Advanced Search   *   Manuscripts   *   Scribes   *   Authors   *   Letters
Home   *   About the Project   *   Bibliography
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
Find What? Search by
Manuscript Description
Oxford, Balliol College MS 354
 
MS Appellation:Richard Hill's Commonplace Book
Title:Confessio Amantis
Author:Gower
Contents:Commonplace Book, including extract of Confessio Amantis, ff55-96 (pages 113-195)
Language:English and Latin
Date Range:1500-1525
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
****************

Material:Paper
No of Folios:292 pages + pages 293-308 half pages (bottom half cut away) + pages 309-514 +pastedown
Pagination:Medieval foliation in roman numerals preceded by 'ff' in upper outer corner recto of each folio, eg 'ff lxxxx' on page 183. modern pencil pagination in upper outer corners of both rectos and versos.
Quiring:10s and 12s, irregular, some with missing leaves and others with added ones.
Catchwords:No catchwords.
Page Size:313 x 113
Frame:Rectangle with lines to edges in brown crayon, not ruled within.
Marginal Headings:Page 113r, 'The tale of Anthiochus Appolynes of Tyre' centred at top by scribe as heading.
Borders:Red chalk stroke down left side of written text each page to highlight the initials of each line, but unbroken red line, not individual letters.
Flourished Initials:Spaces left for initials but never filled in.
Other Names (not owners):Coxe identified the scribe as one John Hyde (Dyboski, p. xiii), but Dyboski notes that only Richard Hill's name occurs in the MS and he attributes the hand to Hill, not someone named 'Hyde'. Notes of births of his (Hill's) children, deaths of family members, on ff17r-v and 107r. Dates noted by Richard Hill in range 1508-26. see also f176r, 'Iste liber pertineth Rycardo Hill seruant to M. Wynger alderman of London.' (probably Hill was, in early years; a possible Wynger' was mayor in 1504 and died the following year), so the portion of the MS with this inscription could be the earliest.
Miscellaneous Info:Only the scribe of the Confessio extract has been described.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP