Accession number
PML 777
Object title
The boke intituled Eracles and also of Godefrey of Boloyne.
Published
Westminster : William Caxton, 20 November 1481.
Description
[144] leaves ; 30 cm (fol.)
Credit line
Purchased with the Amherst collection, 1908.
Notes
Title from incipit (leaf 1/2r): Here begynneth the boke Intituled Eracles / and also of Godefrey of Boloyne / the whiche speketh of the Conqueste of the holy londe of Iherusalem.
Colophon (leaf 17/5v-6r): Thns [sic] endeth this book Intitled the laste siege and conquest of Iherusalem with many other historyes therin comprysed / Fyrst of Eracles, and of the seseases of the cristen men in the holy londe, And of their releef [and] conquest of Iherusalem, and how Godeffroy of boloyne was first kyng of the latyns in that royamme [and] of his deth. translated [and] reduced out of ffreusshe [sic] in to englysshe [leaf 6r] by me symple persone Wylliam Caxton... Which book I presente unto the mooste Cristen kynge. kynge Edward the fourth. humbly besechyng his hyenes to take no displesyr at me so presumyng. whiche book I began in marche the xii daye and fynysshyd the vii day of Juyn, the yere of our lord .M.CCCC.lxxxi [and] the xxi yere of the regne of our sayd saverayn lord kyng Edward teh fourth. [and] in this maner sette in forme [and] enprynted the xx day of novembre tehyere of forsayd in thabbay of Westmester by the sayd Wylliam Caxton.
Printed in Caxton's type 4:95B.
Collation: a⁶ b⁴; 1-16⁸ 17⁶: 144 leaves, leaves a1 and 1/1 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio
A translation of excerpts from a French version of William of Tyre's Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum by William Caxton between 12 March and 7 June 1481..
PML copy leaf dimensions: 28.2 x 20 cm.
Colophon (leaf 17/5v-6r): Thns [sic] endeth this book Intitled the laste siege and conquest of Iherusalem with many other historyes therin comprysed / Fyrst of Eracles, and of the seseases of the cristen men in the holy londe, And of their releef [and] conquest of Iherusalem, and how Godeffroy of boloyne was first kyng of the latyns in that royamme [and] of his deth. translated [and] reduced out of ffreusshe [sic] in to englysshe [leaf 6r] by me symple persone Wylliam Caxton... Which book I presente unto the mooste Cristen kynge. kynge Edward the fourth. humbly besechyng his hyenes to take no displesyr at me so presumyng. whiche book I began in marche the xii daye and fynysshyd the vii day of Juyn, the yere of our lord .M.CCCC.lxxxi [and] the xxi yere of the regne of our sayd saverayn lord kyng Edward teh fourth. [and] in this maner sette in forme [and] enprynted the xx day of novembre tehyere of forsayd in thabbay of Westmester by the sayd Wylliam Caxton.
Printed in Caxton's type 4:95B.
Collation: a⁶ b⁴; 1-16⁸ 17⁶: 144 leaves, leaves a1 and 1/1 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio
A translation of excerpts from a French version of William of Tyre's Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum by William Caxton between 12 March and 7 June 1481..
PML copy leaf dimensions: 28.2 x 20 cm.
Binding
15th century blind-stamped English calf over wooden boards (29.5 x 21 cm), sewn on 4 supports by Caxton's binder (Group E): Nixon questions the attribution of this binding to Caxton's bindery due to the singular occurence of the beast stamp and quad-filet pattern found on this binding; rebacked and repaired. Plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves with 1 vellum fly leaf, former paper pastedowns are now fly leaves; plain endbands (modern). One clasp with modern strap.
Variant title
Eracles
Inscriptions/Markings
Hand decoration: Rubricated, red lombards, paragraph marks (C-type with extended top curl), and underlining in chapter list. Annotations: No notations in text. Multiple inscriptions, pen trials, and sketches on fly leaves/former pastedowns, sixteenth/seventeenth century: Cironomon mensis lectis, assistit aliptes... (Anglo-Saxon Metrical Vocabulary); Ante deo veniens, e vel o liquida mediante (Alexander of Villa Dei, Doctrinale, ch. V); Munera pauca sine puero des autem mulieri, hic moritur puer immemor est et femina mutat (proverb, see Rigg, Glastonbury Miscellany, pp. 88-89); Hast thou done wel today, quoth Robyn; Ihesu that dyed on the rode and syne he rose fro dethe to lyve; In nomine Ihesu and Mary.
Provenance
Henry John Todd (1763-1845), bibliographic and provenance notes (front pastedown and front endleaf 3 recto), early 19th century; Digby Willoughby (1769-1856), 7th Baron Middleton, Wollaton House, Nottingham (Todd saw the book there in 1850, see De Ricci's notes on Morgan Caxtons, 1930); Bernard Quaritch, 1884, cat. 355, no. 21842, in 1889 to: William Amhurst Tyssen-Amherst, Baron Amherst (1835-1909), armorial bookplates (front and rear pastedowns), his sale, Sotheby's London, 3 Dec. 1908, lot 395, purchased prior to sale by: Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Amherst collection, 1908.
Classification
Catalog link
Century
Department