| 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 as | The Gawain Manuscript, British Library MS Cotton Nero A X/2 |
| Date | c. 1400 |
| Place of origin | Northern England |
| Language(s) | Middle English |
| Author(s) | The Gawain Poet |
| Material | Vellum |
| Size | 12 centimetres (4.7 in) x 17 centimetres (6.7 in) |
| Format | Single column |
| Script | Gothic textura rotunda |
| Contents | Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience |
| Previously kept | Cotton 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]
- ^ 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'.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Fredell 2014, p. 1.
- ^ 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.