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Manuscript Description
London, British Library MS Additional 25718
 
MS Appellation:Ad2 (Manly and Rickert)
Title:Canterbury Tales
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Parts of about ten of the Canterbury Tales survive.
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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Material:Parchment
No of Folios:iv paper flyleaves + 88 vellum + iv paper flyleaves (however, this represents three fragments from an original single manuscript).
Pagination:Three originally discontinuous fragments now numbered 1-40, 41-47, 48-88.
Quiring:Originally in 8's. Many folios missing and some fragments which are now isolated.
Signatures:Between ff41-44, presumably the first half of an original quire, it is possible to see j-iiij in the bottom right corner of the folios.
Catchwords:Some original catchwords n ff. 22, 30 and 38. Others appear to have been removed, whereas some seem to have been added at a later date perhaps on rebinding.
Page Size:Varies; some folios have modern parchment additions.
Writing Space:Also variable.
Incipits and Explicits:Explicit to 'Physykes tale' on f52r. The incipit for Shipman's Tale follows although the text is of the Physician-Pardoner Link. See Manly and Rickert for suggestion that this may be evidence for two separate fragments.
Running Titles:In the ink of the text and preceded by red paraphs.
Paragraph Marks:Red and blue
Flourished Initials:Blue flourished with red ink to indicate divisions in the text.
Other Names (not owners):On f1r is 'Dorthe Borothe'.
Miscellaneous Info:Scribe 1's hand is similar to the hand of the fragment Plimpton 253.
Further Information:Manly and Rickert, Vol. I, 34-40; McCormick, 9-12; Seymour Vol. II, 98-103.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP