London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius D.vii/I
| Shelfmark | Date and Language | Contents |
| Physical Description | History | Record History | Bibliography |

Shelfmark
Country:England
Settlement:London
Repository: British Library
Idno:Cotton Tiberius D.vii/I
AltName:
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Date and Language
Date:s. xiv/xv
Language: English
Dialect:Scribal Dialect: Gloucestershire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 369 199. LP 7051 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 196). South Gloucestershire (Berkeley neighbourhood) (Waldron 1991, p. 68).
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Contents
A late fourteenth-century/early fifteenth-century manuscript of Trevisa's Polychronicon in two volumes. This manuscript, and Manchester, Chetham's Library, MS 11379, are the earliest witnesses to the transmission of this work, both being sufficiently close in dialect to receive the same LP in the Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English (Waldron 1991, p. 68).

Item: 1
Locus:ff. 1r-2v
Title:'Dialogus inter dominum et clericum'.
Incipit:'Seşthe şat babyl was ybuld'.
Explicit:'hys godhede & manhede. Explicit dialogus'.
Note:English preface on translation prefixed to Trevisa's translation.
Bibliography:Printed in Waldron 1988, pp. 289-294. Perry 1924.

Item: 2
Locus:f. 2v
Title:Epistola to Sir Thomas Berkeley
Incipit:'Incipit epistola'.'Welthe & worschip to my worşy and worschypfol lord'.
Explicit:'Hys blysfol face yn ioye wişoute eny ende amen'.'Explicit epistola'.
Bibliography:Waldron 1988, pp. 294-295.

Item: 3
Locus:ff. 3r-296
Title:Polychronicon (IPMEP 605)
Incipit:Too damaged to read.
Explicit:'brytayn ys yclepud amama for hyt bryngeş'.
Note:Trevisa's tranlsation of Higden's Polychronicon finished 18th April 1387. Most of ff. 5v and 6r blank.
Bibliography:Babington and Lumby 1865-86. Waldron 2004.

Item: 4
Locus:f. 20v
Title:In praise of Rome (IMEV 2831)
Incipit:'Rome noşyng peer ys to şe'.
Explicit:'how greet şu were whan şu were sond'.
Note:Verse found within Trevisa's Polychronicon.
Bibliography:Babington and Lumby 1865-86, i. 213.

Item: 5
Locus:f. 21v
Title:Epitaph of the giant Pallas (IMEV 2736)
Incipit:'Pallas Euander hys sone lyş here'.
Explicit:'slou? yn hys manere'.
Note:Verse found within Trevisa's Polychronicon.
Bibliography:Babington and Lumby 1865-86, i. 225.

Item: 6
Locus:f. 23r
Title:A couplet inscribed on a pillar (IMEV 1426)
Incipit:'?ef şe stone is oon'.
Explicit:'tel whar hy juyneş at ones'.
Note:Verse found within Trevisa's Polychronicon.
Bibliography:Babington and Lumby 1865-86, i. 227

Item: 7
Locus:f. 23r
Title: (IMEV 746)
Incipit:'Everych ny?t şar a cok'.
Explicit:'şay habbeş at eue no nmynde[sic]'.
Note:Verse found within Trevisa's Polychronicon.
Bibliography:Babington and Lumby 1865-86, i. 237

Item: 8
Locus:f. 39r
Title:Peaceful England (IMEV 3218)
Incipit:'Straange men şat neodeş'.
Explicit:'?ern wold octauian'.
Note:Verse found within Trevisa's Polychronicon.
Bibliography:Babington and Lumby 1865-86, ii. 19-21.

