This single leaf was once part of a volume containing the English translation of Jean Bagnyon's Le Roman de Fierabras contributed by its printer, William Caxton. The fifteenth-century epic includes a brief history of the kings of France, an account of the life and conquests of 'Charles the Great', better known as Charlemagne, and a prose version of the poem Fierabras. Fierabras is the name of a fictional Saracen knight, often referred as being of giant stature, who eventually converts to Christianity and fights for Charlemagne. The leaf corresponds to that signed C3 in the only complete copy housed at the British Library (C.10.b.9); it is from Book I Chapter VI, entitled ‘how Olyuer was disposed to fight ageynst Fyrabras not wythstondyng that he was hurt after many wordes’, and presents Charlemagne discussing with his knight Roland who to send against Fierabras, settling for the injured knight Oliver despite his wounds.

Binding description
Nineteenth-century, sand-grain, purple cloth-case binding with marbled endpapers. Fragment mounted on paper sheet to show verso first due to damage to fore-edge of the recto. The fragment was used as a pastedown.