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.                |
| 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. |