Manuscript Description England, Longleat House, Marquess of Bath MS 257 | |
| MS Appellation: | Ll1 (Manly and Rickert) |
| Title: | Composite of two parts |
| Author: | Chaucer and Lydgate in Part 1. Part II contains paraphrases of Biblical passages which have been versified. |
| Contents: | Part 1: Seige of Thebes; Knight's Tale (or Arcite and Palomon ff53-77); Clerk's Tale (Grisild ff77v-89v); Ipomedon |
| Language: | English |
| Date Range: | 1450-1475 |
| Scribal Hands: | 1 for the whole of Part 1 containing the above texts. Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                 |
| Material: | Parchment |
| No of Folios: | ii + 98 + 80 |
| Pagination: | Bradshaw refoliated the manuscript but it has since been done again with missing folios accounted for in the new foliation. |
| Quiring: | Part 1: 1-3(8), 4(7 iv missing), 5-6(8), 7(4 i-iv missing), 8(8), 9(7 iv missing), 10(8), 11(4 i, ii, vii, viii missing) 12(8), 13(7 v missing), 14(5 ii, vii, viii missing). |
| Signatures: | Traces of two sets of signatures, one early in ink and a later one which may have been inserted when Bradshaw refoliated the manuscript. |
| Catchwords: | Most catchwords carried away by cropping. |
| Page Size: | 300 x 208 |
| Frame: | 2 x vertical 4 x horizontal; brown ink ruling. |
| Writing Space: | 205 x 115 |
| Incipits and Explicits: | 'Explicit Arcite and Palomon' on f77r and 'Explicit Grisild full of pacience' on f89v. 'Lenvoie Chaucer' also occurs on f89v. |
| Marginal Headings: | Page headings are rubricated in the first part of this manuscript. |
| Running Titles: | In red ink preceded by blue paraphs. 'Arcite and Palomon' for the Knight's Tale, 'Grisild' for the Clerk's Tale. |
| Borders: | Sprays of flowers and leaves extend into the margins from the decorated initials. |
| Illuminated Initials: | 8-12-line decorated initials originally containing shields, (now erased), begin different sections in the Siege of Thebes. An 11-line blue and white initial begins the Knight's Tale and a 7-line green initial with yellow opens the Clerk's Tale. The decoration is heavily executed with flowers and leaves in pink, blue, red, orange and green. |
| Paragraph Marks: | Blue paragraph marks in part 1. |
| Flourished Initials: | Flourishing or strapwork in the ink of the text decorate the initial capital on many folios and the initial letters of two explicits. Some blue capitals with red ink flourishing are used at textual divisions. |
| Other Names (not owners): | Manly and Rickert read 'hempton in the Co' on f107v. They then made associations with a priory of Austin Canons at Hempton in Norfolk whose patron in 1483 was Anthony Wydeville, related by marriage to Richard of Gloucester. From the evidence of an early pressmatk, Seymour suggests that the manuscript was acquired in the 16th century by either Sir John or William Thynne. |
| Further Information: | Manly and Rickert I: 339-342. Seymour I: 146-147. |