London, British Library, Additional 21202

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


Shelfmark
Country:England
Settlement:London
Repository: British Library
Idno:Additional 21202
AltName:
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Date and Language
Date:s. xv
Language: English
Dialect:Scribal Dialect: Warwickshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped but McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin note 'Language perhaps E. Warwicks' (1986, p. 246).
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Contents
An illuminated fifteenth-century copy of the Speculum Christiani.





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Physical Description
Form:Codex
Support: Parchment
Extent:170 x 120 mm
Collation: Catchwords: f. 22v; 30v; 38v; 46v; 54v; 62v; 70v; 78v; 94v.
Layout:Pricking not visible. Writing space of 110 x 75 mm. Single columns with 21 lines. Frame ruled in drypoint.
Writing: One scribe writing in dark brown ink using an Anglicana Formata script. Characteristics: double compartment g; long s in medial position; 2-shaped r; B-shaped w. Body height: 2mm.
Decoration: Decoration of item 1, Speculum Christiani, ff. 4r-70v: title in red; red underlining, some initials tinted red, names underlined in red, blue, and red paraphs. Initial page, f. 4r, three-line gold champ initial D on a quartered rose and blue ground. Sprays in black pen with green filled oval lobes and a pair of gold balls ending in a spiky gold trefoil extend vertically along the left margin; three-line blue initials with red penwork extending into border. F. 6r - three-line gold champ initial D on a blue ground, with dark rose infill decorated with white (oxidised) patterns. Sprays of black feathering with green filled oval lobes extend along the left margin. The upper spray terminates in three spiky gold trefoils topped by black squiggles with green tint, whilst the lower spray carries a pair of gold balls and terminates in a single motif (the motif is now damaged). F. 24r - three-line gold champ initial M on a rose ground, with blue infill decorated with white patterns. Sprays of black feathering have green filled oval lobes and pairs of gold balls. The upper spray ends in a gold 'cone'/teasel whilst the lower spray ends in a single spiky gold trefoil with black, green tinted squiggles. F. 33r - three-line gold champ initial on a rose ground with blue infill decorated with white patterning. Sprays of black feathering with green tinted oval lobes and pairs of gold balls extend from the top and bottom of the initial. The upper spray carries a gold cone/teasel whilst the lower spray carries a trio of gold motifs, crescent shaped with 'hairs' along the outer curve. F. 43v - three-line gold initial A on a quartered ground of blue and rose. Green tinted pen squiggles adorn the top left corner and the top of the initial. The bottom left corner sports black feathering with green tinted oval lobes and a pair of gold balls ending in a gold cone/teasel. F. 42v - four-line gold initial S on a quartered rose and blue ground. Sprays of black feathering support pairs of green tinted oval lobes and pairs of gold balls topped by green tinted black squiggles. Two-line blue initials with extending red penwork decorate the manuscript until f. 70v where there is also a change of ink but not a change of scribe. Later texts: eg. f. 71r three-line blue initial and blue paraphs, f. 73v two-line blue paraphs.
Binding: Not contemporary. 175 x 125 mm. Covered in brown leather now with wormholes. Possibly original oak boards. Four bands across the spine.
Foliation:i ('modern' paper) + 99 + i ('modern' paper).
Additions:
Condition:
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History
Origin:Unknown
Provenance:At the end, in a fifteenth-century hand is written ' possessor huius libri', on f. 99r. 'Purch'd of 13 Nov 1855' f. i. On f. 12r is written '' in a seventeenth/eighteenth-century hand.
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Record History
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, January 2004 with additional notes by Orietta DaRold, University of Birmingham, October 2004.
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Bibliography
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