Longleat house MS 257: a description

Abstract

From fresh examination of the manuscript, this paper presents a codicological description of Longleat House MS 257, a fifteenth-century codex in vellum that contains Lydgate’s Siege of Thebes, Chaucer’s Knight’s and Clerk’s Tale, and Ipomedon C, among other texts. First, the article discusses the date and place of production of this textual artifact, and after listing the contents of the volume, it examines the manuscript’s material circumstances, provides the collation and compilation, describes the morphology of the hands, and analyzes the decoration.