Cambridge University Library MS Dd.1.17: Difference between revisions

From The Seven Sages of Rome
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|Has Page Range=ff. 54r-63r
|Has Page Range=ff. 54r-63r
|Has Content=The Seven Sages of Rome: English 'D' text
|Has Content=The Seven Sages of Rome: English 'D' text
|Has Siglum Of The Version Of The Seven Sages=A
|Has Siglum Of The Version Of The Seven Sages=A (Seven Sages)
|Has Language Group Within Version=Middle English Version A
|Has Language Group Within Version=Middle English Version A
|Has Further Primary Scholarly Subgroup=Midland
|Has Further Primary Scholarly Subgroup=Midland

Revision as of 16:38, 22 January 2024

Manuscript Identification
Reference Number Eng8
Location Cambridge University Library
Siglum/Shelfmark Cambridge University Library MS Dd.1.17
Page/Folio range ff. 54r-63r
Textual Content and Tradition
Standardised title of narrative
Incipit or textual title
Version (siglum) A (Seven Sages)
Language Group within Version Middle English Version A
Narrative/Scholarly Group within Version
Further scholarly subgroup (1) Midland
Further scholarly subgroup (2)
Translated/adapted from (Version/Text)
Source for information on textual relationship to broader tradition Jill Whitelock, The Seven Sages of Rome (Midland Version), EETS O.S. 324, OUP, 2005
Languages
Language of text Middle English
Regional or specific Language of text
Source for regional or specific Language of text
Digitisation and Editions
Digitisation
Modern Editions
Authorship and Production
Scribe
Author
Place of Manuscript Production England
Date of Manuscript Production 1350/1400
Source of Date of Manuscript Production Jill Whitelock, The Seven Sages of Rome (Midland Version), EETS O.S. 324, OUP, 2005
Physical Description
Material Parchment
Total pages/folios in Manuscript Vol. 1: ff. 261, vol. 2: ff. 93, vol. 3: ff. 87
Height 440
Width 305
Script style/form
Prose or verse
Illustrations No
Contents and Additional Texts
Other texts in the Manuscript Manuscript is divided into three volumes. The Seven Sages appears in the third volume (ff. 54ra - 63rb). A full list of the 24 other texts that make up the manuscript can be found in the source mentioned above; notably, it includes: Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britannie (vol 1, ff 111-121); a Latin version of Marco Polo's travel account (vol 2, ff 38-56); texts concerning Islam, including 'Fides Saracenorum' (vol 2, ff 71), De origine et progressu et fine Machometi et quadruplici reprobatione eius (vol 2 ff 71-74), William of Tripoli, De statu Saracenorum (vol 2 ff 74-79), and a Life of Muhammad (vol 2 f 79); Langland, Piers Plowman (B text) (Vol 3 ff 1-31); Mandeville's Travels (ff. 32-53).
Catalogues and Research Literature
Catalogue
Modern Research Literature Brunner (1933)Whitelock (2005)
Pattern of embedded stories in this manuscript








Some sages' names have been normalised; Whitelock's transcription gives the names as Lentulus, Maladas, Caton, Iesse, and Marcius.

The Midlands version, here described, is distinct from the other Middle English texts in a number of notable ways, including minor changes to the frame story (the Prince's mother dies while he is away at school, rather than before he leaves, for example), and small changes throughout. Whitelock (2005) observes that these changes tend to streamline the narrative, but also that, in the inset tales at least, they tend to make 'the fate of the female characters happy, but that of the men more unfortunate' (p. lii). Women get away with their tricks, or escape repudiation (in Vidua and Avis), while men more frequently die (including by suicide) in tales such as Canis, Puteus, and Inclusa. Conversely, this may lend gravity to the overall antifeminist bent of the text: Whitelock suggestions that 'the redactor... resists the temptation to curb these wicked women in the tales themselves', showing women to powerful, manipulative, and cunning, and thereby allowing 'the warning of the Sages [to] gain more weight' (p. liii).