A Sense of Place: The 'London' Cityscapes of BL, Royal MS. 13 A. III (original) (raw)

In the British Library, there exists a somewhat understudied manuscript containing a copy of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britannie. 1 Known as British Library Royal MS. 13 A. III, scholars have long noted that it was likely produced in southeast England in or around London between the late thirteenth century and the first quarter of the fourteenth century. 2 One of but thirteen of the around 200 surviving copies of the text that are illuminated, it is the only one with an extended series of illustrations. These take the form of bas-de-page drawings and likely date to the fourteenth century, though the matter is the subject of some debate. 3 The drawings are in lead and ink on vellum; these are often made up of two layers-fine under-drawing and darker, thicker over-drawing-and at times display some discrepancy. 4 The drawings depict cities, kings, scenes from history and coats of arms, some 1 The manuscript also contains the prologue to the Prophecies of Merlin and the Epistle to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln. Citations and transcriptions of the manuscript's text (Latin and English), unless otherwise indicated, follow Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, ed.