About three hundred manuscript copies are extant,[7] one of the highest figures for a secular work. Many of these are illustrated, most with fewer than ten remaining illustrations, but there are a number with twenty or more illustrations,[8] and the exceptional Burgundian British Library Harley MS 4425 has 92 large and high quality miniatures, despite a date around 1500; the text was copied by hand from a printed edition. These are by the artist known as the Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500, commissioned by Count Engelbert II of Nassau.[9]
The peak period of production was the 14th century, but manuscript versions continued to be produced until the advent of printing, and indeed afterwards – there are at least seven manuscripts dated after 1500.[7] There are also seven incunabula – printed editions before 1500 – the first from Geneva in about 1481, followed by two from the city of Lyons in the 1480s and four from Paris in the 1490s.[10] An edition from Lyons in 1503 is illustrated with 140 woodcuts.[11] Digital images of more than 140 of these manuscripts are available for study in the Roman de la Rose Digital Library.
