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Manuscript Description
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson poet. 223
 
MS Appellation:Ra3 (Manly and Rickert)
Title:Canterbury Tales
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Canterbury Tales
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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Dialect:Hooked g scribe : (Horobin 1998)
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:ii paper + 270 + iii paper
Pagination:Extreme lower outer corners of pages either recto or verso indicate when running title is to change; thus 'prologus' on f48 and 'ffrater' on f148.
Quiring:12
Catchwords:Black ink, lower margin near middle of verso.
Page Size:405 x 265
Frame:2 x vertical to edge of page; 4 x horizontal to edge of page enclosing top and bottom lines; ruled within columns; purple ink.
Writing Space:250 x 95 (most of MS is single columns)
Incipits and Explicits:Red for each tale and prologue.
Running Titles:Yes; no ruling; no titles in GP but present for succeeding tales.
Table of Contents:Imperfect at beginning and end.
Borders:Parti-coloured in gold, blue, pink; foliage patterns at corners; further foliage tendrils extend into top and bottom margins in pink, blue, green gold.
Historiated Initials:Figure of Friar in pulpit inside letter on f142
Illuminated Initials:7-8-line pink with white highlights on gold ground; floral pattern in red, blue, green, pink inside letter
Flourished Initials:9-10-line black ink initials followed by a first line of enlarged script in textura. Alternating blue with red pen-work initials on versos, illuminated gold with purple pen-work on recto sides in Knight's Tale.
Other Names (not owners):Old shelfmark 'Arch. C. Bodl. 93 on fol.xi; John Cowland (16th century) on f270; John [erased]y' on f270v
Miscellaneous Info:Slanted hooked g scribe (Mooney)/Devonshire scribe (mosser)/ TCCR.3.3 scribe Also copied TCC R.3.3, Takamiya MS 24, Fall of Princes in BL Add. 21410, Lambeth 254, Hatton 2, Plimpton 255 and leaves in Philad. Free Library MS 314, Confessio Amantis in Harley 7184, Lyell 31, Trevisa's Polychronicon in Princeton MS Taylor
Further Information:Seymour, Michael C. A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts. Vol. II, The Canterbury Tales. Aldershot and Brookfield: Scolar Press, 1997, pp.188-193. Manly, J. and Rickert, E. The Text of the Canterbury Tales, 8 vols, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940. 1:461-471.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP