Upward Arrow
Tip:  hold "shift" and click on link to open in new window
Tree Tree



   
Search surnames at   this  location or  all  locations

Malmesbury Abbey, Malmesbury, Wiltshire

History of the Popes and Emporers book


Photograph of book


This is copied from a notice by the book at Malmesbury Abbey

MARTINUS POLONUS.  HISTORIA PONTIFICUM ET IMPERATORUM

The History of the Popes and Emporers.  A portion of the text only.  Manuscript of the late 14th or early 15th century.  The author was Martin Strepus, Archbishop of Griezno in Poland (died 1279).  The text was first printed at Basle in 1559.  The authorship has also been attributed to Ricobaldus of Ferrara.  This manuscript is bound with - GUIDO DELLE COLONNE - Historia Trojana, the History of Troy.  Containing the table of chapters and a part of the text only.  Written at the same time as the Historia Pontificum above, the author was an Italian historian and poet of the thirteenth century.  He finished this work c.1287.  It was very popular and there are many manuscripts and printed editions in many languages.  It was first translated into English by John Lydgate, and printed 1513.  It was from this work that Boccaccio took the subject of his novel Filostrato, which in turn was the source of the story of Troilus and Cressida, used by Chaucer and Shakespeare.

The two manuscripts were formerly bound with the manuscript exhibited beneath.  Both volumes were given to Malmesbury Abbey in 1950 by Mr J.P.R. Lyell of Abingdon, a notable collector of medieval manuscripts, on the assumption that they had belonged to the medieval library of the Abbey.  This belief is based on the names of Sir James Stumpe and Andrew Baynton Esq., that are found on the verso of the first leaf of the Vita Christi below.  Stumpe, the eldest son of William Stumpe the purchaser of the monastic buildings of Malmesbury at the Dissolution, was related to Andrew Baynton, having married Bridget Baynton.


Photograph of book


Search surnames at  this  location or  all  locations



Tip:  hold "shift" and click on link to open in new window
This page was last updated on 17/07/2022 12:56:53
© Copyright D & M Ball 1999-2022
oodwooc mē fēcit