Manuscript Description Cambridge, Cambridge University Library MS Ii. 3.21, part 1 | |
Title: | Boethius |
Author: | Chaucer |
Contents: | Boethius (closely affiliated NLW MS Peniarth 393D); on ff52v-54, after II metrum 5 of Chaucer's Boethius, the scribe has copied Former Age and Fortune; Commentary on Boethius by William of Aragon |
Language: | English |
Datable: | Before 1424 |
Date Range: | 1400-1425 |
Scribal Hands: | Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms. |
Dialect: | LP 5990; County: Kent |
Material: | Parchment |
No of Folios: | ii paper flyleaves + 119 parchment leaves + ii paper flyleaves |
Pagination: | Modern pencil in upper outer corners recto. |
Quiring: | 1(8), 2(16), 3-10(12), 11(14), 12(12), 13(14), 14(12), 15(10) (missing 9-10). |
Signatures: | None visible |
Catchwords: | Mostly in place, for example on ff24, 36, 48, 60,72, 84, 96, 108, 134, 146, 160; most are surrounded in a box which looks like folds of fabric at the corners; the early ones are surrounded with a box decorated with red ink with tiny lines to produce a stippled effect along the edges; on f72 the catchword has no surround and on f84v the box is in red ink. |
Page Size: | 320 x 225 approx |
Frame: | 6 x vertical 2 x horizontal; the text box has parallel lines on each side and the outer vertical makes the frame for the marginalia. |
Writing Space: | Variable; tabula ff1-8 in double columns 260 x 180; thereafter single columns with broad margins for glossing 235 x 100 |
Incipits and Explicits: | Elaborate explicit in red ink on f180v, 'Explicit expliceat ludere scriptor eat / finito libro sit laus & gloria xpo' / Corpore scribentis sit gratia cunctipotentis'. |
Marginal Headings: | Everywhere apparent; usually preceded by red paraphs |
Running Titles: | The number of each Book in red ink in Roman numerals serve as running titles throughout the volume. |
Table of Contents: | Elaborate 'Tabula' to begin the volume. |
Title by Scribe: | In Latin by the scribe. |
Borders: | 3-sided border on f9 of gold, blue, pink, red. |
Illuminated Initials: | The first illuminated initial which originally opened the Latin text and was eleven lines in depth, has been excised; for the first initial of each subsequent book in Latin, pink and blue champ initials on gold ground with heavy sprays which extend into margins emanating from the letter. |
Paragraph Marks: | Red paraphs used in margins for each gloss of the Latin text; paraphs in blue on ff15v-17 and in red on ff52-53 for each stanza of the poems; spaces left for paraphs in ME Boece text but they have not been completed. |
Flourished Initials: | Blue lombard initials with red pen-work flourishing throughout begin each prosa and metrum; very fine work. |
Miscellaneous Info: | Watermark on paper flyleaves has 2 columns with something in the middle and a big bunch of grapes on the top? On f52v is 'Chauc(er) vpon this fyfte mak(er) of the second book' with a folded fabric scrolled surround in red ink. The two texts are intertwined, ff1-180v; after which Part II begins again with f2. On f180v, ends rubric 'Explicit expliceat ludere scriptor eat / finito libro sit laus & gloria xpo' / Corpore scribentis sit gratia cunctipotentis' |
Further Information: | Seymour, M. C. A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts, vol. 1, Works Before 'The Canterbury Tales', pp. 45-46, Aldershot, Hants: Scolar Press, 1995. |