The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript

The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript Synopsis

Although few concrete details exist about the fourteenth-century manuscript known as London, British Library MS Harley 2253, it contains one of the most important surviving literary collections from medieval England. In rarity, quality and abundance, its collection of secular love lyrics is unrivaled, accompanying delicate lyrics of religious devotion and contemporary political songs preserved in no other manuscript. Beyond these Middle English treasures are no less intriguing French and Latin works: four fabliaux (the largest set from medieval England), three Anglo-Saxon saints' lives, and numerous satires, comedies, debates, interludes, collected sayings, conduct literature, Bible stories, dream interpretations, and pilgrim guides. This phenomenal range owes to the Ludlow scribe, the manuscript's compiler and copyist, himself credited with authoring parts of the collection. Volume 3 presents Booklet 5's last works and Booklets 6 and 7 of the manuscript, including a handbook of practical religion and the largest English collection of Anglo-Norman fabliaux.