ABSTRACT
Compared with the scholarly attention paid to Gower's French manuscripts over the years, the manuscripts containing his English and Latin poems, of which there are a significant number extant, have had a robust history. Only one manuscript is known to contain solely French poetry: Cambridge University Library Additional MS 3035, the single manuscript containing the Mirour de l'Omme. Gower's other two surviving French works, the Cinkante Balades and the Traitié pour essampler les amantz marietz, are included in manuscripts with poems in other languages. The Mirour had been erroneously misidentified for centuries with the Latin title of Speculum Meditantis, an alternative title Gower likely gave it, to create accord with the other two volumes beneath the head of the effigy on his tomb. Only the "Trentham Manuscript" contains the poem without either the Confessio or the Vox.
