A two folio fragment of the Bestiaire d'amour by Richard de Fournival, in Middle Dutch verse

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[From Gera Dambrink, 1999]

The manuscript fragment has survived on two sheets of parchment. One of the sheets contains 114 verses from the first quarter of the translation, the other contains the last 84 verses. The text concludes on the verso of this sheet with 'Explicit die Beestearis'... The two sheets contain two columns of text on each side. In a number of places, especially on the verso of the first page, the text is very difficult to read. Here and there spaces have been saved in the columns for miniatures, which, however, have not been added. ... The first folio has the text on the dog, wolf, cricket, viper (partial). The second folio has the text on the vulture.... the Middle Dutch poet has also clearly deviated from his source in a number of cases. He has inserted a few lines about the nightingale between the cricket and the swan, and after the vulture there is another passage about the panther that concludes the poem. The poet also left untranslated a number of lines between the swan and the dog and added a passage of his own.

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