The medieval manuscripts containing one or more of the three works currently attributed to the Geoffroi de Charny killed at Poitiers in 1356 – the Livre poem, the Demandes and the Livre de Chevalerie – may be divided into two categories: (a) the manuscripts that have long been recognised by historians and literary specialists, and (b) the manuscripts to which this study is directing attention for the first time.

The Already Recognised Manuscripts

From the manuscript lists previously compiled by Piaget and by Taylor, the following are included in category (a):

• i. Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, MS 11124–26. Parchment. Contains the Livre poem, the Demandes and the Livre de Chevalerie.

• ii. Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, MS 10549. Parchment. Contains only the Livre poem.

• iii. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS 25447. Parchment. Contains only the Livre poem.

• iv. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Nouvelles Acquisitions Françaises MS 4736. Parchment. Contains the jousting and war questions of the Demandes (though not the questions on tourneys), also the Livre de Chevalerie.

• v. Bern, State Library, MS 420 (fols 57r–71v only). Parchment. Contains only the Livre poem.

• vi. Tours, Municipal Library, MS 904. Parchment. Contains only the Livre poem.

All these manuscripts except the first have been reliably dated to the fifteenth century, that is, to well after Charny's lifetime; they may therefore be eliminated as having any claim to be a Charny original. Only in the case of Brussels MS 11124–26 is the issue more complicated.

Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, MS 11124–26 (The Charny Brussels Manuscript)

This has been housed since the fifteenth century in the library of the dukes of Burgundy, and it remained there when this evolved into the library of the kings of Belgium. The manuscript's fine leather binding is nineteenthcentury, a replacement for the original Burgundian red leather binding with two silver-gilt clasps described in an inventory of 1420. In excellent condition, and on parchment throughout, it consists of 136 folios, of which the Livre poem occupies the first forty folios, the Demandes the next forty-two, and the Livre de Chevalerie the remaining fifty-four. Quadruple shields, all painted with the same heraldry (Plate XV), decorate each of the three works’ opening pages, and there are margin decorations which include foliage, illuminated capitals and the occasional dragon.