Important Notice: This site will be taken offline in July 2026.
The data from this project will remain available through our data archive at
https://www.dhi.ac.uk/data/medievalscribes
Manuscript Description Scotland, Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Library MS 123 | |
| Title: | Miscellany of which f10v-31 is the Astrolabe |
| Author: | Chaucer |
| Contents: | Moral tales in Latin; Latin theological notes; Astrolabe, 10v-30v part only; Seneca De Quattour virtutibus cardinalis |
| 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.                 |
| Dialect: | N. Midland. Parts of MS written in Cheshire ca.1400 |
| Material: | Combination |
| No of Folios: | ii + 161 + ii |
| Pagination: | Pencil foliation put in when the manuscript was reformed with paper mounts. |
| Quiring: | 8s with parchment inner and outer bifolia of each quire; paper leaves within now remounted. |
| Signatures: | None remain |
| Catchwords: | None remain |
| Page Size: | 220 x 140 for parchment leaves |
| Frame: | 2 x vertical; 2 x horizontal brown crayon |
| Writing Space: | Varies 160-170 x 115 |
| Incipits and Explicits: | On f30v, 'Explicit liber qui vocatur bred & milk' |
| Marginal Headings: | Many of the outside borders of the paper folios have crumbled away. A remnant on f17r (parchment) has '2 pars' in the right margin in the ink of the text and the hand of the scribe, underlined with red sleigh feature. |
| Title by Scribe: | In red ink in hand of scribe 'Bred & mylk for chyldryn' on f 10v. |
| Paragraph Marks: | Red and unadorned; red tipping of some letters within the text. |
| Flourished Initials: | Red unflourished lombard initials to begin sections in Astrolabe |
| Further Information: | Ker, N.R., Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries', Vol. II, Abbotsford to Keele, (Oxford 1977); Seymour, M.C., A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts', (Ashgate Publ., 1995); Robbins, R.H, 'Mirth in Manuscripts', in 'Essays and Studies' (1968.2). |