Marston MS 186     England, s. XV 1/4
Guido de Columnis, Historia destructionis Troiae

ff. 1r-94v  Incipit liber primus de bello troiano.  [prologue:]  Licet
cotidie vetera recentibus obruant.  nonnulla tamen iam dudum precesserunt
uetera.  que sic sui magnitudine viuaci...ad eius narracionis seriem 
accedamus. [text, f. 1v:]  De peleo Rege thesalie inducente iasonem vt 
iter arripiat ad aureum vellus.  In regno Thesalie de predicte scilicet 
pertinencijs romanie cuius incole mirmidones dicti sunt...Regem prothenorem
[sic] et Regem Oschomenum [?].  Epithapheum hectoris.  Troihum protector 
danaum// [text begins again on f. 94r:]  Epithapheum Hectoris.  Troiphum 
protector. danaum metus.  hic Iacet hector/...Condidit et merens.  
accumulauit humo. Epithapheum achillis.  Pelleudes ego sum.  Thetidis 
notissima proles/...Me paris hostili.  fraude peremit humo.  [author's 
epilogue:]  Ego autem Guido de columpnis predictum ditem grecum in omnibus
sum secutus...ffactum est autem presens opus.  anno dominice incarnacionis 
Millesimo ducencesimo Octagesimo Septimo eiusdem prime Indictionis.

	N. E. Griffin, ed., Guido de Columnis Historia destructionis
	Troiae
(Cambridge, Mass., 1936) pp. 3-276.  The text is defective:  single leaves
missing between ff. 34-35 ("...aura potiti. felici remige // inueniunt rapaci
prede velociter..."), between ff. 87-88 ("...Palamides se optulit descensurum
[catchwords:]  qui discalciatis // quidam filius. uocatus assandrus..."),
between ff. 88-89 ("...diomedis uxor postquam ad eius peruenit // purgata 
uere dici potuit agamenonis..."), between ff. 90-91 ("...ad eas perueniunt 
tanta earum dulcedine // salie. sic quod ipsum acastus..."); two leaves 
missing between ff. 91-92 ("...ad litora proiecerunt in quorum spuma // 
eos ad se uenire mandauit...").  Some corrections and marginal annotations, 
s. xv-xvi. Chapters numbered and lettered in margins (for indexing?).

	Parchment, ff. ii (paper) + 94 (nearly contemporary foliation in Roman
numerals on recto, Arabic numerals on verso), 247 x 162 (185 x 101) mm.
2 columns, 40 lines.  Single vertical and multiple horizontal bounding
lines, full across; ruled carelessly in crayon or lead.  Remains of prickings 
in upper, lower and outer margins.
	I-II 12, III 12 (-11), IV-VII 8, VIII 12, IX 8, X 8 (-1, 3, 6, 8),
XI 8 (-1, 5 through 8).  Quire and leaf signatures (e.g., a i, a ii, a iii,
etc.) lower margin, recto.  Catchwords in lower margin to left of inner
vertical ruling, verso.
	Written by at least two scribes in anglicana formata script; cf. Watson,
B. L., no. 311, Watson, Oxford, no. 257, Robinson,
Cambridge, no. 212.
	Inelegant red or blue initials, 5- to 3-line, with crude penwork
flourishes in the opposite color, ff. 1-12; for the remainder of the codex,
blue initials, 3- to 2-line, with more delicate penwork designs in red.
Headings in red, some omitted, others entered in margin.
	Binding:  England, s. xviii.  Brown calf, blind-tooled with gold-tooled
spine and edges of boards.  Title on spine:  "Historia/ Troiana/ M. S."
Gilt edges.  Varnished.

Written in England in the first quarter of the 15th century; early
provenance unknown.  Unidentified shelf-mark, s. xvi-xvii, upper margin of
f. 1r:  "(25)."  Belonged to Charles William Hamilton Sotheby (1820-87;
armorial bookplate with "Historia Trojana" written in ink); Col. H. G.
Sotheby sale (Sotheby's, 25 July 1924, no. 113) to Dobell (cat. 38, Oct.
1924, no. 5).  Unidentified notes, in pencil, on front pastedown:
"III R/ 141" and "F5806."  On back pastedown:  "6506/ESZV."  From the
estate of the New York bookdealer Wilfrid M. Voynich.  Purchased from
H. P. Kraus (Cat. 86, no. 260) in 1958 by Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).

secundo folio:  minus

Bibliography:  De Ricci, v. 2, p. 1847, no. 9 (while in the Voynich estate);
	Faye and Bond, p. 85, no. 186.

Barbara A. Shailor