Sir Gawain was of course written out by hand in a hand-made book, as printing was not introduced into England until William Caxton set up the first press in 1476, some 75 years or so after an unknown scribe copied Sir Gawain. The manuscript book is now in the British Library in London, where it is identified by the "signature"--or call number--Cotton Nero A.x. This unusual designation derives from the fact the book was once in the possession of Sir Robert Cotton, a 17th century collector, whose library was arranged according the busts of Roman emperors atop each book case. The manuscript of Sir Gawain was in the Nero case, row A, book number 10 (in Roman numerals, x). But although we know exactly where the book was in Sir Robert's library--especially because Sir Robert had it catalogued by his personal librarian--we don't know much about the library itself, because it burned in 1731. Fortunately, many of the manuscripts, including the manuscript of Beowulf along with this one, were saved.

         The manuscript is a fairly modest book. In contrast to the many far more deluxe books owned by kings, this book is small, its illustrations are fairly crude, and every effort was made to squeeze the text in. Scholars infer from this that the patron of the book was not royalty, and perhaps there was no patron at all, and this was a book made for the poet's own satisfaction--in which case this would be the poet's own copy. However, we know nothing about the author or about the scribe except what we can infer, and we infer from the language that the poet lived in the Northwest Midlands region of England around the city of Chester.
 

Here are five images from the manuscript:

1. From fol. 91a, the opening page of Sir Gawain. This image is from a sepia-tone facsimile done in the 1920's. Even if we can't read Middle English or medieval handwriting (the study of which is called paleography), this image does enable us to see how small and crabbed the handwriting is. If you were to see more of the manuscript, you would also notice how faded the ink is in places, and that someone went over the text of Sir Gawain and made corrections at some point--judging from the handwriting, probably in the early 1400's. The first word of the text, sithen ('since') gets a large capital letter with a flourish that extends down the left-hand margin.  The page number in the upper-right-hand corner was written by a librarian or owner at some point after the Middle Ages.  The partial name "Hugo de" appears in a late medieval hand, dead center at the top of the page--evidence that someone doodled in the manuscript sometime shortly after it was written.

2. From fol. 90b, the facing page illustration at the beginning of Sir Gawain. Here is depicted the scene at the end of Part I where the Green Knight holds up his head and speaks his parting words to Gawain and the court. At the top, Agravain (in red, holding ax) is standing (not, as the poet says, sitting) at the dais with (left to right after Gawain) Arthur, Guenevere, and Yvain (since he is mentioned as being at the high table, and he doesn't look like a bishop!). In the lower part of the picture, Gawain looks on as the Green Knight, on horseback, utters his final words. All at the dais brandish mean-looking weapons, except for Guenevere, who seems rather to be hiding behind Arthur.

3. From fol. 125a, after the last page of Sir Gawain. This depicts one of the bedroom scenes. Gawain lies in bed, pretending to be asleep, and the lady attempts to seduce him. The gesture we see here is called a "chin-chuck" and it is supposed to be a very erotic gesture in the language of medieval pictorial arts. Gawain seems to be wrapped up like a mummy, but at least the picture gives us an idea of the drapery around his bed, a realistic touch. Above the illustration, someone has written four lines of verse (as two) that seem to have nothing to do with either the picture or the text of Sir Gawain: "My minde is mikill on one / That will me noght amende. / Sum time was trewe as ston / And fro schame couthe hir defende." (In rendering these lines I have had to represent the Middle English letters yogh as <gh> and thorn as <th>, as they are not in my HTML fonts yet.) Translated, the lines say, "My mind is greatly on one / Who will me not amend. / Once she was true as stone, / And from shame she herself could defend."

4. From fol. 125b, after the previous image. This depicts Gawain's meeting with the Green Knight at the Green Chapel, although it is badly darkened and smudged. Gawain is in the lower left, where it is possible to make out swatches of red that mark his lance, his coat-armor (or surcoat), and the head of his horse Gringolet. Across from Gawain gapes a hole in the ground that must be the Green Chapel (think of how the poet describes it in lines 2180-82). The Green Knight is in the upper right-center of the picture, holding his ax upright.

5. From fol. 126a, after the previous image. Here Gawain returns home to Camelot, where (left to right) Arthur, Guenevere, and Agravain greet him. Gawain is a little hard to make out because he wears his helmet and he's directly in front of Guenevere, so their bodies tend to merge. But the visor of Gawain's helmet is up, so you may be able to make out his face smiling (!) up at Arthur as he half-genuflects. The green girdle is nowhere to be seen.