Bod-Inc: C-194
Chronicles: England
Chronicles of England [English].
Analysis of Content
[*2r] ‘Table of the maters shortly compiled and chapitred'.
a2r Chronicles of England [English]. The Brut or The Chronicles of England, ed. Friedrich W. D. Brie, 2 vols, EETS, Original Ser. 131, 136 (London, 1906, 1908); The Brute of England, continued until 1461; see Friedrich W. D. Brie, Geschichte und Quellen der mittelenglischen Prosachronik The Brute of England oder The Chronicles of England (Marburg, 1905), 120-3.
y6r [First colophon.]
[A1v] [Caxton, William: Preface and table of contents.] Caxton, Prologues, 40.
[A2r] Higden, Ranulphus: The description of England [English]. ‘The discripcion of Britayne'.’ Translated by Johannes de Trevisa. Incipit: ‘[F]irst as Galfride saith . . .’ An extract from Ranulph Higden, Polychronicon, ed. Churchill Babington and Joseph Rawson Lumby, 8 vols, Rolls Ser. 41 (London, 1865-82); see John Taylor, The Universal Chronicle of Ranulf Higden (Oxford, 1966), 140-2; Ronald Waldron, ‘The Manuscripts of Trevisa's Translation of the Polychronicon: Towards a New Edition', Modern Language Quarterly, 51:3 (1990, 1992) 281-317.
[D5r] [Second colophon.] Caxton, Prologues, 40.
Imprint
Imprint: Westminster: William Caxton, 1480. Folio.
Remarks: In two parts dated: (I) 10 June 1480; (II) 18 Aug. 1480. BMC treats as two separate items.
Collation
Collation: [*] a–x8 y6 [A–C8 D6]. Gathering [*] is numbered but not signed.
References
ISTC: ic00477000
GW: GW 6670;
Hain: HC 5000;
Goff: Goff C‑477;
BMC: BMC XI;
Proctor: Pr 9633, 9634;
Others: Blake 22 B16 and 25 B27; de Ricci, Caxton, 29 + 35; Duff 97 + 113; Lister M. Matheson, ‘The Middle English Prose Brut: a Location List of the Manuscripts and Early Printed Editions', Analytical and Enumerative Bibliography, 3 (1979), 254-66, at 259, no. 1; Oates 4072 + 4073; Painter, Caxton, 212; Rhodes 541 (I) + 674 (II); Sheppard 7373-8; STC 9991 + 13440a. Facsimile: English Experience, nos 508, 306 (New York and Amsterdam 1973, 1971).
LCN: 14511827
Copies
Copy number: C-194(1)
Wanting p1, which has been replaced with a blank leaf. Leaf o4 mutilated.
On [*2r], line 1 reads: ‘ . . . Jhū criſt . . .', line 5 reads: ‘ . . . Englond . . .' On a2r, lines 1-2 read: ‘ . . . namd . . . | . . . ſo namd |'. On b1r, line 1 reads: ‘ . . . onely . . .' On x4r the first line is printed last. On [D5r], line 19 reads: ‘ . . . therfore . . .', line 20 ‘ . . . whiche atte request . . .’
Binding: Contemporary English (Oxford) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, one clasp lost. Formerly chained: staple-marks of a hasp at the head of the upper cover. On both covers intersecting triple fillets form a double frame; on the upper cover the inner rectangle is divided by double fillets into lozenge-shaped and triangular compartments; these are decorated with a small rectangular dragon stamp (Gibson, Oxford Bindings, pl. xxxiv, no. 36), and a small square dragon stamp (Gibson, Oxford Bindings, pl. xxxiv, no. 42), a small square stag stamp (cf. Gibson, Oxford Bindings, pl. xxxv, no. 68), a small square lion stamp (Gibson, Oxford Bindings, pl. xxxiv, no. 43), and a small rectangular stamp with two birds (Gibson, Oxford Bindings, pl. xxxiv, no. 41). On the lower cover the inner rectangle is divided by fillets into four vertical compartments surrounded by a border formed by the repeated rectangular dragon stamp (Gibson, Oxford Bindings, pl. xxxiv, no. 36); the compartments are decorated with the stamp with two birds (Gibson, Oxford Bindings, pl. xxxiv, no. 41), and the square lion stamp (Gibson, Oxford Bindings, pl. xxxiv, no. 43); see Gibson, Oxford Bindings, 20. The book is listed by Graham Pollard in his notes on Oxford bindings, Bodleian Library, MS. Pollard 326, fols 8 and 25.
