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Manuscript Description
London, British Library MS Harley 3943
 
Title:Troilus and Criseyde
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Troilus and Criseyde
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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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 6030; County: Essex
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:116
Pagination:Modern pencil foliation top outer corner recto.
Quiring:14 quires of 8 (quire 8 missing 2 folios), quire 15 (6).
Signatures:None although Books are numbered in roman numerals in the top margin of recto folios. After f71, cropping has removed them.
Catchwords:By the scribe with initial touched with red and in elaborate though crude scrolls.
Page Size:256 x 142
Frame:Square in brown crayon sometimes with extra horizontals to enclose top or top and bottom lines; ruling for stanza space but not for individual lines.
Writing Space:200 x 90
Incipits and Explicits:None except on f116 at the end is 'Troilus adest inete [or mete] / Venerit explicit ergo valete'.
Flourished Initials:3-line plain red lombard initial at beginning of each book; alternating red and blue 1-line lombard initials for each stanza; tops of lines are extended and decorated with loops or strapwork; descenders from bottom line in looped curves, some with strapwork.
Miscellaneous Info:4; Hand A copied ff1-1v, 68-70v; Hand B copied ff2-7v, 9-56v, 63-67v and is the HM114 scribe; Hand C copied ff57-62v; Hand D copied ff71-116 and is the Exeter College 129 scribe.
Further Information:Harley Catalogue. Seymour I. 72-73.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP