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Manuscript Description
London, British Library MS Additional 24194
 
MS Appellation:A (Waldron)
Title:Polychronicon
Author:Trevisa
Contents:Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.
Language:English and Latin
Date Range:1400-1425
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:Newer paper flyleaves + 263 folios
Pagination:Modern foliation in pencil with arabic numbering in upper outer corners recto.
Quiring:8s
Signatures:No signatures survive, but book number in medieval arabic numbers, red ink, centre top margin each recto.
Catchwords:Yes, by the scribe in the usual place and unembellished.
Page Size:420 x 270
Frame:4 x vertical enclosing two columns, 4 x horizontal enclosing top and bottom lines, ladders inside columns only, fine black/grey lines.
Writing Space:268 x 183 or two columns 268 x 83 with space between
Index:Alphabetical index.
Marginal Headings:Rubric for names of authorities, together with references to books. Chapter numbers in margins in red, sometimes introduced by blue paraphs with red penwork (some quires); year of whatever reign is dealt with, is recorded in upper outer corner of rectos and versos, introduced (in some quires) by blue paraphs with red penwork or gold paraphs with blue/purple penwork. In verse sections, each initial is washed with yellow.
Table of Contents:Alphabetical index of persons, places, and events, with book and chapter numbers where they appear, ff21ra-35vb written in scribe's hand except added last entry.
Borders:Full border with bosses and foliage in blue, gold, pinky red and green. A coat of arms below the border. On f36, a full border around both columns and between them. similar treatment for beginning of each book, eg f77 for the beginning of Book 2.
Historiated Initials:f? 18-line blue initial with white highlights, enclosing a miniature of two men talking, probably the subjects of the 'Dialogus inter militem et clericum' which begins here, gold ground into bosses at corners, into bar frame in full border. f36 similar treatment with pink initial with white highlights enclosing miniature of tonsured young man dressed in black with gold spectacles reading at a desk with something like blotting paper in his left hand held down on the page,
Illuminated Initials:3-line high gold initials on parti-coloured pink and blue grounds with white highlights, small sprays extending from corners with gold buds/flowers (the grounds continue but sprays cease after f75, last of a quire; begin again f148, first of a quire; cease again after f171, last of a quire).
Paragraph Marks:Alternating paraphs in blue with red penwork and gold with purple penwork.
Other Names (not owners):On f35v 'William Waleys' without book and chapter number and by the same hand signature, 'William Bindwell Anno Domini 1610'. 'Emanuel anno domini 1570' on f263v (last in volume). A very large pale blue 'R P' on f262v. 'William Knighten' on f262v. 'THE GEGEN' on f262v. 'M Iohn Knighten' on f262rb after end of text.
Further Information:Ronald Waldron, John Trevisa's Translation of the Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden, Book VI, Middle English Texts 35 (2004), pp. xxxii-xxxiii.Coat of arms in boss on first folio of text itself (after prologue and index), f36.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP