The Black Chalice

The Book

British Library MS Add. 1138, now better known as the "Salisbury Manuscript," holds 504 sheets, including a title page apparently added in 1863. All the leaves are 287mm by 205mm. The original sheets are written on French paper stock from the late fifteenth century, and the later title sheet in English paper stock from Liverpool, from the mid-nineteenth century. The whole is bound in goatskin, apparently around the time of the added title page in the nineteenth century.

The added title page reads "The Second Booke of Sir Thomas Malory, donated to the Library by the Hon. Mr. Wm. Landsdowne. MDCCCLXIII." Which library, and who Mr. Landsdowne is, and how the book entered into the possession of St. Barbara's and St. Christopher's, are all still unknown.

The second — original — title page reads "The Seconde Boke of kyng Arthur and also His noble Knyghts, as writen by Sir Tomas Malorye before hys deth." Several truncated marks at the bottom right-hand corner of the page show where further text has been lost when the leaf was trimmed.

The text is written by a single scribe, writing consistently in a secretary hand. Arabic figures are used to number the leaves. Comparison of the hand with the scribes who wrote the Winchester Manuscript of Le Morte D'Arthur has ruled out the possibility that either of the latter scribes worked on The Second Book.

Ink smudges on several of the pages suggest that printed sheets from the 1485 Caxton edition of the Morte were rested on sheets of the Salisbury Manuscript to dry, as with the Winchester, which confirms that Caxton had both manuscripts in his possession, and that the Salisbury is contemporary with the Winchester.