is one of the shortest of the Middle English romances, running to just under eight hundred lines. It dates from the early fourteenth century. The earliest manuscript containing the text is a fragment of 104 lines in London, Gray’s Inn MS 20, fol. 228 (dated to around 1350), which roughly corresponds to a section of the text in the oldest, near-complete version of the romance in Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College MS 175, fols. 98r-106 (dated between 1425 and 1450). There are seven other manuscripts of this romance dating from c.1440 to c.1564 and five sixteenth-century prints (Boston, Harvard University Library [London: John Skot, c.1525 eight leaves]; Boston, Harvard University Library [London: I. Treveris, c.1530, one leaf]; London, British Library C 21c61, Garrick…
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Citation: McKinstry, Jamie. "Sir Isumbras". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 May 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35879, accessed 21 November 2024.]
