Manuscript Description England, London, British Library MS Stowe 65 | |
| MS Appellation: | S (Waldron) |
| Title: | Higden's Polychronicon |
| Author: | Trevisa's translation of Higden |
| Contents: | Higden's Polychronicon translated by Trevisa ff2ra-201vb plus modern supply for end on unnumbered 201-202; ff202ra-205va Dialogus inter Clericum et Militem trans of William of Ockham'IPMEP 330: ff205va-217ra Defensio Curatorum (trans. Richard FitzRalph's sermon) IPMEP 1; ff217ra-218rb Dialogus inter Dominum & Clericum ; ff218rb-221vb Index to Polychronicon |
| Language: | English |
| Date Range: | 1400-1420 (Waldron) |
| 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: | 2 new paper flyleaves + 1 parchment leaf looks like end of table of contents or index erased from its recto, so now palimpsest + 1-218ra text and 218rb-221vb alphabetical index and one more leaf, 222, ruled but blank except scribbled note on verso + 2 newer paper flyleaves. |
| Pagination: | Older ink pagination in upper outer corners recto and verso, now crossed through; modern pencil foliation in same place but further from corner, on rectos only. |
| Quiring: | 8s |
| Catchwords: | By the scribe below second column of text inside very angular stylized scrolls, see f62v. |
| Page Size: | 373 x 258 |
| Frame: | 4 x vertical for 2 columns, 4 x horizontal enclosing top and bottom lines, ruled within columns, very edge of page sometimes has pricking, as on f181 |
| Writing Space: | 2 columns 283 x 81 + 17 + 80, or overall 283 x 178 |
| Incipits and Explicits: | Explicits and incipits for each book, in same hand and ink as text and only slightly larger, underlined in red, as for example at the bottom of f115rb 'Explicit liber quartus / Incipit liber quintus ' Capitulum primum'. |
| Index: | Index titled 'Tabula A' ff218rb to 221vb, references to book and chapter numbers. |
| Borders: | Books begin with full bar borders on all sides and between columns, with gold grounds and intertwined vines of blue, rose and red leaves with white highlighting, sprays of opposing large red or blue leaves shaded and with white highlighting or plain black hairs opposed, dragons at corners or at bosses, as for example on f115v where dragon dressed in ?jester's? costume. |
| Illuminated Initials: | Books begin with 7-line initials in rose and blue with white highlighting on gold grounds that follow shape of letter, elaborate intertwined foliage patterns inside letter in blue, rose, red and gold with white highlighting. |
| Other Names (not owners): | A note on f222v written 1st November 1559 names Edward Clere Esquire for Langoll of St Edmund's in Norwich, and Sir Nicholas Soldwell and signed 'per me Johannem Debudy collectorem eiusdem redd(?) pro comitatem norwic note text is carefully corrected by a second contemporary hand, see f94. |
| Further Information: | Stowe catalogue; Ronald Waldron, John Trevisa's Translation of the Polychronicon of Ranulph Higden, Book VI, Middle English Texts 35(2004), pp. xxv-xxvi. |