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Manuscript Description
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Fairfax 3
 
MS Appellation:SC 3883
Title:Confessio Amantis
Author:Gower
Contents:Gower, Confessio Amantis
Language:English
Date Range:1390-1415
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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Dialect:County; Gowerian
Material:Parchment
No of Folios:1 flyleaf marbled matches pastedown + 1 heavy paper flyleaf same date + 1 fine pale blank parchment flyleaf with wormholes + text block ff2-194v Confessio + f195 extracted from another 15th century manuscript written in 2 columns + 2 heavy paper flyleaves, the second marbled
Pagination:Foliated in modern pencil, upper outer corners recto, beginning '2' on first leaf of text (so counting the fine pale parchment flyleaf as 1).
Quiring:8s
Signatures:No signatures, or none survive, possibly cropped.
Catchwords:By the scribe, lower margin about ' down current lower margin and running up to right frame line for second column of text (not for gloss).
Page Size:340 x 238
Frame:8 x vertical to enclose two text columns and two gloss columns outside them, 4 x horizontal enclosing top and bottom lines
Writing Space:2 columns 242 x 75+12+75 (242 x 162) overall
Incipits and Explicits:Incipits and explicits and Gower's usual text.
Marginal Headings:'Explicit liber tercius' and 'Incipit liber quartus' sort of headings, by scribe in larger textura script.
Running Titles:Running title of 'liber' on verso and number spelled out such as 'Tercius' on recto, sometimes ruled for these, but no embellishment and most of them have been cropped off.
Borders:On f2 blue and rose bar border on left side only. Red and blue bar borders also.
Illuminated Initials:On f2 a 4-line illuminated initial on blue and rose ground, white highlights, very plain gold; later gold initials that begin books; lesser illuminated initials also 4-line on same ground, following shape of letter.
Miniatures:Miniature of Nebuchadnezzar's dream on f2 (first folio of text), in which silver has oxidized so picture quite black.
Flourished Initials:Smaller 3-line blue lombard initials with red penwork; smaller one-line initials alternate blue with red penwork or gold with paler blue penwork.
Other Names (not owners):On f1r, top, later hand 'Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton Ringhte / true owner of this booke 1588'. On f1r mid MS Fairfax 3 / (3883). On f2, upper margin above second column of text (miniature runs into upper margin above first column): The Ladie Isabell Fairfax / daughter and hare of Thwate / hir bouk. SC says Sir Thomas was grandson of Lady Isabel, who was grand-daughter and heiress of John Thwaites of Denton (d. 1511).
Miscellaneous Info:NB text on folio at end is described as a 14th century Latin moral treatise in SC.
Further Information:SC 3883
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP