Pearl Manuscript

Pearl Manuscript
British Library
The Green Knight at Camelot, folio 94v, and the beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, folio 95r
Also known asThe Gawain Manuscript, British Library MS Cotton Nero A X/2
Datec. 1400
Place of originNorthern England
Language(s)Middle English
Author(s)The Gawain Poet
MaterialVellum
Size12 centimetres (4.7 in) x 17 centimetres (6.7 in)
FormatSingle column
ScriptGothic textura rotunda
ContentsSir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience
Previously keptCotton library

The Pearl Manuscript (British Library MS Cotton Nero A X/2), also known as the Gawain manuscript,[1] is an illuminated manuscript produced somewhere in northern England in the late 14th century or the beginning of the 15th century. It is one of the best-known Middle English manuscripts,[2] the only one containing alliterative verse solely,[3] and the oldest surviving English manuscript to have full-page illustrations. It contains the only surviving copies of four of the masterpieces of medieval English literature: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, and Patience. It has been described as "one of the greatest manuscript treasures for medieval literature",[4] and "the most famous of all romance manuscripts".[5]

  1. ^ Cassidy, Seamus; McGarvey, Erin; Normesinu, Isaac. "Cotton Nero A.X". Mediakron. Boston College. Retrieved 8 March 2023. Informally, Cotton Nero A.X is referred to as 'the Pearl Manuscript' or, less often, 'the Gawain Manuscript'.
  2. ^ Booher, Dustin; Gunn, Kevin B. (2020). Literary Research and the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Eras: Strategies and Sources. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 183. ISBN 9781538138434. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  3. ^ Doyle, A. I. (1982). "The manuscripts". In Lawton, David (ed.). Middle English Alliterative Poetry and Its Literary Background: Seven Essays. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. p. 93. ISBN 9780859910972. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  4. ^ Fredell 2014, p. 1.
  5. ^ Johnston, Arthur (1964). Enchanted Ground: The Study of Medieval Romance in the Eighteenth Century. London: University of London, Athlone Press. p. 114. Retrieved 26 March 2023.