SPECULUM HUMANAE VITAE &c; 1446–9

Title

SPECULUM HUMANAE VITAE &c; 1446–9

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 204

Place of origin

England

Date

1446–9

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

213 leaves (i + 212) The edges retrimmed and spattered with red.

Hands

Begun in 1446 and completed on 30 Jan. 1449 by John Gisburgh, who writes a proficient bastard secretary hand.

Decoration

Large red and blue initials flourished and with partial borders in both colours; large blue initials flourished in red; red or blue paraphs, red highlighting and underlining. Red running heads with blue paraphs.

Binding

Standard Merton, s. xvii; sewn on seven bands; formerly chained from the usual position. fol. i is a paper binding-leaf from the same printed book as in MS 19. Fols. 1 and 212 were formerly pastedowns in an earlier binding. At the foredge of fol. 1, near the foot, is the mark of a brass chain-staple.

Provenance

Made in England; it is not known when it entered the College prior to s. xvii.

Inside the front board is a table of contents and ‘G. 2, 3’ (canc.), s. xvii, and ‘P. 1. 1. Art:’, canc. and replaced with ‘N. 2. 1 (CCIV)’ in red; the College bookplate.