Manuscript Description Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Fairfax 16 | |
MS Appellation: | Fairfax |
Title: | Poems |
Author: | Chaucer, Hoccleve and Lydgate |
Contents: | Chaucer, minor poems. Hoccleve, poems. Lydgate, poems |
Language: | English |
Date Range: | 1450-1500 |
Scribal Hands: | Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms. |
Material: | Parchment |
No of Folios: | i paper flyleaf + ii parchment flyleaves + 1-340 + i paper flyleaf |
Pagination: | Modern pencil. |
Quiring: | Mainly 8 |
Signatures: | Visible in some quires. |
Catchwords: | At the end of most quires. Up to f110 the catchwords have no boxing and occur in the middle of the lower margin. At f 118v the catchword is enclosed in a red ink scroll and positioned below the text towards the right as is the one at f126v. Thereafter some have a red outlining but most do not. |
Page Size: | 230 x 165 |
Frame: | 2 x vertical; 4 x horizontal with each pair enclosing top and bottom lines. 15-166 (hardpoint) 167-329 brown crayon [J. Norton-Smith] |
Writing Space: | 155 x 95 |
Incipits and Explicits: | At the beginning and end of the legends for example. In red ink in the hand of the scribe. Occasionally, as on f115, enclosed in a red parallelogram box. |
Marginal Headings: | Red ink preceded by blue paraphs. |
Running Titles: | Red ink preceded by blue paraphs. |
Table of Contents: | In a different contemporary hand on f2. |
Title by Scribe: | Titles of individual pieces carefully entered by the scribe in red ink. |
Borders: | On f15r a single three-quarter border tied in to a 7-line capital |
Paragraph Marks: | Blue and unadorned. |
Flourished Initials: | Blue with red flourishing extending up and down the margins to begin new items. Red tipping of many upper case letters mainly at the beginning of lines. |
Miscellaneous Info: | Coat of Arms of John Stanley of Hooton, Cheshire, Usher of the Chamber and Serjeant of the Armoury (d. 1469). Also owned MS. Harley 6163 (a book of Arms?) |
Further Information: | A separate hand copies Table of Contents and corrections. On f14v a full page illustration of the 'Complaint of Mars and Venus' which begins on f15. On f1 'Anno 1450'. See intro to facsimile for further information. |