Manière de langage
England, c. 1396

University Library, MS Dd.12.23, f. 67v
England, first half of the fifteenth century
Vellum, 177 x 130 mm (97 x 127 mm), I + 88 + I ff.

This page shows the beginning of the 1396 version of the Manière de langage, a French conversation manual intended for English travellers. It offers to teach the reader ‘to learn to speak, pronounce properly and write perfectly in sweet French, which is the most beautiful and gracious language and the most noble after Latin anywhere in the world, and of all people the most prized and loved like no other.’ Amongst other topics, the work gives the vocabulary necessary for departing on a voyage, starting a fight, consoling a crying child, and singing the ‘most gracious and amorous’ love song in the world.