Advanced Search   *   Manuscripts   *   Scribes   *   Authors   *   Letters
Home   *   About the Project   *   Bibliography
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
Find What? Search by
Manuscript Description
Cambridge, Cambridge University Library MS Dd.4.24
 
MS Appellation:Dd (Manly and Rickert)
Title:Canterbury Tales
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Canterbury Tales
Language:English
Date Range:1390-1420
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
****************

Dialect:Chaucerian/Cambs
Material:Paper and parchment
No of Folios:7 modern paper + 1 modern parchment + 205 + 9 paper stubs numbered 206-215 + 1 modern parchment numbered 216 + 1 older blank parchment numbered 217 + 9 modern paper.
Pagination:Fols. 1-49 have foliation in middle of right margin recto as 'fo'. + lower case roman numerals. Modern pencil foliation in arabic numerals 1-217.
Quiring:24s with inner and outer bifolia of quires as parchment leaves.
Signatures:Few remains of signatures, 'ff' on f30, 'h' on f32, pencil 'cj' on f49 and medieval arabic numbers 1-11 on ff49-59. 'ej' in pencil on f97 and medieval 'aj' through 'a xij' on ff97-108 each with 'us' abbreviation after. Some of the 'b' plus roman numerals survive on ff121-132, and some 'c' plus roman numerals on ff145-156, with 'd's after f168.
Catchwords:By scribe sometimes in black box preceded by red paraph.
Page Size:Irregular but c. 280-290 x 120-130
Frame:Square, pale crayon or drypoint. Top line of frame is top of minim height of top line. No ruling nor is there pricking on the parchment.
Writing Space:220 x 125
Incipits and Explicits:Latin in spaces left for them in black ink.
Running Titles:No running heads.
Paragraph Marks:Blue or red paraphs precede the names of the Pilgrims in the General Prologue. Alternating blue and red paraphs beside glosses which extend down the left edge of the gloss in a double tail.
Flourished Initials:2-4-line blue lombard initials with red pen-work
Other Names (not owners):Richard Mervyn' on f38, 16th cent. 'Quod Wytton' on f47.
Further Information:Manly, John M. and Rickert, E. The Text of the Canterbury Tales, 8 vols, vol. I, 100-107. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940. Seymour, M. C. A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts, vol. 2, The Canterbury Tales, pp. 43-47. Aldershot, Hants: Scolar Press, 1997.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP