Manuscript Description London, Institution of Engineering and Technology Library, MS Thompson 1 | |
| Title: | Astrolabe |
| Author: | Chaucer |
| Contents: | Chaucer, Treatise on the Astrolabe, ff17v-30r; other contents: Petrus Peregrinus, Tractatus magnetis (ff1-6), Tractatus arsmetrie (ff6r-12v), Tractatus veteris quadrantis (ff12v-17). |
| Language: | English |
| Scribal Hands: | Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                 |
| Dialect: | Seymour dates 1450-1475. |
| Material: | Parchment |
| No of Folios: | 31 |
| Quiring: | 8s except last which is 10 |
| Catchwords: | Single catchword on f21 |
| Page Size: | 240 x 165 |
| Frame: | Dry-point, frame ruled within; pricking visible at edges of pages. |
| Writing Space: | 165 x 110 |
| Marginal Headings: | Rubrics in slightly larger display script. |
| Title by Scribe: | Title on f17v, 'Astralabium' |
| Flourished Initials: | Blue lombard initials, 3-6 lines, with red penwork flourishing at beginnings of each work; 2-line blue initials with red flourishing for divisions within texts; rubrics. |
| Other Names (not owners): | From Seymour: on f30 'Iohannes Alkoe' and 'Robertus Naylond'. f31v 'Thys boke parteyneth to Willyam Sewerd Witnes Iohn Ramsey' and 'Thys boke parteynis to Iohn Ramsey'. Owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps (d. 1872), in whose library it was MS. 1955, and sold 1898 to Quaritch, whence to Silvanus Thompson whose collection of 5 MSS was bought by the Institution in 1918. See Ker, MMBL, 1.89. |
| Miscellaneous Info: | Based on Michael Seymour's 'Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts', vol. 1, p. 120, from which the following notes; East Midlands dialect (according to Seymour). In contemporary limp parchment binding. Seymour notes incomplete copy: missing from II.18 to II.22 after f20, probably missing a folio; ends at end of II.35. Seymour notes that it has no diagrams, text closely affiliated to Rawlinson D.3. NB the BL has set of positive photostats of Astrolabe portion, MS. Fac. 500. |
| Further Information: | M. C. Seymour, A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts: Volume I, Works before the Canterbury Tales. Aldershot, Hants, Scolar Press, 1995. page 120. |