By KiddieDaily Editors · 2026-06-29 · 6 min read · 1 source

The Holy Grail of Arthurian Manuscripts is for auction at Christie’s

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One of the most important surviving manuscripts of Arthurian literature is set to go under the hammer at Christie’s this July, carrying an estimated value of up to £2 million.

Christopher Berard explores the medieval romances that gave shape to the stories of King Arthur, Lancelot, Merlin, and the Holy Grail. An illuminated manuscript (c. 1290–1310) containing three romances from the Vulgate Cycle, or Lancelot-Grail Cycle (c.

1200–30), of prose Arthurian romances is coming up for sale at Christie’s Auction House in London on 8 July 2026. The manuscript is thought to have been produced by the Master of the Liège Apocalypse and contains 126 miniature illuminations. It is the earliest-known manuscript of the Vulgate Cycle to have remained in private ownership.

It has been referred to as the “Clermont-Tonnerre Grail,” taking its name from its seventeenth-century owner Charles-Henri de Clermont-Tonnerre (1571–1640), and as the “Lebaudy Manuscript,” taking its name from its twentieth-century owner, the French industrialist Jean Lebaudy (1894–1969). Its current estimated value is between £1.5 and £2 million. In light of the upcoming auction, now is a good time to review the foundational romances of the Old French Arthurian tradition that either informed or are part of the Vulgate Cycle.

In this way, one can either be a knowledgeable bidder or have access to some of the contents of the manuscript at a tiny fraction of its asking price. The first significant work on King Arthur in Old French is the Roman de Brut (1155) by Wace (d. after 1174), a Jersey-born cleric and court poet of King Henry II of England (r.

The Roman de Brut is an adaptation into Old French verse (octosyllabic rhyming couplets) of two versions of the Latin Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain): the Vulgate version (c. 1136) by Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. 1155) and the anonymous First Variant version (c.

The narrative begins with a brief recapitulation of the legendary founding of Rome by Aeneas of Troy and quickly proceeds to tell of the legendary founding of Britain by Brutus, a great-grandson of Aeneas. The narrative ends with the surrender of much of Britain to the Anglo-Saxons and the death of the last British king Cadwallader, allegedly at the dawn of the eighth century. A significant portion of the work is devoted to the life and reign of King Arthur.

Wace amplifies the chivalry, courtesy, and courtly love elements in his Norman French adaptation of his Latin sources. His most significant contribution to the narrative is the earliest-known mention of King Arthur’s Round Table. Wace claims that King Arthur invented the Round Table to eliminate baronial bickering over seating precedence, but it is entirely possible that Arthur’s Round Table is in fact Wace’s own invention.

Arthur, it should be noted, does not sit at the Round Table but above it on a kingly dais. Wace’s Roman de Brut, which contains a full biography of Arthur from his somewhat unnatural conception at Tintagel in Cornwall to his somewhat unnatural death at Camlann in Cornwall, provides the basic narrative backbone for many of the later Arthurian romances, including those of the Vulgate Cycle. Consequently, Wace’s Roman de Brut is highly recommended reading.

For an accurate, accessible, and affordable Modern English translation of the Roman de Brut, see Wace, Roman de Brut, translated by Glyn S. While Wace is the pioneer of the Old French Arthurian chronicle tradition, Chrétien de Troyes (d. 1190) is the pioneer of the Old French Arthurian romance tradition.

Both poets use the same verse form (octosyllabic rhyming couplets) and both set their tales principally in Britain (the Matter of Britain). There the similarities end. Chronicles tend to focus on the reigning monarch and on events consequential to national history.

Romances tend to focus on an individual knight, often the eponymous hero, who must balance his obligations to God, crown, family, and personal honor. Each verse Arthurian romance is largely self-contained, and King Arthur is very much a supporting character in most verse Arthurian romances. Chrétien de Troyes authored five Arthurian romances: Erec et Enide (c.

1176), Yvain ou Chevalier au Lion (c. 1180), Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la Charette (c. 1177–89), and Perceval ou le Contes du Graal (c.

Of these works, the two most significant for our purposes are Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la Charette (Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart) and Perceval ou le Conte du Graal (Perceval, or the Story of the Grail). The former introduces the infamous love triangle between King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Sir Lancelot; the latter introduces the Holy Grail (here presented as a platter worthy to carry the Eucharist) into Arthurian literature. As was the case with Wace’s Roman de Brut, Chrétien’s romances, particularly his Lancelot and Perceval, furnished critical plot points to the Vulgate Cycle.

For an accurate, accessible, and affordable Modern English translation of all five of Chrétien’s Arthurian romances, see Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, translated by William W. The thirteenth century saw a growing fondness for prose literature. A prose author did not have to twist his matter to match a rhyme scheme and was therefore deemed more veracious.

Furthermore, the scope and scale of prose romances (collective mock-historiography) tended to be grander than the verse romance counterparts, which, as stated above, were often self-contained tales of an individual knight’s adventure. The Burgundian poet Robert de Boron (fl. 1191–1212) is a significant Arthurian author who wrote on the brink of this transition from verse to prose.

Robert authored a supremely influential Grail romance, Joseph d’Arimathie, also known as the Roman de l’Etoire dou Graal (c. 1200), in which he innovatively identifies the Grail as the vessel that Jesus used during the Last Supper at the house of Simeon the Leper and that Joseph of Arimathea subsequently used to collect the blood that dripped from Christ’s wounds as he prepared Him for burial. In Robert’s Joseph, the Grail is not the mysterious “sainte chose” (holy thing) of Chrétien’s Perceval; rather, it is concretely identified as a significant relic of Christ’s Last Supper and Crucifixion.

The Joseph is preserved in two formats. There is a single manuscript copy of a somewhat garbled verse version and there are fifteen manuscript copies containing the prose redaction, some of which are much older than the one containing the verse version. The prose redaction is also the source of a translation by Jacob van Maerlant into Middle Dutch verse and is considered of great importance as it was based on a superior variant of the verse version.

Robert de Boron also authored an Arthurian romance called Merlin of which only 509 lines of the verse version survive. For its contents we depend on the prose redaction, the Estoire de Merlin (Story of Merlin). The Merlin is a reworking of the Arthurian portion of Wace’s Roman de Brut.

Robert’s first significant innovation is a heightened emphasis on Merlin’s demonic paternal ancestry. Merlin was the spawn of a demon, but God granted him free will and the grace of Baptism.

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