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 London, British Library MS Sloane 1685 | |
| MS Appellation: | Sl1 (Manly and Rickert) |
| Title: | Canterbury Tales |
| Author: | Chaucer |
| Contents: | Canterbury Tales |
| 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.               Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.              Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.              |
| Dialect: | Staffs |
| Material: | Parchment |
| No of Folios: | 1-223 |
| Pagination: | Old foliation in red ink. |
| Quiring: | 8's. One quire lost at the beginning. 1(7 i missing), 2 (7 vii missing), 3(7 i missing), 4-8(8), 9(6 ii and iii missing), 10(8), 11(7 vi missing), 12-15(8), 16(7 vi missing), 17(6 iv and viii missing), 18(8), 19(7 iii missing), 20-29(8). Some missing leaves have been replaced but are not included in the foliation. |
| Signatures: | Some signatures eg 'e' in the fifth quire. |
| Catchwords: | Some catchwords in text ink, others in red ink. |
| Page Size: | 305 x 205 |
| Frame: | Brown ink frame 2 x vertical 4 x horizontal with ruling within. Pricking still visible. |
| Writing Space: | 200 x 125 |
| Incipits and Explicits: | In Latin and English and preceded by blue paraphs with red flourishing. |
| Marginal Headings: | In Wife of Bath's Tale and Monk's Tale marginal glosses in red ink also preceded by blue paraphs flourished with red. |
| Running Titles: | Red titles preceded by blue paraphs flourished with red ink on both rectos and versos. Running titles for Gamelyn in dark ink. |
| Illuminated Initials: | 4-6-line gold initials on ground of blue and pinkwith champe decoration to begin tales. |
| Paragraph Marks: | Blue with red flourishing. |
| Flourished Initials: | 2-4-line blue initials flourished with red mark other textual divisions. |
| Other Names (not owners): | There are many other names in the manuscript and Manly and Rickert provide a convincing exploration of their connections from the time of T Neuill. When in Sloane's ownership, the manuscript was lent to Urry (f223). |
| Further Information: | Manly and Rickert I: 504-509. Seymour II: 143-146. |