Acknowledgments: I have drawn heavily on the work of four scholars in the preparation of this section. The work of Alison Allan on propaganda in Yorkist England made it possible to set this manuscript in its proper historical context. Kathleen Scott's entry in her survey of English manuscripts and her entry for the exhibition catalog, Leaves of Gold: Manuscripts from Philadelphia Collections, form the basis for much of the commentary on the manuscript as a work of art. To Ralph Griffiths I am indebted for the time he took to discuss this manuscript with a group of members of the Richard III Society at the Free Library in 1993 and for his unfailing kindness in answering my many questions thereafter. Finally, without the active collaboration of Peter Hammond, Research Officer of the Richard III Society, many of the shields and banners in the manuscript would have gone unidentified and unexplained. The strength of this section owes an incalculable debt to the contributions of these four scholars; any errors are solely mine.

Many others deserve their thanks for their advice and encouragement along the way. The Free Library of Philadelphia Rare Books Department staff has been uniformly helpful since the former curator, Howell Heaney, first showed me the manuscript in 1962. Special thanks are due to Karen Lightner, Martha Repman, and William Lang at the Free Library. In addition to Peter Hammond, Geoffrey Wheeler deserves thanks for his research on the heraldry of the manuscript over the years. Charles T. Wood, Dartmouth College, has suggested a number of fruitful lines of inquiry.

These acknowledgments would not be complete without a word of thanks to the many members of the Richard III Society whose generous financial support made possible the conservation of this manuscript, and to the staff of the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts for carrying out the work.

--Laura Blanchard
Philadelphia Area Consortium of
Special Collections Libraries

Previous Next