Manuscript Description London, British Library, Harley MS 875 | |
| Title: | Piers Plowman, A Version |
| Author: | Langland |
| Contents: | Piers Plowman |
| Language: | English and Latin |
| Scribal Hands: | Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                 |
| Dialect: | LP : 4679; County : NW Warwicks |
| Material: | Parchment |
| No of Folios: | i marbled flyleaf + iv modern paper flyleaves + 1-22 parchment xii modern paper flyleaves + i marbled flyleaf |
| Pagination: | 19th century (?) in pencil at top right in the intersection between vertical and horizontal ruling. |
| Quiring: | 1(8), 2(8), 3 (6) |
| Signatures: | Many corners are either very dirty or have worn away making signatures impossible to see. |
| Catchwords: | On f8v and also on f16v contained in box in the ink of the text. The catchword on f8v is lined within with faint red ink. |
| Page Size: | 258 x 168 approx. |
| Frame: | 2 x vertical; 3 x horizontal; ruled within in grey plummet; top line within two horizontals |
| Writing Space: | 210 x 113 |
| Marginal Headings: | Headings for passus within the text block in red ink. Other titles throughout in textura in the ink of the text and underlined in red. Occasional Latin marginalia as for example on f17v 'In dei no' followed by a trefoil mark. Some corrections in the side margins and also in the lower margin. |
| Paragraph Marks: | Spasmodically added faintly in red over two parallel lines in the margins. Many more in the first quire than in subsequent ones. |
| Flourished Initials: | Red ink initials unflourished, of two or three lines in height begin each passus. Occasional red tipping of upper case letters. |
| Miscellaneous Info: | Two crudely drawn naked figures adorn the margins of f10v and f14r. The manuscript appears to have had spaces filled in a later hand as for example on f1 lines 27, 28. Other additions appear to be over erasures. |