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Manuscript Description
Tokyo, Takamiya Collection MS 22
 
MS Appellation:olim Sion, Si (Manly and Rickert)
Title:Canterbury Tales
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Four tales only, Clerk, Wife of Bath, Friar and Summoner.
Language:English
Date Range:1450-1475
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Dialect:Warwicks
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:ii (old paper flyleaves) + 79 + ii (old paper flyleaves)
Pagination:Modern foliation
Quiring:1-9(8), 10(7 viii missing)
Signatures:There are visible remnants in each quire. Manly and Rickert suggest that the signatures begin with a cross, thus on f4, 'x iiij' is visible. They concluded from this that the four tales were once part of a larger manuscript. Seymour disagrees (II: 235).
Catchwords:Yes, but only one word used for the catchword usually positioned in the middle of the folio.
Page Size:215 x 160
Frame:Brown ink frame and ruled within.
Writing Space:130 x 90
Incipits and Explicits:In rubric by the scribe
Flourished Initials:Three-line red ink initials begin prologues and tales, the first being flourished in the brown text ink.
Other Names (not owners):On f 78 the names of 'william Cooke' and 'Morris Barckley' occur in one of several memoranda. The conjunction of the two names led Manly and Rickert to suggest early ownership in the Berkeley family. The possible connection of the Berkeleys and the Cokes (who were from Norfolk) could be related to the affiliations of some tales with the Gg manuscript. Sold by Sotheby's in 1977 and passed on to Takamiya.
Further Information:Manly and Rickert I: 501-503. Seymour II: 235-237. See Takamiya list in Marrow et al., The Medieval Book
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP