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Appendix: Manuscript Descriptions
London, British Library, Harley 3943
This manuscript is quite adequately described in Robert Kilburn Root, The Manuscripts of Chaucer's Troilus, Chaucer Soc. 1 ser. 98 (1914; rep. New York: Johnson, 1967), pp. 17-24, with photographs of all four hands. I would make only the following additions to Root's account: Page size 255 x 135 mm (writing area 204 x 86 mm). Catchwords regular at quire ends; leaf signatures are almost universally cropped, the only survivors being f i-iiij, in two different inks (brown for quire, blue for leaf number) on ff. 41-44. Unlike the scribe's other manuscripts, where he used wire lines of the paper to guide his writing, this manuscript is pricked (esp. visible on ff. 19-32, 34-48), fully bounded (in purplish-brown crayon), and ruled. The portion copied by the scribe under discussion is a fragment, presumably found some years later and extended (with supply of a lost bifolium (quire 1, leaves 1+8, ff. 1+8) and quire (quire 8, ff. 57-62) to make a full text. The three hands responsible for this extension I would date s. xv med. or s. xv¾. Ff. 56 and 63 (the end of quire 7 and the head of quire 9) show particularly heavy wear, a fact which suggests an extensive period as an unbound fragment.
San Marino, Huntington Library HM 114
Again described quite accurately by Root, Manuscripts, pp. 35-36 (with photograph of the hand); and by M. C. Seymour, "The English Manuscripts of Mandeville's Travels," Transactions of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society 4, v (1965-66):167-210, at 188-189. I would add the following information: Page size: 295 x 140 mm. (writing area 165 x 100 mm.). The manuscript is fascicular, comprised of three booklets—ff. 1-130 (quires 1-8, Piers Plowman); ff. 131-192 (quires 9-12, orientalia: Mandeville's Travels, Susannah, an excerpt from The Three Kings); ff. 193-325 (quires 13-20, Troilus and a unique translation of Peter Ceffons of Clairvaux's Epistola Luciferi ad Cleros). The scribe clearly produced the text in three sections to be joined, since at the foot of the final verso of each booklet what is probably his informal hand gives a count of the quires: "quaternus (?) 8 quarus" on f. 130v, "q—4 quares" on f. 192v, "ad 8 quares summa 20" on f. 325v. Catchwords regular at quire ends within booklets; leaf signatures (when not cropped) are simply arabic numerals, apparently regular for the first half of all quires.
The manuscript is of mixed vellum and paper; typically in each quire a single vellum sheet was folded in quarto around three paper sheets. Five different paperstocks occur, with quires often mixtures of the various stocks, and occasionally mixtures of half- and full sheets. These marks include:
-
a Monts, like Briquet 11872 (Pisa 1420-21),
somewhat
less like 11876 (Trévise, 1437). This stock is the exclusive form
used
in quires 1-5 (although quire 3 includes an unwatermarked sheet, ff.
38+39+42+43), 9, and 13 (with an unwatermarked sheet, ff.
196+197+204+205); with single sheets from other sources, it also appears
in
130quires 6, 7, and 20. There are single examples in quires 15 and 16 (the mark on ff. 229+236, 247+250), and two examples (one perhaps a half-sheet) in quire 17.
- b Joug, not in Briquet but most resembles 7873 (Sion 1410). A single sheet of this stock appears in quire 6 (the mark on ff. 82+95).
- c Hache, like Briquet 7505 (Tirlemont 1378, with variants to 1412). Single sheets of this stock appear in quires 7 (the mark on ff. 99+112) and 20 (the mark on ff. 312+ 320); there are two sheets in quire 15 (the mark on ff. 226+239, 231+234).
- d Cloche, like Briquet 3982 (Udine 1420-23). This stock is the exclusive form used in quires 8, 10-12, 14, and 18 (including one of the insert leaves). There are two sheets in quires 16 and 17 (one example in this quire perhaps a half-sheet), and a single example in quire 19 (the mark on ff. 297+302).
- e either Basilic or Griffon, not clearly identifiable with any Briquet stock. This stock appears only in quire 19, probably two full sheets and a half-sheet.
London, Lambeth Palace 491, part 1
Because of some serious (and quite unexpected, given the author) mistakes in the published description—Montague Rhodes James and Claude Jenkins, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Lambeth Palace (1930-32), pp. 681-684—I offer more extensive details.
- Booklet I (ff. 1-216)
- 1. ff. 1-205v The English prose Brut, acephalous and ending with the reign of Edward III.
- 2. ff. 206-216v The alliterative Siege of Jerusalem, lines 1-632. Collation: [quire 1 lost] 216 (lacks 7, 10) 3-516 616 (lacks 5, 7, 10, 12) 716 (lacks 2, 15) 816 (lacks 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13) 916 (lacks 7, 10) 1016 (lacks 7, 10, 14) 1116 1216 (lacks 7) 1316 (lacks 9) 14-1616. I have discussed the logic for a split in production in mid-text at Studies in Bibliography 39 (1986):105-106.
- Booklet II (ff. 217-74)
- 1. ff. 217-227v The Siege of Jerusalem concluded.
- 2. ff. 228-274v A unique English prose translation of The Three Kings of Cologne.
- Collation: 116 216 (lacks 2, 15) 316 416 (lacks 3, 14, 15, 16).
- Booklet III (ff. 275-90)
- 1. ff. 275-286v The alliterative Awntyrs off Arthure.
- 2. ff. 287-290v The verse Book of Hunting, breaking off at line 349. Collation: 116, with remainder lost.
291 ff. (150 repeated in the numeration); after four leaves of modern paper (ff. 291-94), there follows a separate codex (ff. 295-329), described Robert E. Lewis and Angus McIntosh, A Descriptive Guide to the Manuscripts of the Prick of Conscience, Medium Ævum Monographs n.s. 12 (Oxford: Society for the Study of Medieval Language and Literature, 1982), pp. 80-81. Page size 222 x 141 mm. (writing area 175 x 80/85 mm.). Catchwords at quire ends. There are two sets of leaf signatures. (a) In first halves of quires, rectos are signed at page foot with letter and arabic numeral, although most have been cropped; in this system, ff. 1-274=b-v. (b) Each recto in ff. 1-205 is signed in the upper right corner with a quire and leaf number, both in arabic (these run 2.1-16.5).
The manuscript is on mixed vellum and paper, prepared as HM 114. Excepting two unwatermarked sheets (ff. 4+5+10+11 in quire 2 and ff. 202+203+212+213 in quire 16), the sheets appear in large blocks of the same stock, all, so far as one can determine, full sheets. The watermarks include:
- a Monts, like Briquet 11685 (Trévise 1405, with variants to 1414); one might also compare 11687 (Padua 1408-15) and 11689 (Florence 1411-21). With the exception of the unwatermarked sheet mentioned above, this stock is the exclusive form in quires 2-13.
- b Lettre N, not in Briquet, most like 8431 (1414-20) but on the chain-line and lacking the cross. With the exception of the unwatermarked sheet mentioned above, this stock is the exclusive form in quires 14-16.
- c Ciseaux, like Briquet 3656 (Perpignan 1397, with north Italian variants to 1413); one might also compare 3656 (Aix-en-Provence 1426). This stock is the exclusive form in quires 17-21.
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