Manuscript Description Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury School, Confessio Amantis Fragment | |
| MS Appellation: | Gower's Confessio Amantis, Shrewsbury Fragment |
| Title: | Confessio Amantis |
| Author: | Gower |
| Contents: | fragment preserves side 1, col. A: Prologue, lines 189-95 plus ten lines of Latin side 1, col. B: Prologue 224-244 side 2, col. A: Prologue 274-94 side 2, col. B: Prologue 324-43 |
| Language: | English and Latin |
| Datable: | First quarter of the 15th century according to Macaulay |
| Scribal Hands: | Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                 |
| Material: | Parchment |
| No of Folios: | One folio |
| Page Size: | 293 x 380 |
| Frame: | 7-8 verticals either side of two columns and narrower columns for glosses on each side; probably 4 x horizontal of which only the two enclosing bottom line survive; may have been another two for running titles; ruled within columns for text but not glossing columns; fine gray lines. |
| Marginal Headings: | Rubric heading and stroke of red as highlight for initial of each line. |
| Flourished Initials: | 3-line blue Lombard 'T' on side 1. On side 2, col. 2, is a 1-line red initial with blue penwork decoration in a style slightly unusual for London in 15th c. |
| Other Names (not owners): | 'Slaughten' or 'Slaughton' several times on side 1, written in a post-medieval hand; numbers '4229' and '1663' near top right of side 2. Bottom margin side 1 written 'Medsens for horses' in 16th c. hand (content of booklet of which this was used as a wrapper?) |
| Further Information: | Letters from scholars including Macaulay who examined it, kept with the fragment. |