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Manuscript Description London, British Library MS Harley 3943 | |
| Title: | Troilus and Criseyde |
| Author: | Chaucer |
| Contents: | Troilus and Criseyde |
| Language: | English |
| Date Range: | 1400-1425 |
| 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.                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 6030; County: Essex |
| Material: | Parchment |
| No of Folios: | 116 |
| Pagination: | Modern pencil foliation top outer corner recto. |
| Quiring: | 14 quires of 8 (quire 8 missing 2 folios), quire 15 (6). |
| Signatures: | None although Books are numbered in roman numerals in the top margin of recto folios. After f71, cropping has removed them. |
| Catchwords: | By the scribe with initial touched with red and in elaborate though crude scrolls. |
| Page Size: | 256 x 142 |
| Frame: | Square in brown crayon sometimes with extra horizontals to enclose top or top and bottom lines; ruling for stanza space but not for individual lines. |
| Writing Space: | 200 x 90 |
| Incipits and Explicits: | None except on f116 at the end is 'Troilus adest inete [or mete] / Venerit explicit ergo valete'. |
| Flourished Initials: | 3-line plain red lombard initial at beginning of each book; alternating red and blue 1-line lombard initials for each stanza; tops of lines are extended and decorated with loops or strapwork; descenders from bottom line in looped curves, some with strapwork. |
| Miscellaneous Info: | 4; Hand A copied ff1-1v, 68-70v; Hand B copied ff2-7v, 9-56v, 63-67v and is the HM114 scribe; Hand C copied ff57-62v; Hand D copied ff71-116 and is the Exeter College 129 scribe. |
| Further Information: | Harley Catalogue. Seymour I. 72-73. |