Lancelot-Grail (first half of the cycle)
France, c. 1215–1235
University Library, MS Add. 7071, f. 335r
England or Northern France, first half of the fourteenth century (additions: England, fifteenth century)
Vellum, 340 x 225 mm (265 x 170 mm), 342 ff.
This manuscript, with its fifteenth-century binding, was found in an old trunk together with documents dating back to the twelfth century, relating to the property of Ribston Hall (Wetherby, Yorkshire), formerly a Templar priory. It is an important witness of the Lancelot-Grail, containing the first half of the cycle: four narratives centred on the history of the Grail and on the early years of Arthur’s reign. The opening shows evidence of a fifteenth-century restoration that replaced folios which had become worn or had been torn out. The numbering on the top right corner and at the bottom right corner of the recto ensured that the additions were bound in the correct place.
This massive codex, with its fifteenth-century binding (whittawed leather on wooden boards), was found in an old trunk together with documents dating back to the twelfth century relating to the property of Ribston Hall (Wetherby, Yorkshire), formerly a Templar priory.
MS Add. 7071 is an important witness of the Lancelot-Grail, containing the first half of the cycle: a long sequence of four narratives centered on the history of the Grail and on the early years of Arthur’s reign. It has long been debated how the Lancelot-Grail was conceived and written, and scholars do not completely agree about the order in which its different parts were composed. The last text copied in this manuscript, known as the Suite Merlin since it follows in the manuscript tradition the Merlin en Prose, is a relatively late text (around 1235). It takes a rather pessimistic view of the Arthurian world, in that the protagonists seem to be driven by blind force and doomed to crime and punishment.
The folio shown offers evidence of a fifteenth-century restoration that replaced ff. 269–273, 276 and 335–342, which had either become excessively worn or had simply been removed. The new folios have a different mise en page (different justification, different number of lines, different spacing) and are written in a darker ink and by a later hand. The numbering of folios and quires on the top right corner and at the bottom right corner of the recto ensured that the additions were bound in the correct place. This manuscript entered the University Library’s collection in 1945.
