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Manuscript Description
London, British Library, Additional 10574
 
Title:Piers Plowman, B version
Author:Langland
Contents:Piers Plowman (ABC splice)
Language:English and Latin
Date Range:Additional catalogue says '14th century' but script and decoration more like 15th century.
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Dialect:LP : N/A; County : London/N Gloucs
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:1 heavy purple and two plain paper flyleaves + modern blank parchment flyleaf + 1-91 parchment leaves + 2 leaves modern paper of which first foliated 92; and 2 plain and one heavy purple flyleaves (pastedowns are same purple)
Pagination:Modern pencil upper outer corners recto, 1-92.
Quiring:Generally 8s but 4-leaf quire ff37-40.
Signatures:Signatures survive only 'a' through 'd' in lower right corners of first four leaves each quire (survive for some quires, eg ff41-44 have 'a' through 'd', and these appear to be in scribe's hand and ink; also some bits of another set, eg 'd j' on f41, 'd ij' on f42 in extreme outer lower corner of leaf.
Catchwords:In usual place, lower margin verso of last leaf each quire, several words, running up to right frame line, written by scribe and enclosed in box which is overdrawn in red. Boxes around catchwords overwritten in red.
Page Size:250 x 170
Frame:4-line rectangle, ruled within, brownish plummet; no pricking survives
Writing Space:c. 194 x 128 (ruled for, though many lines are shorter)
Marginal Headings:Headings and Latin lines in red ink by scribe, probably not writing as he went along as for example on f33 he has left out a rubric heading and had to insert in margin in a box with cross to mark that it goes between the line above the initial and the line that begins with the initial. Some heightened ascenders in top line are over-written with red as on f33, 'h' and 'b' at end of line.
Title by Scribe:MS title in a modern hand on f92v: 'Explicit Visio Petri Ploughman'.
Borders:On f1 a blue and red bar border on three sides, red sprays up from bottom and down from top in right margin.
Paragraph Marks:Frequent red paraphs (c. 4 per page), red highlighting/touching first initial each line, red underlining of proper names.
Flourished Initials:On f1, 12-line initial 'I' in blue with red pen flourishing. Other breaks marked by 4-line blue lombard initials with same sort of red pen flourishing: the red ink in flourishing is redder than the washed red used for paraphs and rubric headings.
Other Names (not owners):Bottom margin of f91v, in hand of 16th century: 'brought from Kolsen xxvjo octobr / anno xxxiiijo R H viijm per me / [illegible signature]
later owners: bookseller plate of 'T. Kaye' in upper outer corner of first (purple) flyleaf verso; second flyleaf recto 'No. CII of Dr Adam Clarke's / Collection of MSS' and by same hand, 'Purchased at Sotheby's / July 1836. Lot 364.'
Further Information:Additional Catalogue. Note: Three hands. First is main scribe who writes ff1-91v of Piers; second adds two lines to the bottom of f1r in another hand of the 15th century; third is modern hand that writes the remaining lines of the poem on folio 92r-v.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP