Manuscript Description London, British Library MS Harley 7333 | |
| MS Appellation: | Ha3 (Manly and Rickert) |
| Title: | 'A library of secular literature' (Manly and Rickert), including the Canterbury Tales. There are 7 books now joined to form a single manuscript. |
| Author: | Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve and Lydgate |
| Contents: | Canterbury Tales (ff37ra-118r); Parlement of Foules; Complaint of Mars; Anelida and Arcite; Stedfastnesse; Gentilesse; Truth; Complaint to his Purse; Brut chronicle; De Regimine Principum; selections from Confessio Amantis etc. |
| Language: | English |
| Date Range: | 1450-1500 |
| Scribal Hands: | 4 to 8 Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                 Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.                 |
| Dialect: | LP 9510; LP 5590; LP 5600; County: Hants |
| Material: | Parchment |
| No of Folios: | ii paper flyleaves + 1-211 Parchment |
| Pagination: | The oldest foliation is in roman numerals, but there are now missing folios and missing quires. Modern foliation 1-211. |
| Quiring: | 8's with some missing leaves and several entire quires. |
| Signatures: | There is evidence of several different sets of signatures. In Canterbury Tales section, there are a few traces of numbers and letters in both red and brown ink. |
| Catchwords: | Catchwords regularly added in Canterbury Tales section except on f119v. |
| Page Size: | 450 x 320 |
| Frame: | Ruled variously in the different sections. Dry-point, ink and plummet ruling. |
| Writing Space: | Each column is approx. 330 x 100 |
| Incipits and Explicits: | According to scribe either in the ink of the text or in rubric. |
| Running Titles: | A few running titles in tales of Knight and Miller only. |
| Paragraph Marks: | Red and blue paraphs mark stanzas in Man of Law's Tale. |
| Flourished Initials: | As many different varieties of pen initials and paraphs as there are booklets. Small blue and red capitals in the prose of Canterbury Tales |
| Other Names (not owners): | 'Stoughton' on f41r in red ink and 'doctor peni writ this booke' on f150r may link the manuscript with the Augustinian Abbey of St Mary de Pratis in Leicester (see Manly and Rickert and Seymour). |
| Miscellaneous Info: | Probably made and owned by the Austin Canons of St Mary de Pratis in Leicester. Connections with John Shirley also. See 'John Shirley' by Margaret Connolly. 3 hands in Canterbury Tales: B, C, D. Hand H copies Hoccleve. We have analysed 3 hands. |
| Further Information: | Manly, John M., and Edith Rickert, eds. The Text of the Canterbury Tales: Studied on the Basis of All Known Manuscripts. 8 vols. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1940. 1:207-18. Seymour, Michael C. A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts. Volume II, The Canterbury Tales. Aldershot and Brookfield: Scolar Press, 1997. 121-5. Seymour I: 21-23. |