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Manuscript Description
London, British Library MS Additional 10340
 
MS Appellation:Ad4 (Manly & Rickert)
Title:Boece
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Boece; Truth; General Prologue (description of Parson, perhaps a memorial fragment)
Language:English
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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Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Dialect:LP 6590; County: Herts
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:1 is a paper pastedown +1 vellum flyleaf backed now with paper + 1 vellum flyleaf + 43 leaves of vellum, leaf 43 now backed with paper + 1 flyleaf (originally pastedown?)
Pagination:Pencil in right upper corner. Folios 1 and 2 are the original flyleaves.
Quiring:Originally 5 quires of 8 leaves. 3rd quire beginning on f19 is of now of 7 leaves with only the stub of leaf 5 remaining.
Signatures:Regularly a through e plus numbers in first four leaves of each quire, written in ink of text on lower right corner of folio.
Catchwords:Regularly on f10v, 18v, 25v, 33v. Text ends half way down first column of f40 in final quire. Unique box shape for catchword.
Page Size:305 x 220
Frame:4 x verticals; 4 x horizontals in grey
Writing Space:200 x 150 in 2 columns ruled, each 70. Pricking visible on almost every folio.
Incipits and Explicits:Incipits and explicits for each book. Titles for each section.
Marginal Headings:Nota in ink of text underlined in red ink on f12v. Other notas but in a lighter ink and a different hand.
Running Titles:Red ink recto and verso with 'Liber' at the head of the first column followed by 'Primus', 'scdus' and 'tercius' 'quartus' and 'qui(n)tus'
Table of Contents:A table of the incipits of the prosae and metra, in Latin on f3r. Numbered in red ink. Upper case letters for each item alternately red and blue. Items in black ink. Incipits and explicits in red ink.
Title by Scribe:Red ink at the top of first column on f3v. 'Incipit liber boicij de co(n)solaco(n)e philosophie
Paragraph Marks:Red and blue
Flourished Initials:Blue lombard initials with red flourishing
Other Names (not owners):f1v Randull Threbody Stephanus Kyrton These names repeated on f2r as well as 'P(er) me george glouer [de Nyleng?] w[t] m nycholys m(er)chand off the Stapols At Calys'. Also thomas offley, [Deamondes], Stephyn Kyrton, Richard a goode boy. On f2v 'Henry Elyston gentleman S(er)uante vnto my lady darsey'.
Miscellaneous Info:Our research suggests that in the early 15th century, the approximate date of the manuscript, a Clement Kyrton was the Warden of the Guild of Merchant Tailors. It is possible, given Stephen Kyrton's association with the Merchants of Calais, that this manuscript passed down in the Kyrton family.
Further Information:According to Seymour, Kyrton gave this manuscript to John Bell 'before 1553'. He continues,' owned by Richard Heber (d. 1833)'. On f1:'Purchased Feb 1836. Heber's Sale. Lot 440'.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP