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MS. Bodl. 776

Summary Catalogue no.: 2559

Contents

John Lydgate, The siege of Thebes

The first eight lines of the prologue are wanting or mutilated, fol. 1 having been partly cut away.

Language(s): Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
ii (paper) + 4 + 71 + 1 + i (paper) leaves
Dimensions (binding): 263 × 180 × 28 mm.
Dimensions (leaf): 255 × 172 mm.
Foliation: Modern pen foliation beginning on first folio of text.

Collation

Quires of 8 folios.

Layout

180 × 98 mm.

Hand(s)

One hand. Later anglicana with secretary features, writing in dark brown ink. Secretary features include single-compartment ‘a’, whereas anglicana features include form of ‘w’, kidney-shaped final ‘s’, and figure-8 ‘g’.

Decoration

Foliate border in blue, green, gold, red, and black on fol. 1r. Top section is missing (see Pächt and Alexander iii. 891).

Flourished initials in red and blue ink at between five and six lines in height found on fols. 3v, 17r, 25r, 26r, 27v, 28v, 29v, 30v, 31r, 32r, 33v, and 40r.

Frequent rubrication.

Marginal pen trials in black, brown, and red ink on fols. 13r, 25r, 27v, 47r, and 56v.

History

Origin: c. 1430–40 ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

'R. P. howth thes booke', 16th cent. (fol. 72, cf. iiiv)

'Antho: Tuipyne', late 16th cent. (fol. 71).

This appears to be the 'Liber Anglicis metris de varijs Legendis MS.' presented by John Adams, an Oxford bookbinder, on March 30, 1614.

Record Sources

Description adapted from the Summary Catalogue (1922). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1973).
Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 427

2025-05-16: Additional data collected by Alice Payne and Riya Jones as part of the 'Big Data' and Medieval Manuscripts workshop held at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford on 29th May 2025. Data encoded in TEI-XML by Sebastian Dows-Miller on 4th June 2025.

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2025-05-16: Additional data collected by Alice Payne and Riya Jones as part of the 'Big Data' and Medieval Manuscripts workshop held at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford on 29th May 2025. Data encoded in TEI-XML by Sebastian Dows-Miller on 4th June 2025.