Advanced Search   *   Manuscripts   *   Scribes   *   Authors   *   Letters
Home   *   About the Project   *   Bibliography
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
Find What? Search by
Manuscript Description
Cambridge, Pembroke College MS 215
 
Title:Boece
Author:Chaucer
Contents:Boece ff1-72v
Language:English
Date Range:1425-1450 (Seymour)
Scribal Hands:
Examples of the hand. Click on the link above for full details and images of individual letter forms.
**************

Material:Parchment
No of Folios:ii newer paper + iii worm-eaten parchment leaves + 2-72 text block + bits of torn page + f74 which is original parchment flyleaf, then a partly torn worm-holed leaf + ii newer paper flyleaves
Pagination:Not foliated or paginated except for pencil foliation in the usual place for the first leaf of each quire, thus 13, 25, 37, 49.
Quiring:12s. 1-6(12) + 1(which Seymour notes as 'possibly the penultimate leaf of a lost quire') + ii (ii excised).
Signatures:Signatures in blue ink in some quires. They indicate the first four leaves by blue lines in lower right recto. In the first quire they are horizontal and stacked one on top of the other. Thereafter they are set out vertically in a row.
Catchwords:By the scribe in the same ink as the text. No decoration and running up to the right frame line. Contained in a simple box which has scroll-like curls at the corners in the same brown ink.
Page Size:230 x 150
Frame:Square (2 x vertical, 2 x horizontal to edges of page). Ruled within with ruling continuing below bottom of frame down to lower edge of page throughout the volume.
Writing Space:170 x 95 but varies
Incipits and Explicits:Explicits to ends of Books and Incipits for the next.
Borders:First folio has red and blue penwork line alongside text.
Paragraph Marks:On first folio only in red ink.
Flourished Initials:Blue with red flourishing
Other Names (not owners):Seymour notes blazon in ink on f74r, 'bend with three rosettes and cadency mark in upper dexter'. Also on f74r by late 15th century hand, 'boicius de consolacione philosophie dictus genere pons' (the last word has been added).
Miscellaneous Info:Annotated on ff1, 6, 7, 8, 61, 66, 66v by William (Botoner) of Worcester
Further Information:Seymour, M. C. A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts, vol. 1, Works Before 'The Canterbury Tales', pp. 52-53, Aldershot, Hants: Scolar Press, 1995.
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP