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Manuscript Description
London, British Library MS Egerton 2864
 
MS Appellation:En3 (Manly and Rickert)
Title:Canterbury Tales, Siege of Thebes
Author:Chaucer and Lydgate
Contents:Canterbury Tales; Siege of Thebes
Language:English
Date Range:1475-1500
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 : 8301; County : Suffolk
Material:Paper
No of Folios:2 newer paper flyleaves + 341 + 2 newer paper flyleaves
Pagination:Scribe numbered folios on upper outer corner rectos in roman numerals up to cclxxij on f263 of the modern foliation.
Quiring:Very large quires
Signatures:None.
Catchwords:None
Page Size:280 x 210
Frame:Square, gray. Top line of square is minim line for top line of text.
Writing Space:222 x 100
Incipits and Explicits:On f1 'Incipit liber Galfrid Chaucer de gestis peregrinorum versus Cantuariam' in black ink by scribe. On ff291-292 is Retraction, then 'here endith the Personnys Tale'. On f292v 'Heer begynneth the Laste tale of Cauntirbury talis tolde homward and maad bi dan Iohn Lidgate Monk of Bury'. On f341 'Heere endith the Laste tale of Caunturbury maad and told bi dan dan Iohn Lidgate Mon[ke of Bury]'
Marginal Headings:Rubrics are in the body of the text in the text ink. They are in both Latin and English, the Latin agreeing with the sister manuscript Additional 5140.
Running Titles:Under the medieval foliation in the top border.
Other Names (not owners):Egerton 2864 does not come to light until 1785 when it passed out of the ownership of Anthony Askew and went to Lowes. It was then owned by a Reverend Edwards, passing to Sir Henry Ingilby of Yorkshire. At some stage it was also owned by Lawrence W. Hodson whose label is on the inside front cover. It was bought by the British Museum in 1906 according to Manly and Rickert, and 1920 according to Seymour.
Miscellaneous Info:Manly and Rickert assumed a second scribe beginning his stint at f274r. However, this has been disputed by Mosser (2010). Examples from both stints have been examined, but they may both be by the same scribe.
Further Information:Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years MDCCCCIV-MDCCCCX[1906-1910] = vol. 18 of Additional Catalogue (Trustees of BM, 1912), pp. 241-242. Suffolk: LALME LP 8301, grid 569 250. Manly and Rickert vol. I 143-147. Seymour vol. II, 111-116.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP