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Manuscript Description
Scotland, Glasgow, Glasgow University Library MS Hunter 59 (T.2.17)
 
Title:Vox Clamantis; Chronica Tripertita; Caetera Carmina Minora; Traite
Author:Gower
Contents:Vox Clamantis; Chronica Tripertita; Caetera Carmina Minora; Traite
Language:Latin and French
Date Range:1385-1410
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Material:Parchment
No of Folios:ii new parchment flyleaves + 1-131 + i original parchment flyleaf + ii new parchment flyleaves
Pagination:Modern pencil foliation in upper outer corners recto.
Quiring:8s
Signatures:Mostly removed by cropping.
Catchwords:Catchwords regularly in the hand of the scribe at the bottom right of the folio; catchwords contained in box with bracket ends.
Page Size:300 x 190
Frame:2 x vertical; 4 x horizontal ruled in fine grey plummet with double ruling top and bottom to contain first and last lines of text; ruled within; pricking survives throughout.
Writing Space:234 x 108
Incipits and Explicits:Summaries for each book presented in the display script of the scribe as a form of incipit. 'Explicit libellus qui intitulatur Vox Clamantis' on f108v.
Marginal Headings:Chapter numbers in the ink of the text in the margins of Vox. Heavy marginal glossing by the scribe in the ink of the text in Chronica and Carmina.
Running Titles:'Liber' on versos with 'primus' etc on rectos for Vox. 'Prima', 'Secunda', 'Tercia' on versos and 'Pars' on rectos for Chronica.
Table of Contents:At the beginning of the manuscript, on ff1-5v, the contents of every chapter of each Book of 'Vox' is summarised.
Borders:4-sided border in gold, blue and pink; trios of acorn-like motifs, leaf motifs on the left side with gold balls flourished along the right hand border; 8-line initial tied in to border.
Illuminated Initials:5-line gold initial on quartered ground of pink and blue to begin Prologue on f7; 8-line blue initial with pink on gold ground with intricate patterning to begin chapter 1; thereafter similar illuminated initials begin books 3, 5 and 7. Gold 4-line initial with purple pen flourishing begins Chronica. Gold initial with purple flourishing begins Traite.
Paragraph Marks:Very occasional paraphs in red and blue.
Flourished Initials:Blue initials with red penwork flourishing 2 or 3-line to introduce chapters; small blue and occasionally red lombard capitals within text and to introduce summaries in Vox. Red and blue single-line yet flourished initials begin lines in Chronica and Carmina. Gold initial with purple flourishing begins Traite.
Other Names (not owners):On f1r 'Ex libris A. de. Valckeni Junioris' upper margin 17th c. hand? On the same folio, the date 1387; on f114v the date 1397; on f94v the date '1518 pridie aprilis'.
Further Information:From the University of Glasgow website a description of the picture on f6v which may be of Gower himself as an archer aiming at a globe and on f129r, a coat of arms and a tomb: see http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/detaild.cfm?DID=32488; John Young and P.H. Aitken, 'A Catalogue of the manuscripts in the Library of the Hunterian Museum in the University of Glasgow', (Glasgow 1908), pp.64-68.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP