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
Scotland, Glasgow, Glasgow University Library MS Hunter 409 (V.3.7)
 
MS Appellation:The Romaunt of the Rose
Title:Romaunt of the Rose
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Romaunt of the Rose (incomplete)
Language:English and French
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
****************

Material:Parchment
No of Folios:1 marbled flyleaf + iv paper flyleaves + 150 vellum + 1 mutilated original vellum flyleaf + 1 original vellum flyleaf + ii paper flyleaves + i marbled flyleaf
Pagination:Modern pencil foliation in top right corner.
Quiring:8s
Signatures:On present f7 a modern B1 and on f15r C1; on f23r is D1 and visible in the bottom right corner the original 'd' of the medieval numbering; thereafter medieval signatures visible in almost every quire sufficient to establish that they were put in by the scribe himself; for example on f60 the scribe uses upper case 'I' with shadow exactly as in the text; there is no 'j', 'k' is not visible because of cropping, 'l' on f74 then upper case M, N, o, p, q, r and nothing more visible until 'vi' on f146r.
Catchwords:Regular catchwords in the hand of the scribe in various places in the wide lower margin; some are centrally placed, others are closer to the right margin.
Page Size:270 x 195
Frame:2 x verical; 2 x horizontal; ruling within in red/purple ink; pricking visible on almost every folio.
Writing Space:147 x 100
Incipits and Explicits:Explicit on present f150 which may or may not be in the hand of the scribe.
Marginal Headings:On f90 in red ink in the body of the text 'Coment Raisoun' and 'Vient a lamant
thereafter 'Raisoun' and 'Lamant' are identified in red ink; on f102v they appear in the margin.
Running Titles:From f115v the title 'ffalsemblant occurs on recto and verso underlined in red ink and on some folios preceded by a gold paraph.
Borders:On f57v a beautiful bar border of blue and gold tied in to a 4-line illuminated initial; blue, pink, dark green; sprays into top and bottom margins.
Illuminated Initials:No illuminated letters in the first quire; thereafter 2-line illuminated initials gold letter on blue and pink parti-coloured ground; sprays from letter extend up and down left margin usually with a pair of coloured balls on each side close to the letter with a final coloured ball at each end of the spray; green leaves abound with a pair of gold balls amongst them on each side of the letter; on f57v a 4-line initial, pink on gold ground with dark blue.
Paragraph Marks:Gold unflourished paraphs precede some running titles, otherwise none.
Other Names (not owners):Thomas Martin of Palgrave; on flyleaf 'Tho. Martin. Ex Dono Domini Jacobi Sturgeon de Bury sancti Edmundi in agro Suffolciensi: Artis Chirurgicae Periti Nov. 9 1720. On f2r 'Thomas Griggs possessor huius libri' (15-16th c)? On f71r 'Be it better be it worse ffather and mother my dewly loyll consyderayioun And I have Jhames bynge Jhon Rygeman (16th c?). On f150r Wylliam Ball flytewoddes Chamber; on f151r Robert bromfeld; on f151v, the name 'Edmund' and several drawings of heads and five lines of a poem.
Further Information:On the first of the iv paper flyleaves in Thomas Martin's hand is : 'This fair copy of Chaucers Romaunt of the Rose is curtaild of the first Leaf, not unlikely for the sake of Some fair Imbellishment which was Illuminated at the Beginning of the Book. It begins at the 45th Line, in Urrey's Edit. (pag. 215) 'so mokil prise' etc'. Below this is a cutting from a sale catalogue: CHAUCER'S ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE; a most beautiful MSS on vellum exceedingly well preserv'd with the Initials neatly illuminated with Flowers, and other Devices in Gold and beautiful Colours, in 297 Pages'. For bibliography and full description of this manuscript go to http:special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/detaild.cfm?DID=33474
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP