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Manuscript Description
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Selden supra 53
 
MS Appellation:SC 3441
Title:De regimine principum
Author:Hoccleve
Contents:De regimine principum and his series, beginning with Complaint, Danse Macabre or Dance of Death
Language:English
Date Range:1425-1450
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:2 new paper leaves attached to older paper stubs, on which written the contents in 19th-20th cent. hand + 158 parchment folios textblock + 1 original parchment blank leaf foliated 159 at end of quire (with some 16th c. writing top of recto) + and two fairly old paper flyleaves foliated 160 and 161
Pagination:Modern pencil foliation in upper outer corners recto, f1.
Quiring:8s
Signatures:In lower margin on line for catchwords, upper case letters plus roman numerals, in RED ink, first half of quire, beginning C.i. on f1 and continuing through 'Z' for last quire.
Catchwords:In black ink, by scribe, in line ruled for them.
Page Size:253 x 188
Frame:5 x vertical, 2 enclosing Latin glosses in outer margin and three for text column, with a narrow double at left side of text column to enclose initial letter of first line of each stanza; 14 x horizontal, two for running title (which is not there), two for first line of each of four stanzas; a double below last stanza, and a double in lower margin for catchwords, all running to edge of page; ruling within text column.
Writing Space:175 x ca. 85-90
Marginal Headings:Red, by scribe, eg on f136, 'Here endeth the Prolog and bygynneth the tale'
Illuminated Initials:Texts thereafter begin with 4-line pink and blue parti-coloured initial highlighted in white on solid gold ground, with foliage pattern in centre of letter and at edges of gold ground leading to sprays with green leaves and blue, red and gold balls.
Miniatures:First folio is missing but one miniature begins the text
Paragraph Marks:Blue paraphs with red penwork decoration in prose sections
Flourished Initials:Smaller two-line blue lombard initials, red pen-work flourishing; one-line blue initials with red pen-work flourishing.
Other Names (not owners):Richard Burnett (16th cent.)
Miscellaneous Info:NB scribe regularly places punctus at end of verse lines in this MS.
Further Information:Madan, Falconer and H. H. E. Craster, A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Vol. II, part I. Oxford: Clarendon, 1922. 635-6.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP