Lazamon's [Layamon's] Brut, or Chronicle of Britain; A Poetical Semi-Saxon Paraphrase of The Brut of Wace

London: Society of Antiquaries of London, 1847. First edition. Very Good. Three volumes in one, octavo (leaves measuring 237 x 153 mm). liii, [3], 439, [1]; [iv], 643, [1]; [iv], 659, [1]. A Very Good copy of a work that is scarce in commerce. Complete with folding frontispiece ("Facsimile of M.S. Cott. Calig. A.ix fol. 1") and one other plate, which is sometimes lacking ("Facsimile of Ms. Cotton Otho C. XIII fol. 92"). The two plates illustrate the only surviving manuscripts containing Layamon's Brut. Rebound in twentieth century quarter tan polished calf over marbled boards, preserving all three half-titles and title pages. Margin of second plate trimmed in the rebinding process, not affecting the image or text. Slight edgewear and a couple small chips to paper over boards. Pencil notation and small numerical ticket to lower pastedown. Quite clean throughout aside from moderate foxing to first and last two gatherings and the title-pages.

Layamon's Brut, "the most important of the English riming chronicles," contains the first appearance of any Arthurian legends in the English language (Long, English Literature). Written around the year 1200 by the English priest Layamon, the Brut attempts to merge Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People with Wace's Brut, itself a loose French translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain. However, Layamon's work cannot be seen as a mere translation any more than Mallory's Le Mort d'Arthur can: while Wace's Brut was only 15,000 lines, Layamon expanded his version to double its original length. The lengthy narrative poem starts with the destruction of Troy, the flight of Aeneas into Italy and the founding of Britain by Brutus. A full thirty thousand lines are devoted to the legend of King Aurthur and his knights. Thus, Layamon introduced Arthur and his knights to the English people, embellishing the legends with more detail and vivacity than had been seen before. Layamon's Brut now survives in only two manuscripts, Cotton Caligula A. IX and Otho C. XIII, both housed at the British Library.

Sir Frederic Madden (1801 - 1873), Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, was "a giant of Victorian scholarship" whose work as an editor, translator, and conservator helped preserve and disseminate some of the most important English stories in history, including Beowulf (ODNB). He was, crucially, responsible for the preservation of the story of Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, having rediscovered the sole surviving manuscript of the Arthurian legend in the 1820s. Madden translated the story and secured its publication in 1839, re-introducing the legend to nineteenth-century readers and, ultimately, influencing writers like J.R.R. Tolkien. Very Good.