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Manuscript Description
London, British Library MS Sloane 1686
 
MS Appellation:Sl2 (Manly and Rickert)
Title:Canterbury Tales
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Canterbury Tales
Language:English
Date Range:1475-1500
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:Norfolk
Material:Paper
No of Folios:1-295
Pagination:Modern foliation.
Quiring:8's 1(6 i and viii missing), 2-27(8), 28(7 iii missing), 29-31(8), 32(4), 33-37(8), 38(6 i and viii missing)
Signatures:Original signatures as far as f241.
Catchwords:Catchwords regularly found, some in red ink with occasional underline in red.
Page Size:275 x 180
Frame:Ruled in grey plummet. 2 x vertical and 2 or 3 x horizontal. If 3 horizontals are ruled, there are 2 at the top enclosing the first line.
Writing Space:160 x 115
Marginal Headings:Latin glosses in Man of Law's Tale in red ink copied within the text not in margins.
Running Titles:In the ink of the text in a display script but often missing the initial letter which was left for the rubricator. Some tales have odd titles such as 'Theseus' for Knight's Tale, and '[D]origen' for the Franklin's Tale.
Flourished Initials:Blue with red flourishing much faded. Upper case letters at the beginning of lines and catchwords are tipped with red.
Other Names (not owners):On f1r is the name 'Will Walter'. See Manly and Rickert I: 514 for their speculation about Walter's identity. By 1712 it was in the possession of Sloane who apparently then lent it to Urry.
Further Information:Manly and Rickert I:510-514. Seymour II: 146-150.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP