Manuscript Description London, British Library MS Egerton 2726 | |
MS Appellation: | En1 (Manly and Rickert) |
Title: | Canterbury Tales |
Author: | Chaucer |
Contents: | Canterbury Tales |
Language: | English |
Date Range: | 1425-1450 |
Scribal Hands: | Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Dialect: | LP : 6150; County : Essex |
Material: | Parchment |
No of Folios: | i marbled flyleaf + ii paper flyleaves + 1-270 + i older paper flyleaf + vi paper flyleaves + i marbled flyleaf |
Pagination: | At least two modern foliations, one in blue pencil now cancelled in upper outer corners recto and newer one in grey pencil just beneath; an even earlier foliation in red, usually on verso in top left corner, goes up to 106; there is then an 18th century addition of 8 leaves and what is now f64r has the number 126 in the top right corner also in the same red; thereafter no more red numbers. |
Quiring: | 1-6(8), 7(6), 8(8) + 8 leaves (added by Timothy Thomas), 9-33(8) + 1 leaf (also 18th century) |
Signatures: | None visible. |
Catchwords: | From f102v with half sleigh underline and 'ex' attached to concave left side of sleigh. |
Page Size: | 330 x 205 |
Frame: | 2 x vertical and 3 x horizontal; two top horizontals contain top line; traces of ruling scarce but some in brown and grey. |
Writing Space: | 225 x 135 |
Incipits and Explicits: | In both Latin and English by each scribe and showing some originality of expression. |
Running Titles: | None |
Paragraph Marks: | None in either verse or prose. |
Flourished Initials: | Blue ink initial capitals for most divisions of the text with red flourishing; other textual divisions marked in same way with smaller capitals. |
Other Names (not owners): | On f1r Manly and Rickert suggest the name 'Brotherton', 'written as an owner might write'. Unfortunately this is no longer visible. On f158v is a reference to 'my lord Cobham'. 'Radolphus Pe...?' occurs on f229. |
Miscellaneous Info: | Initial letters of folios by what may be the second scribe are elaborately decorated in the ink of the text rather like many in the Letter books; some have faces and on 126v is a face on the left side of the catchword sleigh which is then repeated as decoration of the first letter of the following folio. |
Further Information: | Manly and Rickert vol. I, 130-135. Seymour vol. II, 103-107. |