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Manuscript Description
Cambridge, St John's College I.22 (223)
 
MS Appellation:M. R. James catalogue 223
Title:Regiment of Princes
Author:Hoccleve
Contents:Regiment of Princes, from beginning but atelous, ending with the line 'That to them telle ther councelle even or morowe' (near end of poem).
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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Material:Paper
No of Folios:4 parchment leaves first half cut away at outer edge, all damaged by damp and first-second stained by fold-over of tanned cover (paper pastedown now would prevent this) + 98 paper leaves and a stub of 99, with lower margins of 97 and 98 cut away + 4 parchment flyleaves of which equivalent of lower margin cut away on first and outer half cut away on last, all in similar condition to those at front, and paper pastedown now inside cover.
Pagination:Upper outer corners recto in modern pencil only on first folio recto of each quire and on ff97 and 98 recto; quires numbered also in modern pencil in lower outer corner recto of first folio each quire, eg '4' on f26.
Quiring:From M R James: a4 (parchment) 116 212 312 (wants 8-12) 416 520 620 78 (wants 8) b4 (parchment)
Catchwords:By the scribe, just below bottom line of text on last folio of quire, verso, beginning about half way across page, no embellishment.
Page Size:208 x 145
Frame:Plain square to edges, drypoint or stylus that shows rusty occasionally, not ruled within.
Writing Space:140 x 90
Incipits and Explicits:None
Marginal Headings:None; scribe writes marginal glosses in same ink as he uses for text, but in a smaller script.
Paragraph Marks:On f1r only, next three stanzas preceded by one-line red paraph marks with blue pen flourishing.
Flourished Initials:On f1r only, 2-line 'M' at beginning in red with blue penwork flourishing, postage stamp pattern with plain tendrils extending from 3 corners.
Other Names (not owners):On f1 lower margin 'Thys boke hys myne George lord Bergevenny', George Lord Abergavenny, d. 1535; Seymour writes, 'and by Thomas Wagstaff, from whom the donor, Thomas Baker fellow (d. 1740), probably obtained it.' (p. 284); hand-written into Library's annotated copy of James is 'Liber olim Tho: Wagstaff' in T.B.'s hand' (page 256).
Miscellaneous Info:Text of Hoccleve has added excerpts of Lydgate's Fall of Princes: see enclosed letter from J. B. Trapp, July 1952, that '94a sqq are taken from Lydgate's Fall of Princes, vide Lydgate's Fall of Princes. Ed Henry Bergen, EETS E.S. 121-4, vol. 1, p. 127, i.e. Bk. 1, lines 4558 ff) NB (1) I.22 adds a stanza between Bergen's lines 4564 and 4565. This is Bergen's I.4551-57. (2) A leaf is torn out of the Ms. It would seem to have contained the eight stanzas I, 4712-4767. (3) 99b is from Fall of Princes I, 6350 ff.; Bergen, Vol. 1, p. 179f.' (All quoted from Trapp's letter) Handwritten below this is 'A. S. G. Edwards, 'Selections from Lydgate's Fall of Princes: A Checklist', The Library, 5th ser., xxvi (1971), pp. 337-342.
Further Information:James, pp. 256-7; M. C. Seymour, 'The Manuscripts of Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes, Edinburgh Bibliographical Society Trans. 4 (1955-71), p. 284.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP