San Marino, CA., Huntington Library, HM 128

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


Shelfmark
Country:United States
Settlement:San Marino, CA.
Repository: Huntington Library
Idno:HM 128
AltName:Ashburnham 130
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Date and Language
Date:s. xvin
Language: English
Dialect:Scribe 1 (ff. 1-94, Piers Plowman B-Version (first eight leaves of text) and Piers Plowman fragment (first twenty-two lines)): Scribal Dialect: Warwickshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 421 248, LP 8050 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 245). Scribe 2 (ff. 205 seq. Siege of Jerusalem): Scribal Dialect: Warwickshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 423 238, LP 6910 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 244).
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Contents
An early fifteenth-century manuscript containing the Prick of Conscience, Piers Plowman, B-text, The Siege of Jerusalem and How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter. The manuscript was copied by six scribes all sharing similar dialects although only two have been analysed in the Linguistic Atlas.







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Physical Description
Form:Codex
Support: Parchment
Extent:240 x 168 mm
Collation: 1-268 276 + one leaf 284. No catchwords (see Benson and Blanchfield 1997, p. 108).
Layout:Layout varies. Pricking marks cropped. Writing space of 205 x 135 mm but 205 x 140 mm in Item 3. Single columns ruled for 40 lines in Items 1, 2 and 4, 55-65 lines in Item 5, 30 lines in Item 6. Double columns and 61 lines in Item 3. Ruled in lead but now no longer visible or very faint.
Writing: Scribe 1 (ff. 1r-94r; first 22 lines of f. 96r; ff. 113r-120v) writing in an Anglicana Formata script 'with distinctive left and right hand flourishes from descenders of h and y respectively; rounded, neater, and squarer than Hand 2' (Benson and Blanchfield 1997, p. 110), 2-shaped r in medial and final position; long s in medial position; double compartment a with rounded and pointed head; looped ascender on h; hooked ascender on l; looped ascender on d; 8-shaped g; hooked ascender on b. Scribe 2: ff. 95r, rest of 96v (first 22 lines: Scribe 1); 'Anglicana Formata with Secretary influence; angular, narrow, decorative; small a, angular g, short and secondary forms of r' (Benson and Blanchfield 1997, p. 110). Scribe 3 (ff. 97r-112v), 'the rubricator; Anglicana: a denser, slightly different d with headstroke curved over left rather than angular form; also wrote f. 114v line 6 second word to line 12 (English and Latin), lines 4-14 of f. 186r and lines 1-18 on f.186v' (Benson and Blanchfield 1997, p. 110). Scribe 4 (ff. 121r-205r) writing in an Anglicana script. Characteristics: 2-shaped r in medial position; sigma s in final position; long s in medial position; looped/hooked ascender on h and also curved descender; B-shaped w; double compartment a with pointed head; double compartment d. 'similar to angular Hand 2 with distinctive forms of e with extended middle stroke and w with heavy down-stroke; descenders curve to left' (Benson and Blanchfield 1997, p. 110). Scribe 5: item 5 (ff. 205r-216r) writing in an Anglicana hand. Characteristics: small script; 2-shaped r in medial and final posiiton; 8-shaped g but less angular that Scribe 6; long s in medial position; ş; double compartment a. Scribe 6: item 6 (ff. 216v-219r) writing in a 'very large Anglicana hand' (Benson and Blanchfield 1997, p. 110). Characteristics: sigma s in final position; dotted y with hooked descender bearing to the right; 2-shaped r in final position; v-shaped/long r in medial position; ascenders and descenders not much above minim height; hooked ascender on h; 8-shaped g in initial position; 8-shaped g with diamond-shaped bowls.
Decoration: Item 1: Eight-line initial T in red and blue with infill of leaves and vine and red and blue penwork flourishing extending into the margin begins the text. Initials with red and blue penwork. Latin quotations boxed in red. Item 2: Twelve-line red and blue initial I with red and blue penwork flourishing begins text. Two-three line initials with red or blue penwork flourishing. Item 3: two-three line red initials; red paraphs.
Binding: Not contemporary; First half of sixteenth century
Foliation:ff. i + 219 + i.
Additions:'Robertus Langlande natus in comitatu Salopie in villa Mortymers Clybery in the claylande, within viij myles of Malverne hylles, scripsit, peers ploughman, li 1. In somer season whan set was sunne', written by Bale (see Dutschke 1989 (who transcribes 'Malborne' rather than 'Malverne', p. 163, Benson and Blanchfield 1997, p. 111).
Condition:Item 6 is written on parchment of poor condition with much soiling.
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History
Origin:Unknown
Provenance:Names of possible early owners: '' (f. 144v, in a fifteenth-century hand)', '' and 'Mavde' (ff. 149 and 153 respectively, both in the same fifteenth-century hand); '' or 'louden' (f. 101, fifteenth/sixteenth century), and '' (beginning flyleaf, sixteenth century). Belonged to (1760?-1832) appearing in his catalogue (Dutschke 1989, p. 163 and for later ownership). On first flyleaf, 'From the Library of the Earl of Ashburnham Appendix No. CXXX May 1897'.
Acquisition:Acquired by Huntington in January 1918 (Dutschke 1989, p. 163).
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Record History
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, August 2003. Consulted on microfilm and described with reference to Dutschke 1989 and Benson and Blanchfield 1997. Owing to the Huntington Library's stipulations on the web publication of images, it has unfortunately not been possible to include images of this manuscript in the Catalogue. For published images see Bibliography.
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Bibliography
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