Manchester, John Rylands University Library, Eng. 50

| Shelfmark | Date and Language | Contents |
| Physical Description | History | Record History | Bibliography |


Shelfmark
Country:England
Settlement:Manchester
Repository: John Rylands University Library
Idno:Eng. 50
AltName:
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Date and Language
Date:s. xivex
Language: English
Dialect:Scribal Dialect: Staffordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 405 304, LP 519 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 238).
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Contents
A late fifteenth-century manuscript (Ker 1983, p. 401) containing the Prick of Conscience and Speculum Gy de Warwick.


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Physical Description
Form:Codex
Support: Parchment. Fairly thick.
Extent:245 x 145 mm
Collation: 18 (wants 7, 8); 2-48; 58 (wants 6 after p. 70, a tiny scrap remains, and 8 after p. 72); 98; 108 (wants 2-7 after p. 90); 11-188; 192 (pp. 221-4). Catchwords: pp. 28; 44; 60; 88; 92; 108; 124; 140; 156; 172; 188; 220.
Layout:Pricking: not visible. Writing space of 190 x 85 mm. Single columns with 33 lines. Frame ruled in brown crayon, ruling of lines not visible.
Writing: One scribe writing in brown ink in an Anglicana Formata script. Characteristics: 2-shaped r in medial position; double compartment a; hooked ascender on h, l, and b; long s in initial position; hooked hairline descender on h; 8-shaped g; sigma s in final position; circular reversed e in final position; v-shaped r in medial position; relatively tall ascenders, as high again as the minims; ş; ?. Body height: 3mm.
Decoration:Text 1 - five-line initials in red and blue with penwork flourishing into left margin with infill of leaves on a vine outlined in red - e.g. p. 46 where the initial marks 'The threde part'. Each part is marked in this way. Two-line blue lombardic capitals with red penwork flourishing. Red running titles. Occasional red or blue one-line initials. Occasional red paraphs. Text 2 - four-line blue initial with red serrated pattern on left side with infill of leaves and vines outlined in red with red penwork extending down the left border and along the top margin forming a two-sided border. One artist decorates the whole manuscript.
Binding: Not medieval. Size: 260 x 150 mm. Cover of red leather with 5 bands across the spine.
Foliation:vi + 112 + v. Paginated 1-224. 4 paper flyleaves added at rebinding followed by 2 'modern' paper flyleaves. 1 'modern' paper flyleaf at back along with 4 paper leaves added when rebound.
Additions:None
Condition:Good
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History
Origin:Unknown
Provenance:Belonged in the eighteenth century to 'Andrew Clerke', f. 1; to the Norfolk antiquary (d. 1729), f. 1; to (d. 1771), f. v verso; to , master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge: his sale, 7 May 1798, lot 8061; to (admitted to Emmanuel College in 1785) who wrote a note on f. v signed C. J. H. and dated 1813 in which he says that the book had been in 's catalogue of 1800 and that he had bought it when Uphill 'lived in Bridge Street 1802'; to : his sale, Sotheby's, 6 May 1907, lot 229.
Acquisition:Quaritch catalogue 344, item 28 (£35). Bought from Quaritch in 1919 for £35: invoice dated 28 Jan.
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Record History
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, May 2004.
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Related Manuscripts and other documents Textual A member of the Lichfield subgroup (Lewis and McIntosh 1982, p. 88). Scribal Written in the same hand as London, British Library, MS Harley 1205 (Lewis and McIntosh 1982, p. 87) which has a scribal dialect of 'Lichfield or nearby Staffs.' according to McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin (1986, p. 110).
Bibliography
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