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Manuscript Description
England, Durham, Durham University Library MS Cosin V.III.9
 
MS Appellation:Hoccleve holograph
Title:Hoccleve's Series or sequence
Author:Hoccleve
Contents:Hoccleve's Series or sequence; Tale of Emperor Jereslaus (IMEV 1561), ff26v-49v; Tale of Jonathas (IMEV 4072), ff79v-93; Lerne to Die (IMEV 3121), ff53v-74v; Envoy to the Countess of Westmorland (IMEV 932.77), f95
Language:English
Date Range:1421-1426
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:The manuscript was obviously acephalous by time Stow had it in mid-16th century, since he added missing text by addition of paper folios 3-12, written by Stow's hand. The 'Envoy to the Countesse of Westmorland' on f95 was Joan Beaufort 1396-1440, but presumably not presented or not accepted? Extensive marginal annotation by series of owners or users throughout parchment portion (until Stow's ownership).
Material:Combination
No of Folios:1 parchment flyleaf + 2 paper flyleaves + 10 paper leaves (ff3-12) + 83 (ff13-95) +1 parchment flyleaf
Pagination:Modern pencil, upper outer corners rectos, originally 1-94 repeating 22, then corrected by crossing out 1-95; quires 6, 7, 9, and 11 have roman numbers in lower right of folios of first halves of quires but no letters.
Quiring:[from catalogue] 1 (10) 2-11 (8) 12 (4), wants 4
Signatures:Signatures added in pencil in 19th century, letters c to n and arabic numbers 1-4.
Catchwords:On quires 2-11, by scribe just to right of centre in lower margin last folio verso, no embellishment.
Page Size:27 x 166
Frame:Square, ruled within, with top line of text above top line of frame; pricking on very edges of few folios, eg f82r.
Writing Space:148 x 85 ca.
Incipits and Explicits:Explicits in enlarged and bold script by scribe in space left for them, eg f52v, 'Explicit moralizacio & incipit ars vtillissima sciendi mori . Cum omnes homines naturaliter scire desiderant & c'.
Marginal Headings:Stow writes ff3-12, and writes 'Thomas Hoccleve' in top margin of f3, and a later hand adds 'Complaint' in pencil; Hoccleve wrote enlarged and bold text for headings and explicits, in Latin, in same brown-black ink as text.
Illuminated Initials:3-line illuminated gold initials (on ff49r, 50r) on parti-coloured blue and rose ground with white highlights. 2-line initials on ff76v, 77r.
Paragraph Marks:Alternating illuminated gold and blue paraphs.
Other Names (not owners):[from catalogue] 'Ann (??) Rechard', f19 (4) upper margin, s. xv, scrawled in plummet...'Thomas Carter' f14; ...'...quod carter', f36v; other couplets so signed on ff54v, 55v, 56 [etc. refs to Carter on ff37v, 41...; ...'W [notary's knot] Barnabe', f66v, s. xv ex.... s. xvi med. - ex.: 'Johan Medwell, m[aster?] my Lord Chamberlain per Prise', f14; 'Per me peter hardy of halyfax [Yorks?] ows this boke, f16; 'Tomas Gardynnyr (?)', f18; 'Per me gabriell curtys', 'Thomas Kyngston hath Rede this goddly boke', both f26v; 'Thomas kaye the sonne of thomas kay', f28; 'Geffarye thurgood', ff68, 84; 'To Thomas Wylton of Kyrke Lande...', f68v; 'William Wylton of Kyrke lande in the counte aforseide' f79, mentioning Bishop Bonner (c. 1540-69); 'Richard lyon', f69; 'John Jaclin & Elizabethe his wellebelouede liffe', f74; 'robert ascue / askewe', ff75v, 82; 'John Bargains Ann[o] 1551' f84; 'Radufus [sic] wilcockes', f94v; 'Thomas onslow', 'Edmound huncok(?), both f95v. [all preceding quoted verbatim from unpublished catalogue in Durham]. Later owners John Stow, who added ff3-12; W Browne (see ff3, 14 and possibly 21; George Davenport 1664.
Further Information:There is an unpublished catalogue in Durham Palace Green Library, search room.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP