The Anglo-Norman poem Gui de Warewic was composed in the early thirteenth century, and survives in six fragments and ten mauscripts. While the survival of only a few manuscripts or even fragments does not preclude the text or at least the narrative being well known, survival of a large number of manuscripts does indicate a text of some popularity. The sixteen extant manuscripts and fragments of Gui is a good number for a text of this type. It is, in fact, more than any of the other so-called ‘ancestral romances’. For example, Waldef survives in only one manuscript, as does Fouke le Fitz Waryn, while Haveloc survives in two. Although five manuscripts and fragments exist of Horn none is complete. Boeve has a more complex manuscript tradition as it survives in several forms, three in continental French. The extant manuscripts of Gui can give us some clues about the reception, as well as the popularity of the tale.

Gui de Warewicin single-text manuscripts and fragments

The complete text runs to nearly 13,000 lines. Many of the manuscripts, however, are incomplete, with lacunae or missing folios, and six of the extant manuscripts are relatively short fragments:

Nottingham University Library, Oakham Parish Library, MS Bx 1756 S 4 (N) This is a single leaf with text corresponding to lines 11,794–941 of the edition. Dating from the last third of the thirteenth century this fragment consists of two strips (190cm x 50cm and 190cm x 55cm) which had been used to reinforce the binding of an early printed book of sermons from Oakham Parish Library. It includes one five-line rubricated initial ‘P’.