Further, if MS Harley 2278 is the presentation copy, and was prepared under Lydgate's personal direction, then its value for scholarship increases, for it would provide some of the best evidence available for the study of Lydgate's idiolect and style. Lydgate manuscripts produced in Lydgate's lifetime. The manuscript is traditionally dated 1433, at the beginning of Henry's Christmas visit to the abbey, but Henry had given Abbot Curteys only eight weeks' notice of his intentions, which seems to be too little time for the translation and this copy of it to have been produced in time for the king's arrival. Since then various others scholars have compared manuscripts, especially of Lydgate's works, and identified many as being of East Anglian, probably Bury St. Edmunds, provenance. The style of Fitzwilliam 3-1979 is a distinctive one.
Figures are beady-eyed, often somewhat stocky, and display a variety of lively poses.
Heads are frequently tilted at an angle, and arms thrust out in eloquent gestures. Both these artists can be identified in Harley 2278, as the principal two of the three or possibly four miniaturists who worked on the 120 miniatures and two historiated initials of that ambitious project. To him can also be attributed the design of certain of the miniatures executed by his associates. He shows great skill in depicting the dramatic interrelationships of figures. Edmund and Fremund .