细节
[CALLIGRAPHY]. [CHAUCER, GEOFFREY. The Romaunt of the Rose]. Unfinished calligraphic and illuminated manuscript on vellum, n.p.n.d., 11 leaves (22 pages) plus 4 vellum flyleaves at front and 3 at end, folio, 311 x 210 mm. (12 1/4 x 8 3/8 in.), written in black ink in a rounded upright roman script, single column, 24 lines (justification + 215 x 141 mm.), first 14 lines (on first page) written in alternating blue and gold, single words from each stanza in blue capitals (four), space for one word left blank on p. [16], 16 3-line capital initials in gold; the first page with fully colored floral and foliate border in the style of Louise Powell, and with watercolor vignette showing a walled medieval town, 10-line spaces for further vignettes left blank on pp. [12] and [22]. Bound in plain red morocco, worn, joints split.
Text
The text consists of fragments of the Romaunt of the Rose, from the second stanza (line 21, "Within my twenty yere of age"), through line 7 of stanza 18 ("Ne of hir answer daungerous,"), with an interruption of 82 lines between pages [6], ending "The smale foules song harkning;" and p. [7], beginning "So coveitous is her brenning".
Decoration
The finely drawn leaf and flower border on the first page closely resembles the borders executed by Louise Powell for a series of illuminated manuscripts by William Morris (cf. in particular The Estelle Doheny Collection, part VI, Christie's New York, 19 May 1989, lot 2370, the Aeneid, for which Charles Fairfax Murray commissioned the borders from Powell after purchasing the manuscript from Morris at some time after 1890). The present fragmentary manuscript is very possibly the work of Powell or of one of her students, and may perhaps have been undertaken as an exercise.
Text
The text consists of fragments of the Romaunt of the Rose, from the second stanza (line 21, "Within my twenty yere of age"), through line 7 of stanza 18 ("Ne of hir answer daungerous,"), with an interruption of 82 lines between pages [6], ending "The smale foules song harkning;" and p. [7], beginning "So coveitous is her brenning".
Decoration
The finely drawn leaf and flower border on the first page closely resembles the borders executed by Louise Powell for a series of illuminated manuscripts by William Morris (cf. in particular The Estelle Doheny Collection, part VI, Christie's New York, 19 May 1989, lot 2370, the Aeneid, for which Charles Fairfax Murray commissioned the borders from Powell after purchasing the manuscript from Morris at some time after 1890). The present fragmentary manuscript is very possibly the work of Powell or of one of her students, and may perhaps have been undertaken as an exercise.