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Manuscript Description
England, London, British Library MS Harley 4789
 
Title:De Proprietatibus Rerum
Author:Trevisa's translation of Bartholomeus
Contents: Trevisa, translation of Bartholomeus, De Proprietatibus Rerum
Language:English
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Dialect:S.E. Cambs
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:4 heavy paper flyleaves matching pastedown + older 1 paper flyleaf with shelf mark at top recto + 1-286 + 4 heavy paper flyleaves match pastedown
Pagination:Modern pencil foliation in upper outer corners recto, 1-286.
Quiring:8s
Signatures:Signatures all survive, two sets toward beginning of volume, one in red and one in black, both contemporary. The red signatures begin with cross in first quire, followed by roman numbers, eg '+ij' on f2' the next quire is 'a', then 'b', and so on to 'e
then the red ones stop. Black signatures begin with 'a' in first quire, in form of 'fo. io a', fo. Ijo a' and so forth; they have b for second quire (red a), c for third (red b), til 'e' in fifth (red d) and then mistakenly repeats 'e' in sixth quire (red e), and after that has only 'fo io', 'fo ijo' etc. without a letter. But possibly this same black hand is writing the letter for quire right at right edge of pages, level with the folios, and gets back to his own sequence with 'gj' on f44 and the letters confused thereafter, with 'bi' on 91, 'gi' on f107 and a ii, aiii and aiiij on the subsequent leaves, then ci and so on from f122 and then back again to just noting the folio number without letter.
Catchwords:By the scribe, below second column of text, in stylised scroll as on illustrated page, the scroll ending in point upwards above and point downwards below bottom of the catchword.
Page Size:405 x 300
Frame:4 x vertical for 2 columns, 1 x horizontal above top line; not ruled.
Writing Space: 2 columns 293 x 89 + 13 + 88, or 293 x 190
Incipits and Explicits:On f1r, red ink incipit to prologue in the hand of the scribe 'In nomine patris' etc; red ink incipit to 'De Proprietatibus Rerum' on same folio.
Marginal Headings:Rubric headings by the scribe in spaces left in text block at end of each chapter with heading for next chapter.
Running Titles:Rubric running titles both recto and verso by scribe preceded by blue paraphs.
Borders:On f1 full bar border around page in gold, blue, rose and purplish which may be oxidized, sprays of opposing hairs and gold balls and holly-like leaves in blue or rose, some mushroom flowers, bosses; similar at start each book.
Historiated Initials:On f1, 8-line blue initial with white highlights, pink ground historiated monk writing,
Paragraph Marks:Alternating paraphs of line height with same cololurs.
Flourished Initials:2-3 line alternating blue with red penwork or gold with paler blue penwork initials, postage stamps grounds.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP