London, British Library, Harley 201
| England |
| London |
| British Library |
| Harley 201 |
|
| ?s. vix |
| English |
| Scribe 1 - Scribal Dialect: Herefordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 363 258, LP 7500 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 199). Scribe 2 - Scribal dialect: Gloucestershire. Linguistic Grid Reference: 384 219, LP 7080 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 196). |
Robert of Gloucester's
Chronicle until the seventh year of King Stephen. The text, apparently written by two scribes is in dialects of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.
Item: 1| ff. 4r-161r |
| Chronicle (IMEV 727) |
| 'Inglond ys ryght good ich wene of eche lond best y set in že ende of že worlde as al in že west'. |
| 'So žat me huld clerkes žat bet to ry?te'. |
|
| Codex |
| Parchment. Fairly thick and with suede-like texture on some folios. |
| 190 x 140 mm |
|
Catchwords: ff. 8v; 16v; 25v; 33v; 40v; 48v; 54v; 60v; 69v; 76v; 84v; 92v; 100v; 111v; 120v; 128v; 132v; 143v; 149v; 156v. |
| Pricking: where visible very small holes. Writing space: c. 145 x 95 mm. Single columns with 36 lines ruled in drypoint. |
|
Scribe 1 writing in black ink in an Anglicana hand. Characteristics: pointed e; ascenders barely above the body/other letters; 2-shaped r; v-shaped r in initial and final position; 8-shaped s; double compartment g; ascender of d short and rounded almost looks like double compartment d; double compartment a with pointed head; small neat hand. Body height: 2 mm.
Scribe 2 writing in black ink in a larger Anglicana Formata with a more open and spaced aspect. Characteristics: reversed circular e in final position; dotted y; B-shaped w; ?. Body height: 3 mm. Although there are apparently two scribes copying these texts their hands are so similar that it is difficult to distinguish between them and thus differentiate between their work.
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| F. 4r, initial page - four-line initial E in blue and red with red penwork and a four-sided border made of red and blue decoration. Seven-line blue initials with red and blue penwork. Three-line blue initials with red penwork decoration. Four-line lombardic capitals. Very little decoration in later quires.
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Not medieval. Size: 200 x 145 mm. Cover: red leather over pasteboard with gold stamp of two angels holding a shield with the banner 'VIRTUTE ET FIDE' at their feet. Five raised bands across the spine.
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| ff. 158. 6 flyleaves at beginning (first two modern paper) and 3 at end (last two modern paper). Old pencil foliation in top right. Correct foliation in bottom right. |
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| Unknown |
| Illegible inscription of the sixteenth century on f. 2r. F. 16v carries in margin, 'Thys is my M?ay ___ ___bankes boke' in a hand of the fifteenth/sixteenth century. F. 162v - possibly the name: '' in later hand, perhaps seventeenth century. F. 3r carries the name '', plus one or two others which are unreadable. |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, March 2004.
- Casley D., Hocker, W., Morton, C., index by Astle T., 1801-1812. A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 1808-1812, 4 vols., London: G. Eyre and A. Strahan, 1. Commenced by H. Wanley, and successively continued by D. Casley, W. Hocker, C. Morton, index by T. Astle, p. 63.
- Hearne, T. 1724. Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicle, Oxford.
- 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.