Item: 9
Locus:f. 40v
Title:Translation of lines in Virgil (IMEV 399)
Incipit:'As moche as gnawes'.
Explicit:'deu cold wel schort in a ny?te'.
Note:Verse found within Trevisa's Polychronicon.
Bibliography:Babington and Lumby 1865-86, ii. 39

Item: 10
Locus:f. 44r
Title:A verse on Chester Castle (IMEV 1637)
Incipit:'Chestre castel toun as a were'.
Explicit:'Bachus & venus also lauerna'.
Note:Verse found within Trevisa's Polychronicon.
Bibliography:Babington and Lumby 1865-86, ii, pp. 81-82.
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Physical Description
Form:Codex
Support: Parchment
Extent:310 x 230 mm
Collation: Unable to collate as all folios now remounted separately. Catchword on f. 181v, boxed in red, also on f. 192v; more on the collation is available in Waldron 2004.
Layout:Pricking not visible. Writing space of 270 x 195 mm. Single columns with 37 lines. Frame and lines ruled in drypoint.
Writing: Scribe 1 (ff. 1-169r): regular Anglicana Formata, influenced occasionally by Bastard Anglicana, with minums generally traced continuously, but occasionally reverts to tracing minims separately with little feet and serifs (see f. 51v). Large script displaying a certain degree of sophistication in the execution of the litterae notabiliores, which he decorates with looped ascenders, horizontal strokes or penwork decorations with little faces (f. 88v) or emphatic extended ascenders on the top margin (ff. 88v-89r). The appearance of the hand varies in the use of thicker and thinner strokes, at times the thicker strokes are more noticeable in ascenders and descenders (f. 93r). Characteristics: double compartment a with a closed smaller loop over the head; rounded and diamond-shaped lobe d with rounded ascender curving 45 degrees from the left to the right, ending with a stroke towards the right which closes itself in a loop, and vice-versa; 8-shaped g with rounded head, varying with a head of more squarish proportion, the descender closes into a lobe, at times attached to the head by a thinner stroke. Straight, thick descender with a tail on the top of the back stroke on the left of p, rounded head with shaft starting attached to the back stroke and finishing half way on the descender; distinctly different from the slightly bent 45 degree back stroke of ş with a little tail attached on the left of the back stroke. Long r is used regularly in initial and final position; long s used regularly in medial position; rounded s used mainly in initial and in final position; closed w with the first stroke terminating in a small loop towards the right and the second back stroke turning towards right and terminating with a loop. Two closed lobes like a B-shape finish the letter on the right side. Body height: 3-4 mm. Scribe 2 (ff. 169r-296r): Anglicana Formata, with minims traced separately terminating with little serifs attached to the feet, but not always (see f. 189v). Small script that increases in size. Upright script with otiose hairlines extending far above and below the line of writing. Occasionally the scribe decorates the top line of writing with emphatic decorated ascenders (see for example f. 175v). The scribe has a distinctive orthographic preference for y over i, which he writes regularly with a dot. Double compartment a with a closed smaller loop over the head; rounded lobe d with rounded ascender curving 45 degrees from the left to the right, ending with a stroke towards the right which closes itself in a loop, or vice-versa; 8 shape g with rounded head, the descender closes into a rounded lobe, with a pointy side on the right and a little serif attached to the head. Straight descender with a tail on the top of the back stroke on the left of p; long r is used regularly in initial and final position; long and small capital s used regularly; rounded s used mainly for capitals or initial position; straight back ş used alternately with th, mainly in initial position, a little tail is attached on the left of the back stroke. Open w with the first stroke terminating in a small loop towards the right and the second back stroke extending above the level of the letter turning towards right and terminating with a loop. Two closed lobes like a B-shape finish the letter on the right side. & used regularly. Body height: 4 mm.
Decoration:First initial of text eight-lines deep with blue ground and red penwork but now much damaged. Red words in text, mostly names. Two-line red initials.
Binding: Not medieval. Rebound in 1958.
Foliation:1. i + 1-164 + i. 2. i + 165-296 + ii.
Additions:
Condition:Damaged in the Cotton fire of 1731. Restored under the direction of Sir Frederick Madden. Each folio now remounted. Initial page dark and damaged. Other folios torn/split at edges.
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History
Origin:Unknown
Provenance:Unknown
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Record History
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham with Orietta DaRold, University of Birmingham, March 2005.
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Related Manuscripts and other documents Scribal This manuscript and Manchester, Chetham's Library, 11379 both have been localised to the neighbourhood of Berkeley (Waldron 1991, p. 76). However, it is not thought that they share the same exemplar (Hanna 1989, p. 911).
Bibliography
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