Manuscript Description London, Lincoln's Inn Library MS Hale 150 | |
| Title: | Piers Plowman, A Version |
| Author: | Langland |
| Contents: | Langland, Piers Plowman, A-text, fragment, ff109-125v; at end of volume of ME romances, Libeaus Desconus, [Arthur and] Merlin, Alysaunder, Bellum Trojanum/Batayle of Troye |
| Language: | English and Latin |
| Date Range: | Script of late 14th ' early 15th cc. |
| Scribal Hands: | Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                 |
| Dialect: | LP : 4037; County : SW Salop |
| Material: | Parchment |
| No of Folios: | 2 paper flyleaves + inserted half-leaf + stub + 1 parchment flyleaf partly cut away and partly eaten by animals + parchment text block, 125 fols + stub and parchment leaf + 2 paper flyleaves |
| Pagination: | Modern pencil in upper outer corners recto, 1-125; older roman foliation beginning each text, so eg LXIII on f90 (and more modern pencil notation below and to left of this, '63 folios also modern notation of pages, similarly out of sync with modern foliation, eg 'page 90' on f72v. |
| Quiring: | 12s |
| Catchwords: | By scribe on last leaf, verso each quire, half way down margin but running into gutter, several words surrounded by a box in same ink, sometimes eg with minimal decoration at corners as the trefoils on f85v; in Piers on ff109v, 121v. |
| Page Size: | holster book: c. 310 x 135 |
| Frame: | Simple rectangle with lines extending to edges of page, not ruled, plummet which has mostly disappeared due to dirt and wear; for some texts including Piers, no sign of right margin/frame line but if there is one the scribe ignores it writing up to gutter or close to outer edge. |
| Writing Space: | 263 x c.100 |
| Incipits and Explicits: | Explicits by scribe, eg 'þe batayle of Troye' on f108v; the titles and some explicits added by a near-contemporary 15th-century hand in darker ink, eg 'Explicit Alisaunder' on f90 and 'Plowman Piers' on f109r at top. |
| Marginal Headings: | Latin in Piers, written slightly larger and more bold than the English. |
| Flourished Initials: | Spaces left for initials not filled; a few leaves have yellow wash covering the initials of each line, drawn in a single stroke along left margin. |
| Other Names (not owners): | Note in contemporary 15th c. hand on f72v upper margin, 'Summa v c [hundred] ml [=thousand] & lxxxx m [=thousand, though 'l' not added superscript] & iiij ml [=thousand], so in modern arabic 594,000; another similar note by scribe or contemporary in lower margin f47r, Summa darie ccc ml & x // xl ml catell super olifans qui qualicet hunri[..] xij ml / Summa alisaundre c ml & iiij ml'. Names: front parchment flyleaf, verso, 'James fafre(?)', 16th c?; indult added a mercer's mark (?) and 'Anthony ffoster de Trettenam (?) and 'mi Cosyn [']' in hand of 15th century. |
| Further Information: | Catalogue of manuscripts in Lincoln's Inn Hale collection no. 150. |