观看令人惊叹的中世纪手稿，用墨水和抛光黄金讲述亚瑟王的故事，该手稿即将拍卖

See the Stunning Medieval Manuscript Telling Tales of King Arthur, in Ink and Polished Gold, That’s Headed to Auction

The manuscript was made by a skilled, anonymous artist between 1290 and 1310. It’s the oldest of only three privately owned Vulgate Cycle manuscripts

More than 700 years ago, an anonymous scribe set down the tales of King Arthur and his Round Table in a vellum manuscript. He punctuated the Old French text with 126 miniature illustrations adorned with polished gold leaf, depicting the legendary British king, shape-shifting wizard Merlin and knights like Lancelot and Gawain.

Now, that manuscript is headed for the auction block in July, and it’s predicted to fetch more than $2 million. According to auction house Christie’s, the artifact dates to between 1290 and 1310, and it’ll be the oldest version of the Vulgate Cycle ever auctioned.

“This is a rediscovered manuscript of one the greatest of all medieval romances … texts fundamental to Western culture,” says Eugenio Donadoni, Christie’s senior specialist for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, in a statement.

The Vulgate Cycle, also known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, was written anonymously in France in the 13th century. It’s a compilation of stories detailing the quest for the Holy Grail, the love affair of Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, the life of Merlin and more. In the 15th century,Thomas Malory drew on the Vulgate to write Le Morte d'Arthur,the first English-language prose book of Arthurian legends.

Only three contemporary Vulgate manuscripts are known to be privately owned, Donadoni tells the Guardian’s Donna Ferguson. “Ours is the earliest of the three and the most profusely illustrated. Its text is unique,” Donadoni says. “Many of the miniatures are in burnished gold, [created] using gold leaf, which was polished very aggressively to make it shine.”

One illustration shows Merlin—an enigmatic

的城堡墙。 As Donadoni tells the

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