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Manuscript Description
London, British Library MS Additional 23002
 
Title:Astrolabe
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Astrolabe ff3-30
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.
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Material:Parchment
No of Folios:2 modern flyleaves + iv + 53 + iii + 3 modern flyleaves
Pagination:Older ink foliation in top right corner is now superseded by pencil foliation from the nineteenth century which uses two of the flyleaves for notes and begins numbering the actual text at 3 instead of 1.
Quiring:8's but quires are now all mounted separately.
Signatures:In quire 2 there is evidence of Arabic numbering in the bottom right corner of f11 where there may be a (1) and on f12 there is a definite (2). However on f24 in bottom right corner is what may be a 3. Perhaps each quaternium was numbered as per the existing numerals at the beginning of quires in which case the number which appears to be 1 on f11 may be the top of a trimmed 2.
Catchwords:On 10v, 18v and 26v to the right of the text box in the lower margin. The catchword on f10v is followed by two parallel lines, that on 18v is preceded by double parallel lines and followed by a single line. On f26v the catchword is both preceded and followed by two parallel lines.
Page Size:190 x 130
Frame:2 x horizontal, 2 x vertical
Writing Space:140 x 90
Flourished Initials:Space left but no initials worked on. Only tiny guide letters remain.
Other Names (not owners):On 19th century flyleaf a note 'Purchd at Mr D. (/)Turner's sale 8th June 1859. /Lot314/5(/). On the flyleaf numbered 1 is a note included by F. Palgrave in Dec. 1842 describing the four treatises which make up the manuscript. On flyleaf numbered 2 is a pen-drawn frame containing a description of the contents of the volume in Latin, written in 1637. The same hand occurs again on f29 where the writer identifies himself as J. Cobbes or J. Dobbes with the date 1637.
Miscellaneous Info:Affiliated Digby 72, Ashmole 360, Egerton 2622. The only red in the manuscript is where the BL have stamped the folios!!
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP