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Manuscript Description
Wales, Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales MS Peniarth 393D
 
Title:Boethius
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Chaucer's translation of Boethius, Consolatio Philosophie.
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.
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Material:Parchment
No of Folios:27
Pagination:Modern pencil top right corner.
Quiring:1(7 i missing, ii partial leaf), 2(8), 3(5 i, iii, vii missing), 4(7 viii missing)
Signatures:No signatures visible.
Catchwords:Red boxes around catchwords which are by the scribe in the ink of the text; some boxes have double parentheses on the side.
Page Size:292 x 194
Frame:2 x vertical, 4 x horizontal, enclosing top and bottom lines; ruled; brown ink; pricking visible 2cm from edge in many places.
Writing Space:225 x 113
Incipits and Explicits:Red ink surround for explicits.
Marginal Headings:Red ink surround around marginal headings copied in the ink of the text.
Illuminated Initials:2-3-line gold on blue, rose ground; white highlights; gold balls and buds on sprays; no green. Similar initials begin each Book.
Paragraph Marks:Alternating red and blue paraphs introduce lesser divisions.
Flourished Initials:2-line blue Lombard initials with red pen-work define the different sections of the Books.
Other Names (not owners):'William Morris 1740' in the top right of the first folio. Below in the right margin are the initials E.I. On f27v in the lower margin is 'This Fragment of an Old English Mss was given me William Morris of Holyhead by Mr Edward Jones of Caernarvon, about the Year of Our Lord MDCCXXXVII'
Miscellaneous Info:The use of red ink in this manuscript may or may not be by the scribe himself. It is used to highlight headings, ascenders, catchwords, punctuation, interlinear glosses and red boxes around proper nouns in the text.
Further Information:With the manuscript are two letters dated 28th July, 1869 from F.J. Furnivall, one acknowledging that the Boethius is Chaucer's translation, and accompanied by the printed proofs of the transcription from William Morris's edition for the EETS.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP