MS Add 59495
The Trentham Manuscript

International
John Gower
Society

MS Hunter 59 T-2-17 Portrait of Gower folio 6v John Gower Vox Clamantis Glasgow Univ Library www.lib.gla.ac.uk

British Library MS Additional 59495, known to early editors and modern Gower scholars alike as the Trentham Manuscript, is extraordinarily important to the study of Gower, given both its provenance and its contents. The manuscript consists exclusively of Gower's works, including the only extant copies of In Praise of Peace and the Cinkante Balades. For an excellent brief summary of the manuscript see Michael Livingston's introduction to the TEAMS edition of John Gower: The Minor Latin Works with 'In Praise of Peace'.

Contents (from Livingston's Introduction):

  1. Fols. 5r-10v: The English poem In Praise of Peace (the unique copy).
  2. Fols. 10v-11r: The Latin poem Rex celi deus.
  3. Fols. 11v-12v: Two French balades that bookend a Latin poem combining O recolende and H. aquile pullus. Macaulay (1.335-37) refers to this sequence as the "Dedication" to the Cinkante Balades and prints it as such (a unique combination).
  4. Fols. 12v-33r: The French sequence Cinkante Balades (the unique copy).
  5. Fol. 33v: The Latin poem Ecce patet tensus, which ends imperfectly due to a missing folio (the unique copy).
  6. Fols. 34r-39r: The French sequence Traitié pour ensampler les amantz marietz, which begins imperfectly due to a missing folio.
  7. Fol. 39v: The Latin poem Quicquid homo scribat (in a unique version), which appears to have been a later addition to the manuscript.

British Library MS Additional 59495

Unless otherwise stated, jpg images .2mb-2.4mb each.

MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY Cover   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY Inside cover - 1r
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 1v-2r   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 2v-3r
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 3v-4r   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 4v-5r
In Praise of Peace
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 5v-6r
In Praise of Peace		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 6v-7r
In Praise of Peace
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 7v-8r
In Praise of Peace		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 8v-9r
In Praise of Peace
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 9v-10r
In Praise of Peace		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 10v-11r
Rex celi deus
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 11v-12r
Dedication to the Cinkante Balades
  MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 12v-13r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 13v-14r
Cinkante Balades		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 14v-15r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 15v-16r
Cinkante Balades		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 16v-17r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 17v-18r
Cinkante Balades
  MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 18v-19r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 19v-20r
Cinkante Balades		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 20v-21r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 21v-22r
Cinkante Balades		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 22v-23r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 23v-24r
Cinkante Balades		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 24v-25r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 25v-26r
Cinkante Balades		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 26v-27r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 27v-28r
Cinkante Balades		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 28v-29r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 29v-30r
Cinkante Balades		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 30v-31r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 31v-32r
Cinkante Balades		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 32v-33r
Cinkante Balades
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 33v - Ecce patet tensus
34r - Traitié pour ensampler les amantz marietz 		  MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 34v-35r
Traitié pour ensampler les amantz marietz
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 35v-36r
Traitié pour ensampler les amantz marietz		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 36v-37r
Traitié pour ensampler les amantz marietz
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 37v-38r
Traitié pour ensampler les amantz marietz		   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 38v-39r
Traitié pour ensampler les amantz marietz
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 39v-40r
Quicquid homo scribat
  MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 40v-41r
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY 41v-42r   MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY  
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY     MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY  
MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY     MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham Manuscript. From the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY Add 59495
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The John Gower Society would like to thank the British Library for generously allowing the Society to host these images. The John Gower Society would also like to thank Dr. Candace Barrington for supplying the digitized microfilm images of the manuscript.

This work (MS Add 59495 - John Gower's Trentham MS, from the collections of: THE BRITISH LIBRARY), identified by International John Gower Society, is free of known copyright restrictions.
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"I throw my darts and shoot my arrows at the world. But where there is a righteous man, no arrow strikes. But I wound those who live wickedly. Therefore let him who recognizes himself there look to himself."
Vox Clamantis

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