Manuscript Description England, London, British Library MS Sloane 1825 | |
| Title: | Regiment of Princes |
| Author: | Hoccleve |
| Contents: | Hoccleve, Regiment of Princes and an added 16th c. poem on ff88v-89v, 'A Lamentable of the Queen Elizabeth', possibly by Thomas More. |
| Language: | English |
| Date Range: | post-1411 |
| Scribal Hands: | Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                 |
| Material: | Parchment |
| No of Folios: | Marbled + 2 heavy paper flyleaves new with rebinding + 1 parchment original fly foliated as f1 + text ff2-88 + 89-91 parchment with added text by another hand on 88v-89v, scribbles on 90v-91r + 3 heavy paper + marbled to match pastedown. |
| Pagination: | Older reddish ink pagination, beginning 1 on first page of text which is f2r, arabic modern; replaced by newer reddish ink foliating also in upper outer corners recto, which after first few folios is to left of, and often also below, the older pagination. |
| Quiring: | 8s |
| Signatures: | Mostly cropped |
| Catchwords: | By main scribe, centred in lower margin within the ruled space, several words, so close to lining up end with end of line above; red box drawn around catchwords. |
| Page Size: | 270 x 180 |
| Frame: | 2 x vertical, 3 x horizontal enclosing top line and below bottom line, ruled within, fine black ink; pricking top bottom and outer edges visible on all folios. |
| Writing Space: | 172 x 110 ruled for, but lines only c. 95 long |
| Marginal Headings: | Glosses consist only of names of the authorities cited, written in red ink preceded by blue paraph; some Latin within text in red (the Latin glosses are written in the text block but in red); proper names are underlined in red, as for example 'Chauser' on f32v. |
| Title by Scribe: | On f2 at top in red by scribe, 'Here bigynneth a tretys wiche that is callid'... but nothing more and no space for the title to be added since this red line is immediately above the first line of text. Note that second line of text has erased text under it, but unlikely to have been title since all is by main scribe. On f1r by much later (19th c?) hand, 'Tho Occleve de Regimine Principis' and a note about the mention of Chaucer, citing Urry, notes on Hoccleve's being a clerk of the Privy Seal citing Catalogue of BL(?) 'MSS Anglie & Hib.' and several former shelf marks. |
| Borders: | On f2 a full bar border in gold, red and blue with acanthus leaves along it in reddish-grey, green, blue, brown and black-stemmed sprays with opposing tiny leaf buds in green, occasional gold balls with green-washed squiggles (ie post 1413), wheat heads or pine cones. |
| Illuminated Initials: | On f2 a 7-line initial M in blue with white highlighting creating cut-out pattern, on illuminated gold ground with acanthus leaves inside letter in orange (reddish-grey), brown and green. |
| Paragraph Marks: | Alternating red and blue paraphs to begin each stanza. |
| Flourished Initials: | Initials in blue and red with red and blue flourishing; the tallest initial on f33, blue and red cut-out into each other on the letter, red foliage within the letter, box around in red and blue; first letter of each stanza is black ink but with horizontal stroke of red highlighting/touching. |
| Other Names (not owners): | Sir Hans Sloane |
| Miscellaneous Info: | Includes at end the envoy 'O litill booke who ȝaf the hardynesse, followed by 'Amen' and then 'Deo Gracias' by main scribe (Deo Gracias in red). |
| Further Information: | Sloane catalogue; Seymour |