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Manuscript Description
Europe, Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale MS 4862-9
 
Title:Astrolabe
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Nicholas of Lynn, Calendar for latitude of Oxford; various other items; Astrolabe (ff75-95)
Language:English
Date Range:1425-1440
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Material:Parchment
No of Folios:i + 95 + ii
Pagination:?Modern
Quiring:8s: Seymour's collation: 1-48 58 + 1 (f.47), 6-88, 98 + 1 (inset after f. 66), 10-118, 128 (wants 6-8).
Signatures:Seymour notes, 'relics of numbered signatures'.
Catchwords:Only on ff82, 90.
Page Size:225 x 150
Frame:Frame and ruling in drypoint.
Writing Space:155 x 100
Incipits and Explicits:No title on Treatise on the Astrolabe, ends without explicit: Seymour writes, 'Ends one-third down f96v rekene hir verray mevynge by thi tables hour after hour (i.e. II.40). Adds a unique lengthy example to II.36. 19 blank spaces left for diagrams.
Borders:Three-quarter border begins each item, sprays with gold, blue and red in upper and lower margins.
Illuminated Initials:Decorated initials.
Miniatures:On ff60v and 67 drawings of blood-letting man and Zodiac man, the latter with a smaller drawn man dressed in clothing of c. 1430 between his legs. Seymour says English style of decoration, c. 1430, 'possibly London'
Flourished Initials:Sub-headings begin with 3-line red or blue initials with red infill and flourishing extending into margin.
Other Names (not owners):Seymour notes its ownership unknown before given to Library in the 18th century.
Miscellaneous Info:Seymour notes, 'Closely affiliated to MS Rawlinson D 913'.
Further Information:Seymour, Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts, vol. 1, page 111 (whole description on this one page); Sigmund Eisner, ed., The Kalendarium of Nicholas of Lynn (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press for the Chaucer Library, 1980), p. 37.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP