Cambridge, University Library, Dd.3.13
| England |
| Cambridge |
| University Library |
| Dd.3.13 |
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| s. xivex |
| English |
| Scribal Dialect: Gloucestershire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 359 213, LP 7230 (McIntosh, Samuels, and Benskin 1986, p. 197). 'S. E. Herefords. and N. W. Gloucs. borders' (Samuels 1988). |
A late fourteenth-century copy (Skeat believes it to be c. 1400, 1873, p. xliii) of the C-text of
Piers Plowman.
Item: 1| ff. 3r-99v |
| Piers Plowman, C-text (IMEV 1459) |
| 'Hoc vt agas melius iustus et esto pius'. |
| 'And wondede wel elingly and wolde nat be riche'. |
| The first lines begin at Prologue 155 of Russell and Kane's edition. |
Printed in Skeat 1873, Russell and Kane 1997.
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| Codex |
| Parchment |
| 290 x 180 mm |
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Written on flyleaf viii at back of ms: 'a8 (wants 1,2); b-g8; h8 (wants 1, 8); i-m8; n8 (wants 4-8); o2 (both gone): 95 ff. (out of 106); 1, 2, 57, 64, 100-6 lost)'.
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| Pricking not visible. Writing space of 240 x 135 mm with single columns and ruled for 32 lines. Frame and lines ruled in drypoint. |
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One scribe writing in an Anglicana hand. The ink is now brown. Characteristics: sigma s in final position; B-shaped w; loop on ascender of b, and l; e with pointed head; double compartment/8 shaped g; looped ascender on d; thorn; double compartment a; ascender of y has looped/curled tail; dotted y. Body height: 3mm. According to Doyle, the script is typical of the third quarter of the fourteenth century or early fifteenth century (1986, p. 42).
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Initial letters of each line tinted red but very much faded and barely visible. Latin lines tinted red but barely visible.
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Not medieval. Size: 310 x 185 mm. Cover of tan leather over pasteboard. Decorated with blind tooled triple lines around edge and triple lines from mid points to form a diamond and flowers at inner angles of the diamond. Five double bands across the spine.
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| vii (modern paper) + 99 + viii-xiv (modern paper) |
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| Good |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, June 2004.
- Doyle, A. I. 1986. ‘Remarks on Surviving Manuscripts of Piers Plowman’, in Simpson, J. and Kratzmann, G., ed, Medieval English Religious and Ethical Literature: Essays in Honour of George H. Russell, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, pp. 35-48, p.42.
- Hardwick, C. and Luard, H. R. ed, 1856. A Catalogue of the Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge Edited for the Syndics of the University Press, Cambridge: University Library, 1, pp. 75-76.
- Kane, G. 1988. ‘The Text’, in Alford, J. A., ed, A Companion to Piers Plowman, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 175-200.
- McIntosh, A., Samuels, M. L. and Benskin, M. 1986. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English: County Dictionary, 4 vols, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 4.
- Russell, G. and Kane G., ed, 1997. Piers Plowman: the C version: Will’s Visions of Piers Plowman, Do-well, Do-Better and Do-Best, London: Athlone Press, pp. 5-6.
- Samuels, M. L. 1988. ‘Dialect and Grammar’, in Alford, A. ed, A Companion to Piers Plowman, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 201-221, p. 206.
- Skeat, W. W., ed, 1886. The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman in Three Parallel Texts, 2 vols, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 2, pp. xlii-iii.