Size: 300 × 220 × 53 mm.
Size of leaf: 286 × 207mm.
Six parchment leaves from a thirteenth-century manuscript of Justinianus, Codex, 9.29(30)-17, 21-41, and commentary used as pastedowns and endleaves.
Occasional early marginal notes in several hands, including brief summaries, key words and phrases, and ‘nota' marks, and running headlines in English; words relating to the church of Rome have been cancelled. On [D6v] in the hand of Thomas Bensted: ‘Quid durius saxo, liquida quid mollius vnda | dura tamen liquida saxa cavant[ur] aqua' (Walther, Proverbia, 25069). On a1r a inscription/note in code.
Provenance: Richard Seman (sixteenth century); on [D5v] two cancelled inscriptions: ‘Iste liber pertinet Rycardo Seman amen'; ‘Pro Rycard Semen owthe thys boke'. Thomas [ ]ell (sixteenth century); inscription on [D6r]: ‘D[o]m[ini] Thomas [ ]ell'. Thomas Bensted (sixteenth century); inscriptions on [D6v]: ‘Thomas Bensted owyth thys boke'; ‘Thomas Bensted possidet hunc librum'. Thomas Benson (sixteenth century); inscriptions on [D5r]: ‘Iste liber pertinet Thomas Benson owthe thys boke'; and on [D6r]: ‘And that I Thomas Benson hath putt to Robart Perll dhosind[?]'. Margaret Benson (fl. 1548). Robert Perll (sixteenth century). Philip Bytterley (fifteenth/sixteenth century). John Kettell (fl. 1548-1560), 1548; inscriptions on [*2r]: ‘Sum liber Johannis Kettell gen[er]os[a] ex donacione magistre Margarete Benson avuncule eiusdem Johannis [et] vnius filiae et heredis Philippi Bytterley armigeri videlicet die sabbati viii° die Januarij Anno regis Edwardi sexti primo'; on a1v: ‘Thes js Mr John Kettell'; and on [D5r]: ‘Liber Johannis Kettell'. Ralph Bathurst (1620-1704). Presented by Bathurst in 1657; see Benefactors' Register I 386.
Former Bodleian shelfmarks: L 1.18 Th. Seld.; T 1.12 Th. Seld.; Auct. QQ sup. 1.11.
SHELFMARK: S. Seld. d.4.
Copy number: C-194(2)
Wanting the blank leaf [*1], gatherings e and f, and leaf y6. Wanting sheet [a1] and [a2] and the blank leaf [d6].
The leaves of gathering [a] mounted, those of gathering [b] hinged.
Binding: Nineteenth-century English gold-tooled blue morocco; marbled pastedowns.
Size: 270 × 205 × 38 mm.
Size of leaf: 258 × 186 mm.
A few early marginal notes in English. On [d5v] notes on births in the years 1524-32 in English.
Initials and paragraph marks are supplied in red.
Provenance: Purchased for £21. 0. 0; see Macray 358 and Books Purchased (1853), 16.
Former Bodleian shelfmark: Auct. QQ sup. 1.23.
SHELFMARK: Arch. G d.15.
Copy number: C-194(3)
Part II only. Wanting leaves [a1-7], [c1], and the blank leaf [d6]. Leaf [a8] slightly mutilated. Leaf [b5] was formerly bound between fols 154 and 155 of Douce 206 (Ranulphus Higden, Polycronicon. Continued for the years 1387 to 1460 by William Caxton. [Westminster]: William Caxton, [after 2 July 1482] (H‑121(2)), but was restored to its correct place in 1884.
Binding: Eighteenth/nineteenth-century half calf.
Size: 245 × 190 × 9 mm.
Size of leaf: 240 × 185 mm.
Early marginal notes in various hands, some in English.
Initials and paragraph marks are supplied in red.
Provenance: Francis Douce (1757-1834); armorial book-plate. Bequeathed in 1834.
SHELFMARK: Douce 145.
Go to top of page