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Manuscript Description
London, British Library MS Additional 12044
 
Title:Troilus and Criseyde
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Troilus and Criseyde
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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Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
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Dialect:E. Anglia
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:iv + 113 + ii
Pagination:In ink in what seems to be early numbering. Follows consecutively except for first quire which begins at f2-5, . Number 7 then follows, corrected to 6 and the next folio 6 is corrected to 7, both corrections in pencil. The numbers are all neatly placed within the small box created on right side of text box where horizontal and vertical lines cross.
Quiring:1-14(8)
Signatures:Mainly trimmed.
Catchwords:Catchwords exist only in the second part, on ff72v, 80v, 88v, 96v, 104v and 112v. In the lower margin at right of lower text box space with three-sided underline with loop on right upper side.
Page Size:250 x 180
Frame:Grey to f64v thereafter brown with clearer ruling where the second scribe takes over.
Writing Space:205 x 115
Incipits and Explicits:Explicit to Book 1 at the bottom of f16r in a later hand which has also squashed in 'Liber secundus' in the single line space between stanzas on f17r. The first scribe was obviously aware that a new book was about to begin since he began the next section with a four-line capital. On f41v the later hand wrote 'Explicit liber secundus' again in the single line space. On f42r the same thing happens with 'Incipit liber tertius'. At the top of f67 is 'Incipit liber quartus' and on f90v 'Incipit liber quintus'.
Paragraph Marks:Blue and red alternating up to f64v
Flourished Initials:Blue with red flourishing. Only the first initial has been flourished. Thereafter the initial is present without flourishing After f65 litterae notabiliores replace the red and blue paraphs to define the stanzas.
Other Names (not owners):On third flyleaf numbered i are two bookplates. First is 'Ex. Bibl. Phillipus D'Auvergne. LLD. FRS. Below that is a heraldic shield and the name Francis Freeling
Miscellaneous Info:An interesting ms to go back to
Further Information:Seymour vol. I, 62-63.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP