The Merlin Conspiracy

[shewhomust]

Fragments of lost Arthurian work found in library - where else?

Here's the University of Britol press release (did I mention this was in Bristol?).

There are aspects of this story which aren't completely clear to me, mostly to do with the material having been found in Bristol's Central Library, which as dar as I can discover really is what it sounds like, the main city library, but which has in its collection an early printed copy of the works of Jean Gerson, and which is frequented by staff from the University's Special Collections Library. steepholm, does this make sense to you?

It appears that eight parchment pages from a manuscript of the Arthurian Vulgate Cycle had been used in the binding of the four volumes of the Gerson. When the books were subsequently rebound they were recognised as interesting enough to salvage, unstuck from the binding (though one page seems not to have survived that process) and bound into the body of the book. Where they stayed hidden until Michael Richardson of the Special Collections Library spotted the name 'Merlin'.

He called in the President of the International Arthurian Society (British Branch), who just so happened to be a member of the English Department at Bristol, and she called in a medieval historian and manuscript specialist, who just so happened to be her husband. And, just to make it more appealing to me, they recruited a specialist in the Old French Merlin stories from the University of Durham.

The initial conclusion is that what they have found is part of the Estoire de Merlin, but one which differs in its details from all previously known versions. The press release points out that Malory's source for the Morte d'Arthur was also a version of the Vulgate Cycle which differs in its details from all previously known versions. Naturally, we wonder if they are by any chance related, but I don't know enough about either the Vulgate or Malory to form any opinion on the basis of the summary given - it's lovely stuff, though, including things like a battle standard in the form of al dragon which breathes real fire, and the conception of a child who must surely be Lancelot. Well worth a look.

Comments

[cmcmck]

You often hear of important bits of work being found in the bindings of later editions.

We visited Gerson's tomb in Lyon some years back- an important chap to mediaevalists like other half!

[shewhomust]

You often hear of important bits of work being found in the bindings of later editions.

Indeed. Though finding seven consecutive sheets (presumably because they'd been used to bind four volumes) is better than usual...

Good to have Gerson vouched for: I couldn't get beyond 'sounds vaguely familiar' myself!