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Manuscript Description
England, York, University of York, Borthwick Institute for Archives, Add. 196
 
MS Appellation:olim Eaton Hall, Duke of Westminster; now privately owned, temporary deposit at Borthwick Institute; W (Kane)
Title:Piers Plowman, AC hybrid
Author:Langland
Contents:Piers Plowman AC splice
Language:English and Latin
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:3 parchment flyleaves + 76 + 2 parchment stubs and 1 parchment flyleaf
Pagination:Medieval foliation in upper outer corners recto, 'ff' plus roman numerals; modern pencil foliation in arabic numbers also upper outer corners, further to right than original.
Quiring:8s: 9 quires of 8 plus one quire of 6
Catchwords:About half way down lower margin of last folio verso of each quire, and about 2/3 way across the page so well within frame lines; unembellished except initial touched with red, by scribe.
Page Size:278 x 193
Frame:2 x vertical, 4 x horizontal enclosing top and bottom lines, ruled within, pale brown ink, pricking in upper and outer margins of some folios survives.
Writing Space:200 x 140
Marginal Headings:Passus headings rubric until 29v, thereafter scribal keys provided but not completed in red; another set of Capituli headings to right of beginnings of the passus, in grey-brown ink, probably not the work of original scribe.
Paragraph Marks:Red paraphs; Latin lines underlined in red, and line-fillers (waving lines) in red in some parts of the manuscript, always after Latin lines; initials touched with red in some sections.
Flourished Initials:10-line red and blue initial on f1; thereafter plain 2-line red initials (sometimes in blue instead, eg ff55v, 65v).
Other Names (not owners):Added lines at end plus initials 'RH'. 'Margaret Littler' and 'Lyttler' on f17v, right margin. On f78v, signature of Richard Grosvenor, 17th c.
Further Information:Kane's 1960 edition of Piers Plowman A text, repeated virtually without change in Russell & Kane edition of the C-text in 1997.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP