. 24).
Fol. 1r: initials (?) ‘rf’ in a later hand in the lower margin.
The manuscript was later owned by Elias Ashmole (1617–1692). Roger Middleton speculates that the manuscript was likely acquired by Ashmole in England, rather than a deliberate import from France - however there is no physical evidence to indicate either way (see Middleton, p. 224). Neither the manuscript nor the French Arthurian cycle are mentioned in Ashmole's correspondence or diary.
MS. Ashmole 828 was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum by Elias Ashmole in 1692 as part of his donation of 1,100 printed books and 600 manuscripts.
Folio 7 was mutilated at an unknown date before 1850. A fragment from the excised page sold at Christie's on 12 December 2017 (Online Auction 16160, : Script and Illumination: Featuring the Karl and Elizabeth Katz Collection, lot 17): purchased by the Bodleian, currently awaiting shelfmarking.
The manuscript was kept in the Ashmolean until 1860, when the collection was transferred to the Bodleian Library .
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (113 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Printed descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2024-06-14: Charlotte Ross (June 2024). Revised with consultation of original.