MS. Arch. Selden. B. 24
Summary Catalogue no.: 3354
Anthology of English and Scottish poetry ('The Sinclair manuscript'); Scottish, after c. 1489
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Irish
Fol. 120r contains a note of the birth of Prince James IV in 1472 in Latin.
DIMEV 1123MS Arch. Selden. B. 24 is the sole surviving witness to The Kingis Quair.The rubric on fol.191v was added later, c.16th century.
DIMEV 2024Quatrain in Irish, fol. 231v
Physical Description
Collation
The collation of fols. 225-229 is complicated by the fact that all five leaves are singletons, which implies that (unless the structure was abnormal) their other halves are now missing. If the regularity of the 12-leaf quire structure was continued, the eighteenth quire may also be lacking two more leaves (although as it is the last quire these may have been cancelled). Furthermore, fol. 229 is distinct in ink colour, ductus, and hand, however the inner margin shows that it has been positioned with fols. 225-229 since at least the time of the damp damage. Fols. 230 and 231 were incorrectly ordered prior to disbinding in 1993: the folios were shuffled, and fol. 231 was positioned back to front so that the gutter became the external edge. The correct order is fols. 231v, 231r, 230r, 230v. B.C. Barker-Benfield shows that damage on fol. 230v suggests it was once the last flyleaf before the back cover (1997).
Condition
Layout
In the first scribe’s stint, the vertical left text frame is generally ruled in red up to the change of hand on fol. 209v. Curiously, the first scribe’s ruling stops at the end of his stint mid-page, at the foot of the second stanza. In the second scribe’s stint, the vertical left text frame and the top horizontal margin are ruled in plummet. The text is not ruled throughout. The number of lines to a page varies from 32 to 43. Pricking trimmed.
Hand(s)
The manuscript was copied by two main scribes, both writing in a secretary book hand (see M.B. Parkes, plate 13.ii, English Cursive Book Hands 1250-1500 (Oxford, 1969; rpt. 1980)).
The first scribe wrote fols. 1-209v, stopping halfway down the page at line 1239 of The Kingis Quair, and probably also fol. 229r (see below). The first leaf of the manuscript is a cancel and replaces the original (presumably lost) first page of Troilus and Criseyde. Whether this leaf was written by the same scribe at a later date or a third scribe has been the topic of debate (see R.K. Root, 1914; W.A. Craige, 1940). The identity of this scribe has been suggested by George Neilson (1899) as the Scottish scribe James Graye, although this has been refuted. The first scribe’s hand has been identified in three other Scottish manuscripts: National Library of Scotland, MS acc. 9253; St John’s College, Cambridge, MS G.19 (187); and an unnamed late fifteenth-century Latin and Scots manuscript in the possession of the Right Honourable the Earl of Dalhousie.
The second scribe wrote fols. 209v-228v. The identity of this scribe has been linked with ‘V. de F.’ whose name appears in Part VI of Cambridge University Library, MS Kk.1.5, but this is unconfirmed. The hand of fol. 229 closely resembles the first scribe, and potentially once belonged to a now lost quire which was originally bound earlier in the manuscript.
The short poems on fols. 231v-230r are in another hand (or hands) to the main scribes.
Decoration
(fol. 1r) A historiated initial, seven lines high, containing four figures (two male, two female) in the foreground of a green field with a figure pointing with a golden speer from above. Behind the figures is the walls of a city. One of the figures is labelled ‘Troylus’ and another ‘Cr[ ]’ in gold.
There are 21 demi-vinets (or bar-borders) across the manuscript which include penwork tracery, gold studding, blue acanthus leaves, strawberries, and floral shapes in blue and gold. The majority include birds. The demi-vinets mark significant points of division between texts and within Troilus and Criseyde: fols. 1v, 41v, 67r, 91v, 111v, 120v, 132r, 134r, 137v, 138v, 152v, 192r, 111r, 163r, 166r, 172v, 177r, 180r, 185r, and 187v.
Decorated initials appear at the beginning of Books III-V of Troilus and Criseyde, with shades of blue wash on a gilt background infilled with florals. More simplistic initials appear at the beginning of five texts, once within Troilus and Criseyde, and at the beginning of each legend in The Legend of Good Women. These are characterised by a gilded and quartered design in purple and blue.
Ascenders are occasionally decorated, perhaps by a later hand. The arms of Henry, 3rd Lord Sinclair appear on fol. 118v.
The text of Troilus and Criseyde has been extensively annotated by multiple hands, and the margins contain some glosses in the main scribe’s hand. Some (see fol. 111v) are accommodated in the demi-vinet, suggesting they were present before decoration.
A note on fol. 120r by the first scribe dates and locates the manuscript: ‘Natius principis n(ost)ri Iacobi quarti anno do(imi)ni Mmo iiiic | lxxiio xvii die me(nsis) marcii vi(delicet) in festo sancti pat(ri)cii confessor(is) | in monasterio sancta crucis prope Edinburgh’.
Fols. 231v and 230v have been annotated with various names, and fol. 231v notably contains two lines of a Gaelic inscription.
Binding
Prior to its disbinding in 1993, the manuscript was bound in seventeenth-century calfskin which was re-backed in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Disbinding revealed that the seventeenth century binding was not a conventional sewn binding, but rather comprised a series of broad horizontal slots which had been cut in the paper and filled with glue in order to attach lengths of cord. This technique was necessary as the quires had been trimmed on all four sides (due to damp damage) and thus were no longer attached at the fold.
The manuscript is currently preserved as a sequence of detached singletons, each independently encapsulated in Melinex, and ordered following the hypothetical arrangement of the original quires.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The manuscript appears to have been compiled for Henry, Lord Sinclair (d. 1513) (created lord Sinclair in 1489), whose arms appear on fol. 118v and whose ownership is noted on fol. 230v: ‘liber Henrici domini Sinclar’. Further evdience for dating is the note on fol. 120r that King 'James IV' (reigned from 1488) was born in 1472.
The manuscript likely remained in the Sinclair family for some time, as the names ‘Elezebeth synclar’ (fol. 231r) and ‘Jen Sinclar’ (fol. 231v) are also recorded.
Other names present include ‘Agnes findlason’, ‘Mr John Duncan’, ‘patrik schiner’, ‘Lawrence smolo’, ‘villem crusstance’, and ‘William’ – possibly a Sinclair. The name ‘Donald Gorm’ on fol. 231v could pertain to the late sixteenth-century chief of the MacDonalds of Sleat in Skye, however this name could also represent a form of ‘album amicorum’. This page also contains the note ‘Charmois 1592’.
John Selden: in his collection on his death in 1654.
Acquired by the Bodleian Library either in 1654 or in September 1659.
Record Sources
Availability
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Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (7 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Printed descriptions:
Online resources:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2022-09: New description by Charlotte Ross.