Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [late 14 cent. x early 15 cent.] (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
xii, 309 ff. (foliated in pencil, [20 cent]; ff. i-ii and 308-309 all probably original flyleaves) : Parchment (some leaves stiff, many with un-cropped edges) ; 310 x 220 mm. (written space 215-20 x 140-45 mm.).
Binding on several bands over evidently medieval wooden boards with bevelled edges; re-bound, or simply re-covered, in blind-tooled calf, probably in nineteenth century; 'CHRONICA / RANULPHI HIGDEN' (on green lettering-piece), 'M.S. / 1343' (at foot of spine). Verdigris stains inside the upper cover and on f. i show the former presence of a brass clasp.
Context area
Name of creator
Archival history
Light annotation by several hands, [late 15 cent x early 16 cent.], including one whose main interest was Shrewsbury (e.g. ff. 33, 36, 37, 259, 260 verso); another notes the foundation of Gloucester and Hyde abbeys (ff. 192 and 210). Examples of annotation, [late 15 cent. x early 16 cent] and [16 cent.], by other hands are on ff. 166 verso, 203, 206, 206 verso, 254 and 291 verso. Flyleaf note of about 1565 by John Joscelyn. Inside front cover is a note of references in the chronicle to persons named Gate, and on f. ii Higden's acrostic ('Presentem Chronicum ...') is written out, both by hands of the second half of the sixteenth century. There are brief notes on Higden, hands of [late 17 cent. x early 18 cent.] and [19 cent.] (ff. i and ii). No 15 in Thomas Phillipps's 1837 printed catalogue of the Porkington manuscripts; No 40 in the revised version of Phillipps's catalogue and in Second Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (London, 1874).
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A volume containing a copy, written in a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century hand, of the Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden to 1342 (ff. 1-307).
The text is written by one hand, except for notes on f. 1 verso, in anglicana, with variation in degree of currency and in ink; headings in fere-textura. There has been overwriting of the text in places, where letters were indistinct, notably on ff. 1-20. Correction of the text, despite first appearances, is all probably by the scribe, writing compactly (e.g. on ff. 52 and 62), as also is the inserted leaf containing omitted text (f. 279). There are six- to nine-line parti-coloured red/blue initials for the beginnings of chapters, infilled with good red and purple pen-work which includes beasts and foliage, with red/blue nerfs and flourished borders (f. 210 is a page where the pen-work was not completed); there are three-line blue initials for the index and two-line for chapters, all with red pen-work. The rubricator has mistaken many initials, including three of those which should form Higden's acrostic. On f. 52 are diagrams of Noah's ark. Headings, underlining, dates in the margin, paragraph marks and touching of initials in the text are all in red. An index to the Polychronicon is on ff. iii-xii.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access to the original manuscript by authorised permission only. Readers are directed to use surrogate copies.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Latin.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
A detailed list of the contents is available at https://archives.library.wales/external_documents/brogii24.pdf
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Available on microfilm at the Library.
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Formerly Porkington MS 40.
Note
[Produced in England.]
Note
Secundo folio: Babilionia (f. iv), laboribus (f. 2).
Note
Frame ruling in plummet. Two columns, 37-43 lines.
Note
Collation: 1(10) (ff. iii-xii), 2-35 (8), 36 (9) (ff. 273-281; f. 279, a small singleton, inserted after 6), 37-39 (8), 40 (8) (ff. 306-307, 3-8 all wanting and presumably blank, cut out after woodworm had riddled ff. 308-9). Quires 2-40 are signed 1-39 in ink, at the foot of the first recto, apparently by the scribe; quires 1-39 have leaf signatures in red at the foot of leading rectos, of the pattern a i - a iiii, the first leaf after the sewing being marked with a cross. Catchwords.
Note
Preferred citation: Brogyntyn MS II.24 [RESTRICTED ACCESS].
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Higden, Ranulf, d. 1364. (Subject)
- Joscelyn, John, 1529-1603. (Subject)