Manchester. The John Rylands Library, English MS 63
- Source
- Manchester Digital Collections
- Library
- The John Rylands Library
- Shelfmark
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- English MS 63
- Biblissima authority file
- Date
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- 2nd half 15th century
- Language
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- Middle English
- Title
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- Canterbury Tales (Canterbury Tales Fragment)
- Agent
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- Preferred form
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- Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?-1400)
- Role
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- Author
- Original form
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- Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400
- Other form
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- Chaucer, Geoffrey (1340?-1400)
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Author: Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Chaucer
- Chaucer, Geoffrey (1343-1400)
- Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400, author.
- Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400.
- Chaucer, Geoffrey, -1400. Troilus and Criseyde.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, -1400
- Chaucer, Geoffrey (-1400)
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- Biblissima portal
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- George Mason (1735-1806)
- Original form
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- George Mason 1735-1806
- Mason, George, 1735-1806
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- George John Spencer (1758-1834)
- Original form
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- George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, 1758-1834
- Spencer, George John Spencer, Earl, 1758-1834
- Other form
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- Spencer, George John Spencer, Earl, 1758-1834, cartographer.
- Biblissima portal
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- John Poyntz Spencer (5ème comte, 1835-1910)
- Role
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- Former owner
- Original form
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- John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer, 1835-1910
- Spencer, John Poyntz Spencer, Earl, 1835-1910
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Enriqueta Augustina Rylands (1843-1908)
- Original form
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- Enriqueta Rylands
- Biblissima authority file
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- Description
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- Extent:
2 folios (iv+2+iv) Leaf height: 272 mm, width: 195 mm.
Binding:
Quarter-bound in brown morocco, marbled paper-covered boards, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, for The John Rylands Library. The initials 'JR' for John Rylands are stamped in gold in the centre of the board. There is scuffing and damage to the corners of the board.
Decoration:
A fine 19-line pen-and-ink drawing of the Miller on horseback, 101 x 128 mm within a burnished gold frame, fills the upper half of the text space on folio 1v, preceding the tale. There is also a 6-line initial W in blue, pink, green and black with white penwork and floral infill on a burnished gold ground, with elaborate foliate border extensions terminating in acanthus leaves, ivy leaves and bezants (folio 1v).
Acquisition:
Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands in 1892 from John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer 1835-1910, and later transferred to The John Rylands Library. On the inner upper cover (upper pastedown) is the armorial bookplate of John Rylands Library, dated 1894, with the Latin motto "Nihill sine labore". The lower inner corner bears an oval leather label 'E Bibliotheca Spenceriana' identifying the codex as having once been part of the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, the private library of the Earls Spencer at Althorp.
Layout:
Single column, 38 long lines to a page.
Written height: 212 mm.
Script:
Written in gothic cursive anglicana formata by a single scribe with secretary influence (d, g, and final s).
Subject(s):
English poetry--Middle English, 1100-1500; Literature, Medieval; Poetry, Medieval
Abstract:
Two-leaf fragment of a later fifteenth-century manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, containing a pen-and-ink drawing of the Miller on horseback. This fragment forms part of the 'Oxford Manuscript' of the Canterbury Tales, along with Manuscript 1084/2 in the Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia, which comprises eleven leaves.
Foliation:
A bifolium, leaves 2 and 7 in a quire, if the quire was of 8 leaves.
Format:
Codex
Material:
Parchment with paper flyleaves.
Provenance:
George Mason 1735-1806, writer and book collector.
George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, 1758-1834; then by descent to John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer, 1835-1910. Spencer accession no. 23125.
- Extent:
- Place
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- Preferred form
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- England (United Kingdom)
- Original form
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- England
- Other form
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- Angleterre
- Angleterre (?)
- Angleterre.
- Angleterre ?
- Anglaterra
- Inglaterra
- Engeland
- Angleterre (Salisbury ?)
- Anglaterra (Salisbury?)
- Inglaterra (Salisbury?)
- England (Salisbury?)
- [Oxford?]
- [England]
- England, Norwich?
- England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's Abbey?
- England, Cornwall?
- England, St. Albans?
- England, North?
- England, York?
- England, Witham?
- England, Winchester or St. Albans
- England, Reading or Leominster
- England, Cirencester?
- England, Sherborne?
- England, Worcester?
- England, Bury St. Edmunds?
- England, Tewkesbury?
- England, East Anglia?
- England, Peterborough?
- England, Mercia?
- England, Canterbury, Christ Church?
- England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's?
- England, Winchester?
- England, Oxford?
- Flanders (possibly executed in England)
- England and Netherlands
- England, Canterbury?
- England, West Midlands?
- England, London?
- England, Crowland?
- England, Wessex?
- England, Reading?
- England, Northeast?
- England, Southeast?
- England, Ely?
- England, Winchester or Hereford?
- England, Salisbury?
- England, Oxford or Salisbury
- German (but made in England)
- England, South East (?)
- England. Peterborough (?) or Lincoln (?)
- Hereford?, England
- England, Durham ?
- England, Durham?
- England, probably Durham
- England, Oxford (?)
- England, possibly Oxford
- England (?Oxford)
- England, Durham (?)
- England, London/Westminster
- Unknown, possibly London and Cambridge
- Royal Chancery, London; Cambridge
- Engeland (?)
- England (II)
- I. England
- [Engeland]
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- Rights
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- Provided by The University of Manchester. Zooming image © University of Manchester Library, All rights reserved. Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
