Cambridge, Trinity College, O.4.26
[Part 1]
General information
| Folios | 126 |
| Folio notes: | the ms. has many material lacunae: at least 10 folios (the first folio and the last of the first quire, and then between ff. 30-31, 38-39, 45-46, 119-120; 4 folios are missing between ff. 87-88) + a whole quire at the end of the MS are lost. |
| Language | Language object (3) |
| Approx. date | 1400 to 1450 |
| Date notes | |
| Place(s) of production | FranceNeither Jung 1996 nor Barbieri 2005 and 2007 give precisions about the provenance of the MS. Only James 1990 generally indicates France. |
| First words of second recto folio | pour ceste doubtance |
| First words of last recto folio | na (the last folio is torn at the top) |
| Incipit | [f. 1ra] choses (et) si vous diray en quele maniere. ¶ Darius qui fu le premerain Roy des / assiriens (et) plus puissant q(ue) nul des / autres qui puys y furent quant il fu / occis sa femme Semiramis tint le regne |
| Explicit | [f. 126vb] les aruspices (et) les sortisseurs me dis / rent que cestoit mauuaiz signe (et) molt / perilleux Et se tu faiz ce que je te prie |
Material
| Material: | Material object (4) |
| Watermark: | |
| Condition: | good parchment in good conditions. In many istances, the bottom margin has been irregularly cut. Occasional tears, usually located outside the justification (but see f. 31ra, where a tear from the bottom margin is prolonged accross the writing space; f. 111vb, a tear in the centre of the column etc.), for instance: f. 36 (a tear external margin), 45 (tears and an hole), 51, 54 etc. The last two folios are worn and dark, the top part of the last folio (f. 126) is torn. The initial at f. 53vb is very effaced. |
Structure
| Collation: | 16 2-48 5-77 8-118 124 13-158 167 178 |
| Quire structure: | Quaternions. The ms. has many material lacunae: at least 10 folios (the first folio and the last of the first quire, and then between ff. 30-31, 38-39, 45-46, 119-120; 4 folios are bissing between ff. 87-88) + a whole quire at the end of the MS are lost. |
| Quire marks: | MSQuiremarkDisposition object (35) |
| Catchwords: | |
| Catchword disposition: | MSCatchwordDisposition object (9) |
Physical description
| No. of illustrations: | 7 |
| General illustration: | For a list of the illustraion and description of their subject, cf. Jung 1996: 462-3, who considers the possibility that 3 illustrations were lost in ff. 30, 38, 45. The first 2 illustrations (ff. 35vb and 50rb) are inserted in the column, the other 5 (ff. 54r, 68r, 80v, 93r, 107v) are double column illustrations. There are only a few natural and architectural elements, the background is usually elaborated, e.g. f. 35vb (chequered ground, gold red and blue), f. 50rb (red ground with gold pattern), 54ra (dark blue foliage), etc. |
| General decoration: | • framed decorated initials, gold ground, letter decorated with ivy-leaf patterns red and blue, prolonged in the margins f. 4va (3 ll.), 35ra (7 ll.), 53vb (7 ll.), 56va (7 ll.), 60rb (7 ll.), f. 68va (su 3 ll.), f. 80vb (7 ll.), 93ra (7 ll.), 105va (su 7 ll.), f. 107vb (su 4 ll), 118rb (7 ll.) • small initials (2 ll.), alternatively blue and gold, framed with red and blue penworks • paragraph signs insiede the column (same colours of the small initials) • phrase initials marked with red strokes • first line ascenders with developments (less frequently the discenders of the last line of the column), hilighted with red strokes • line fillers consisting in a red wavy line |
| Evidence of readership: | f. 1ra a modern hand has written in the top margin: A history from the beginning of the world / to the [...] destruction of Troye. On the right margin another inscription, that James interprets as Roide Fluckden. f. 52v, in the right margin, another inscription difficult to read f. 80v, next to the bottom margin, a 15th-c. hand has written in plummet: ci estor mourir (referring to the death of Hector, illustrated in the same page). |
| Foliations description: | foliation in Arabic numerals, written in plummet by a modern hand on the top right corner of the recto of each folio. The same hand has added, again in Arabic numerals written in plummet, the quire marks in the bottom right corner of the recto of the first folio of each quire. |
Mise en page
| Description 1 | |
| Page sampled | 8v |
| Layout | MSLayout object (3) |
| Page dimensions | 325 x 240 (mm) |
| Justification | 211 x 160 (mm) |
| Columns | 273 + 14 + 73mm between columns Column ruling present in Colours object (4) (RulingMaterials object (3) ) |
| Lines | 33Line ruling present in Colours object (4) (RulingMaterials object (3) ) |
| Rubrication | Rubricated at the beginning of each major section and major episodes of the HA, of Prose 1 and of the Heroides. |
| Writing above top line? | False |
| Sample page layout: | |
Hand(s)
| Level of Execution: | Execution object (5) |
| Script | Script object (7) |
| Folio range | From 1ra to 126vb |
| Date | 1400 to 1450 |
| Scribe description: | single-box a; looped ascenders in d, b, f; initial v with the first stroke prolonged on the right in a long sloping shaft that cover the top of the following letter; very long j; in the tironian note, the first stroke descends vertically beyond the base line; straight r and x traced by a single circular stroke; always short s in final position. |
| Notes | |
Provenance
| Description | f. 118, after the colophon at the and of Prose 1, the scribe added: Guilhaut | |
| Date | 1400 to 1450 | |
| Place | Place object (3) | |