File NLW MS 446E [RESTRICTED ACCESS]. - Roman de Tristan,

A 14th century manuscript containing the French prose romance of Tristan, with rubric heading 'Ceste liure est apelles le liure de monseignor Tristain le filz le roy Melyadus de Leono'. The beginning agrees with the opening of Harley MS 4389 (described by H. L. D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, vol. i, p. 356, and denoted C by E. Loseth, Le Tristan et le Palamede des MSS. fr. du Brit. Mus., Christiana, 1905); in the later and fuller MS Add. 23929 (Ward, p. 357; Loseth, MS A), which has the prologue of Luces de Gast and the usual preliminary chapters, this passage occurs on f. 34b, col. 2; the corresponding passage in the printed Tristan (Paris, Michel Le Noir, 1520) is in vol. i, f. xix. The text agrees very closely with that of Harleian MS 4389 down to the point at which the latter ends imperfectly (= f. 51, col. 2, l. 26 of the present manuscript); it is much longer than that of Add. MS 23929 and that of the printed edition of 1520. The last page of the manuscript is almost illegible. The manuscript is illustrated by crudely executed coloured drawings in the lower margins.