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Manuscript Description
Scotland, Glasgow, Glasgow University Library MS Hunter 367 (V.1.4)
 
MS Appellation:G (Waldron)
Title:Polychronicon
Author:Trevisa
Contents:Trevisa, Dialogue of the Lord and the Clerk; Trevisa, translation of Higden's Polychronicon; (version A Waldron)
Language:English
Date Range:1440-1465 (Waldron)
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:
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:2 brand new blank parchment flyleaves + textblock of 209 leaves + 2 brand new blank parchment flyleaves
Pagination:Early foliation in ink in the centre of the top margin of the versos. Modern pencil foliation of which one set numbers COLUMNS, with arabic numbers above right corner of second columns each page, so '508' on f124vb and '510' on f125rb; another set in far upper outer corners recto foliating the leaves that remain (Young & Aitken say originally 216, not 209).
Quiring:8s with some missing leaves.
Signatures:Signatures of letters plus arabic numbers 1 to 4 in first half of quires, lower right corner rectos, first surviving being 'b2' on f8 (first of this quire cut out, stub between 7 and 8); sometimes in romans instead, as 'z iij' on f180; after 'z', quires have symbol or squiggle instead, followed by arabic numbers.
Catchwords:By the scribe, 2/3 across second column and about 3/4 down lower margin, in same size and ink as text, with geometric scroll around in hairline drawing, up at right, down at left.
Page Size:360 x 255
Frame:4 x vertical enclosing two columns; 4 x horizontal enclosing top and bottom lines, ruled within columns, very fine, very faint grey lines; pricking survives in occasional quires on sides and in others at bottom only.
Writing Space:246 x 74 per column; 246 x 157 overall
Incipits and Explicits:On f208vb is a large brown ink explicit by scribe, 'Explicit Liber Qui Vocatur Policronica siue Policronicon' and at the end of the Index is 'Explicit Tabula Sup(er) libris Historie Policronice'.
Index:Alphabetical index at end, ff203-209.
Marginal Headings:Enlarged and more formal script, bastard anglicana, for headings by scribe in same ink as text, for example 'Explicit liber secundus / Incipit liber tercius' on f56.
Running Titles:Blue and red upper case Roman numbers in upper margins to mark book, so 'L' on verso sides and a number on rectos, for example 'III' on f87.
Borders:On f1 a full bar border down left side of page in blue, rose and white but then just sprays filling top and bottom margins. Similar letters and borders at beginnings of other books, for example at the beginning of book III on f56.
Illuminated Initials:On f1, 6-line blue and rose initial with white highlighting creating incised pattern, on gold ground with pink, blue and green foliage pattern inside letter with white highlighting. Similar letters and borders at beginnings of other books, for example at the beginning of book III on f56. 4-line gold initials on blue and rose grounds with white highlighting. Small illuminated initials for each new letter of the index.
Paragraph Marks:Blue and gold in first quire, thereafter red and blue alternating with occasional gold.
Other Names (not owners):The end of the text on f202vb reads, ''God be thanked of all his dedes this translacion is ended in a Thursday þe eghtenth day of Aueril: the yere of our lord a thousand thre hundred four score and seuen. The tenth yere of Kyng Richard the second after the conquest of englond. The yere of my lordis age Sir Thomas lord of berkeley that made me make this translacion fyue and thritty Amen Amen Amen', followed by the explicit as above.
Miscellaneous Info:Newly rebound in white leather on boards. The reference by Doyle to the 'hand or hands' in the manuscript is very appropriate. There appear to be three different styles in the manuscript which could be three separate hands or could equally well be a single scribe copying portions of the text over a considerable amount of time and selecting a different set of graphs. In the hand analysis, an attempt has been made to comment on the similarities and differences between the three.
Further Information:Young & Aitken, 293-4; Ronald Waldron, John Trevisa's Translation of the Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden, Book VI, Middle English Texts 35(2004), pp. xxiv-xxv. Re dating; Young and Aitken believed it to be late 14th century. This was challenged by A.I. Doyle who dates it to the mid fifteenth century, referring to the 'hand or hands'.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP