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Despite what detective fiction may suggest, medieval manuscripts are not primarily obscure puzzles to be solved. They are, however, sophisticated and frequently collaborative works of cultural production that require interpretation. This essay will draw on the varied life cycle of Egerton MS 2862, and the inconclusive form in which it has survived, in order to consider the shifting roles readers of medieval manuscripts are called on to play as they negotiate the intersection between reading medieval texts and interpreting the history and composition of the manuscript in which they are contained.
THE PROVENANCE AND STRUCTURE OF BRITISH LIBRARY EGERTON MS 2862
British Library Egerton MS 2862 (henceforth Egerton), known previously as Trentham-Sutherland, is a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century vellum manuscript from Suffolk. The manuscript's provenance is evinced by both the scribal dialect and sixteenth-century ownership marks at f. 73v and f. 127r by one "Thomas Maker of lyttell Belingys" [Little Bealings in Suffolk], suggesting that the manuscript did not stray far from its place of production for many years after its making.1 Included in Michael Johnston's list of "gentry romance" manuscripts, Egerton consists of six Middle English romances, some of them mere fragments: Richard Coeur de Lion ("Kyng Richard" in running titles, ff. 1r-44v); Bevis of Hampton ("Beuous of Hampton," ff. 45r-94v and f. 96r-v); Sir Degaré ("Sir Degarre," f. 95r-v and f. 97r-v, sandwiched around the final leaf of Bevis);2 Floris and Blancheflour ("Florence & Blanchefloure," ff. 98r-111r); The Batayle of Troye sometimes known as The Seege of Troye ("The Batell of Troye," ff. 111v-134r, with f. 134v left blank); Amis and Amiloun ("Amys & Amylion," ff. 135r-147v); and Sir Eglamour of Artois ("Sir Egleamoure," f. 148r-v) (see table 1). In its extant form, Egerton is the only surviving English multitext romance manuscript from the Middle Ages that contains only romances, rather than romances alongside other material.3 Setting aside stand-alone fragments of individual texts, such as MS Douce 228, which contains only Richard Coeur de Lion, the only other romance-only collection is the postmedieval MS Douce 261 (ca. 1564), which is significantly later in date than Egerton and of a quite different nature in terms of its format and in terms of its dependence on printed exemplars.4 Michael Johnston has also made a...