Lancelot en prose
France, c. 1215–1235

University Library, MS Add. 2751 (20)
France?, thirteenth century
Vellum, 100 x 156 mm (73 x 140 mm) and 100 x 141 mm (73 x 124 mm), 2 ff.

The Lancelot en prose comprises eight volumes in modern editions (to say nothing of the cycle which later formed around it, the gigantic Lancelot-Grail). In this small fragment of the work, we glimpse Lancelot’s quest to rescue Guinevere, who had been abducted by the evil Méléagant, as well as the hero’s visit to a cemetery containing the graves of knights who have yet to die. This fragment is from the collection compiled by F. J. H. Jenkinson, the University Librarian, in the early twentieth century.