Manuscript Description London, British Library, Royal 18 B.XVII | |
| Title: | Piers Plowman, C version |
| Author: | Langland |
| Contents: | Alliterative text on the Crede and Piers Plowman, C version |
| Language: | English and Latin |
| Date Range: | 16th century script throughout MS. |
| 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: | 1 marbled + 1 plain paper flyleaves + 1 parchment flyleaf with stain on recto showing once up against turnings of leather cover + 122 parchment leaves + 1 parchment originally blank with stains on verso showing once against turnings of cover (foliated 123) + 2 plain paper and 1 marbled paper flyleaves |
| Pagination: | Modern pencil 1-123 not counting the front parchment flyleaf but counting the back one. |
| Quiring: | 8s |
| Catchwords: | None |
| Page Size: | 290 x 222 |
| Frame: | 2 x vertical left and right, 1 x horizontal at top, with text written on this top line as a base line; no ruling within, no pricking; brownish plummet. |
| Writing Space: | varies, c. 243 x 156 |
| Incipits and Explicits: | Only 'Explicit passus secundus de dobeste' on f122v. |
| Marginal Headings: | By the scribe as he wrote, in larger and bolder, more formal (secretary formata) text and underlined. |
| Flourished Initials: | No coloured ink in this manuscript; slightly enlarged and bold initials at top of each page; headings and Latin lines of Piers written larger in bolder more formal secretary script and underlined, but all in black ink. |
| Other Names (not owners): | On f123 (flyleaf at end) originally blank has 'rychard wyches constatt notes on front flyleaf verso in 16th-century script but different from scribe's tell which months to plant which seeds, in English, headed 'Sesouns of Seedes'. |
| Further Information: | Royal catalogue |