Manuscript Description NewYork, NY, Pierpont Morgan Library & Museum MS M 818 | |
| MS Appellation: | olim Harmsworth, Ingilby |
| Title: | Piers Plowman, A Version |
| Author: | Langland |
| Contents: | On ff1-5, Epistle of Susannah; ff5v-15v, Rolle's Form of Living, including two devotional lyrics; ff16-54v Langland, Piers Plowman; after PP on f54v, Latin notes on number of parishes, knights' fees, etc. in England in red and brown inks by original scribe, noting the tax that could be collected from them. |
| Language: | English and Latin |
| Date Range: | Library dates as 15th c. However, possibly earlier. |
| Scribal Hands: | Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                 |
| Dialect: | LP : 510; County : S Lincs |
| Material: | Paper |
| No of Folios: | 54 plus three stubs after 54, some stubs elsewhere for missing leaves, see collation below; no flyleaves, just these paper leaves and cover. |
| Pagination: | Modern pencil; an original set numbered Piers booklet separately, so began again at 1 on f16 and continued to '39' at f54. These have been crossed through and replaced with 16-54 in smaller numbers usually above and to right, closer into corner. |
| Quiring: | All same scribe but clearly originally separate booklets 16 210-1 / 312-1 4-512 64-2 |
| Signatures: | No signatures |
| Catchwords: | By the scribe centred bottom of page very near lower edge (uncropped) and several words, eg f40v 'haue as pleyn pardoun'. |
| Page Size: | ff1-15 are 221 x 145; ff16-54 are 216 x 145 |
| Frame: | Left margin in dry point, otherwise used chain lines. |
| Writing Space: | In Piers, 197 x 105 though many lines shorter than this and a few longer. |
| Paragraph Marks: | In Susanna, red paraphs at beginnings of stanzas and red touching for initials each line and a few of the rhyme markings are in red; in Form of Living, on f5v, red paraph marks at beginnings of sentences and occasional red touching of initials, red 'Amen' at end. |
| Flourished Initials: | In Form of Living, one-line red initial 'I' at beginning. |
| Other Names (not owners): | Robert Whytell, 16th century; Sir Henry Ingilby, of Ripley Castle / Fountains Abbey; his sale (London, Sotheby's, Oct. 21, 1920, lot 47) to Quaritch; Sir R. Leicester Harmsworth; purchased at the Harmsworth sale (London, Sotheby's, Oct. 15, 1945, lot 1983) in 1945 (quoted from on-line Corsair catalogue). |
| Miscellaneous Info: | Ms miscellany of prose and poetry; written in northern England, possibly in Yorkshire, in the mid 15th century. Watermarks on ff4-3, 9-14, 8-15, 41-52, 53-54 all relate to Briquet 11664-11728. This manuscript contains the earliest known version of the A text of Piers Plowman (all these lines quoted from on-line Corsair catalogue description of the MS). |
| Further Information: | Soft leather binding sewn to cloth as inside liner or cover to the leather binding. |