Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawl. poet. f. 32

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


Shelfmark
Country:England
Settlement:Oxford
Repository: Bodleian Library
Idno:Rawl. poet. f. 32
AltName:SC 14526
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Date and Language
Date:s. xv2
Language: English
Dialect:Scribal Dialect: Warwickshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: Not mapped but McIntosh, Samuels, and Benskin state, 'language of W Leics or Warwicks' (1986, p. 246).
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Contents
An anthology made up of six booklets written and collected together in the second half of the fifteenth century.















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Physical Description
Form:Codex
Support: Parchment and paper.
Extent:280 x 195 mm
Collation:18, ff. 3r-10v; 24, ff. 11r-18v; 311, 6 added, ff. 19r-29v; 44, ff. 30r-37v; 58, ff. 38r-46v; 68, wants 1, ff. 47r-53v, catchwords; 720, wants 2, ff. 54r-72v, catchwords; 810, ff. 73r-92v, catchwords; 922, wants 1 and 22 ff. 93r-112v; 1024, wants 22, 23, 24 and 22 ff. 113r-133v; 1120,wants 19, 20, ff. 143r-150v; 1220, wants 19, 20 ff. 151r-168v; 1 leaf + 1324, ff. 170r-193v; 148, ff. 194r-201v; 154, ff. 202r-205v;. Intermittent catchwords.
Layout:Ff. 3r-37v - single columns, variable number of lines depending on the text, frame ruled in brown crayon, writing space of 175 x 115 mm. Ff. 38r-53v - single columns with a writing space of 190 x 115 mm and frame ruled in brown crayon. Ff. 169v-172v - writing space of 225 x 130 mm written in single columns. Ff. 173r-193r - writing space: 200 x 120 mm written in single columns with lines and frame ruled in drypoint. Ff. 194r-204r - writing space of 230 x 150 mm with frame and lines ruled in dry point and a variable number of lines.
Writing: Scribe of ff. 3r-37v: Secretary script, with use of elaborate ascenders and descenders. Characteristics: double compartment a with occasional use of single compartment a. Long s used in iitial and in medial position. Body height: 1-1.5 mm. Scribe of ff. 38r-53v: very similar to scribe above but use of a more formal hand influenced by Anglicana Formata. Perhaps the same scribe. Scribes of ff. 54v-168r: several scribes all writing in a Secretary script. Scribe of ff. 169v-172v writing in a Secretary script with elaborate ascenders and descenders. Body height: 2 mm. Scribe of ff. 173r-193r writing in a small Secretary script. General use of hairlines; regular use of single compartment a; and the open two strokes w with initial serif extending below the level of writing; use of long r and long s. Body height: 1.5 mm. Scribe of ff. 194r-204r - minute and quite hasty Secretary script with regular use of descenders extending below the line of writing. Regular use of single compartment a; and closed double looped w closing into a b-shape; short r; and closed s in final position and long s elsewhere; Body height: 1.5 mm.
Decoration:Ff. 3r-29v: text begins with a four-line blue initial with red penwork flourishing. Latin lines in red. Ff. 30r-31v: three-line red Lombardic capital m begins text. All lines underlined in red. Ff. 31v-32r: all lines underlined in red. Ff. 32v-35r: first letter of each line in red. Brackets in red. Ff. 35v-37v: first letter of each line in red. Brackets in red. Ff. 38r-53v: five-line initial T in red with black penwork flourishing, f. 38v. Ff. 54v-57r: red brackets. First letter of each line red. Ff. 56v-168r: large cadel-like initial begins text. Three-line Lombardic red capitals. Ff. 169v-172v: none. Ff. 173r-193r: two-line Lombardic red capitals. First letter of each line tinted red, some underlining in red.
Binding: Not medieval. Size: 280 x 200 mm. Cover of white leather over pasteboard. Four bands across the spine, barely raised. Without exterior decoration.
Foliation:ff. ii (paper, modern) (and ii parchment foliated as 1,2) 1-206 (205, 206 flyleaves, 206 is modern paper.
Additions:Additions on the flyleaves: f. 1v - IMEV 461.8, 1820, 3990, 3943. At f. 204v are notes on 'the Age of the World' and the dimensions of St. Paul's Cathedral at London, cf. f. 1v.
Condition:Good but wormholes front and back.
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History
Origin:Unknown
Provenance:On f. 205r is written '' in a c. 1500 hand. F. 1r is a note dated 25 Mar. 1750, about the book.
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Record History
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, March 2004. Script described by Orietta DaRold, University of Birmingham, June 2005.
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Bibliography
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