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Manuscript Description
Cambridge, Trinity College MS R.3.19 (599)
 
MS Appellation:M. R. James catalogue 599; Tc3 (Manly and Rickert)
Title:Anthology of Chaucer, Lydgate
Author:Chaucer and Lydgate
Contents:Collection of 14 small booklets including more than 50 poems by Lydgate, Chaucer and unknown poets. Chaucer's Parlement of Byrdes, Legend of ladyes, and part of Monk's Tale.
Language:English
Date Range:After 1463 when George Ashby's poem (fols. 41-45v) said to have been written. Monk's Tale appears to have been copied from the printed 1478 Caxton edition. Other verse may have been added into the 16th century.
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:1 parchment stub + 2 newer paper (17th-18th c.) + 254 + 2 newer paper + 1 parchment stub
Pagination:16th cent. foliation within each separate booklet including booklets written in later hands. Positioned in lower left-hand corner of rectos in medieval arabic numerals except for upright '4'. Modern arabic pencil foliation through volume in upper right corner of recto sides.
Quiring:Varies. Often in 8s.
Catchwords:By scribe if text runs over within a booklet. Usually to the left of the second vertical thus under the right side of the text.
Page Size:267 x 197
Frame:Trinity Anthologies drypoint square with top line of text above top line of frame. No ruling within the frame. Sometimes ruled for stanzas eg f70. ff217-245 have 2 x vertical and 2 x horizontal, ruled within in ink. ff217-232v ruled 48 lines per page and ff240-245r ruled 38-40 lines per page both in purple ink. ff234-239v ruled 48 lines per page in rusty brown ink.
Writing Space:ca. 200 x 90 mm
Table of Contents:Added 17th century (?) to second newish leaf at the front.
Other Names (not owners):Hand of John Stow adds titles and marginal notation.After Stow, the manuscript went to a George Willmer of West Ham, Essex (d. 1626) who gave it as well as R. 3.20 and R. 3.21 to Trinity College.
Miscellaneous Info:At the end, three and a half folios ruled but blank. Other blanks throughout the volume at the ends of booklets. The Trinity Anthologies scribe may be Robert Bale (see Scriveners' Common Book, Guildhall MS. 5370), warden 1450; see Accounts of Mercers and Grant of Arms to Haberdashers Company in 1446, Guildhall Library MS. 31603.
Further Information:James, M. R. James, Catalogue of...Trinity College Cambridge, II.69-74. Gavin Bone, 'Extant Manuscripts Printed From by W. de Worde with Notes on the Owner, Roger Thorney', The Library, 4th ser., 12 (1931-2), 284-309.Freshfield, E. 'Some Notarial Marks in the Common Paper of the Scriveners' Company', Archaeologia 54 (1895), 239-254 and figs. 1-12, 14-26 and 29-30. Cooper, C.R.H., 'The Archives of the City of London Livery Companies and related Organizations', Archives 16 (1984), 232-253 and plate 2 illustrating p.66. Mooney, Linne R., 'Scribes and Booklets of Trinity College, Cambridge, MSS R.3.19 and R.3.21', in Middle English Poetry: Texts and Traditions: Essays in Honour of Derek Pearsall, ed. Alistair Minnis. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer, 2001. Pp. 241-66. Seymour, M. C. A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts, vol. 1, Works Before 'The Canterbury Tales', pp. 23, 95, 136. Aldershot, Hants: Scolar Press, 1995. Manly, John M. and Rickert, E. The Text of the Canterbury Tales, 8 vols, vol. I: 532-534. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP