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Manuscript Description
Oxford, Christ Church MS 152
 
MS Appellation:Ch (Manly and Rickert)
Title:Canterbury Tales
Author:Chaucer, Hoccleve and Lydgate
Contents:Canterbury Tales ff2r-276r; Prologue of the Plowman (2 stanzas) followed by Miracle of the Virgin, ff228r-231r, Hoccleve (IMEV 4122); Churl and Bird, ff277r-281r; Siege of Thebes ff282r-342r
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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Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Dialect:Standardised/S.W./W.Mids
Material:Paper
No of Folios:2 newer paper flyleaves + 1 parchment leaf (f1) + 342 + 2 newer paper flyleaves
Pagination:Older modern ink foliation in upper outer corners recto superseded by newer pencil foliation in upper outer corners recto. Medieval signatures counting first ten folios of quires only, with lower case letter in upper outer corners recto and medieval arabic numbers for 1-10 in lower outer corners recto, e.g. 'f' in upper corner, '8' in lower corner of folio 119, continues to 'r'...'1' on fol. 311; modern signatures of lower case letter and roman numbers count all folios in quire, 1-20, in pencil in lower right corners of recto sides.
Quiring:20
Signatures:First ten folios have medieval signatures with lower case letter in upper outer corner recto, and medieval arabic numbers for 1-10 in lower outer corners recto. Thus for example 'f' in upper corner and '8' in lower corner of f119; modern signatures of lower case letter and roman numbers which count all the folios in the quire in pencil in lower right corner of rectos.
Catchwords:No catchwords
Page Size:290x206
Frame:Simple square, no ruling
Writing Space:210 x ca. 105
Incipits and Explicits:In red ink probably in the hand of the scribe
Marginal Headings:Rubric marginal headings for Pilgrims in General Prologue.
Table of Contents:Added to f1v by Hand 2.
Title by Scribe:'Incipit Tractatus Galfrid(i) Chaucer de Gestis Peregrino(rum) v(er)sus Cantuariam' in red ink at the top of the first folio.
Flourished Initials:1-5-line plain red lombard initials with no flourishing. Blue initials in Tale of Gamelyn.
Other Names (not owners):Johannis Peyto Verney / Baso? Willoughby de Broke A.D. 1769 on f1. On f342 is '105 Long / Liber' or possibly 'Hong?'On f72 is Crystiance A(?) Hong / Jong? On f72 also is Thomas Vause.
Miscellaneous Info:Hand 1 Canterbury Tales; Hand 2, Morganus Scribe? copies table of contents, Ploughman's Tale, corrections to CT text, Lydgate's Churl and Bird.
Further Information:Christ Church Catalogue. Manly, John and Rickert, E. The Text of the Canterbury Tales, 8 vols, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940. 1: 85-91. McCormick, Sir William and Janet E. Heseltine. The Manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Oxford: Clarendon, 1933. 77-84. Seymour, Michael C. A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts. Vol. II, The Canterbury Tales. Aldershot and Brookfield: Scolar Press, 1997. 197-201.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP