Rare Books

policronicon

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Type: Rare Books(Opens in new tab)
Publication date: [13 April 1495]
Call number: 61513
Creator: Higden, Ranulf (-1364)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Faint marginal ms. annotations and underlining (some contemporary). Signature of G. Musgrave, Edenhall, 1848. Bought by CSmH from Quaritch.
Restrictions: RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time.
Dimensions: (folio)
Associated people: Trevisa, John, (-1402,); Caxton, William, (approximately 1422-1491 or 1492,); Worde, Wynkyn de, (-1534?,)
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Polychronicon : [manuscript]

Manuscripts

ff. 1-281. [Ranulph Higden]. [Polychronicon]. Incipit: Ex senatus consultu censuit Iulius cesar. Explicit: utrimque discessum est. Rubric: De orbis dimensione. Priscianus in cosmografia. Latin. C. Babington and J. R. Lumby, eds., Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden monachi cestrensis. Rolls Series 41 in 9 volumes (London 1865-86) through 8:336 line 15. This manuscript in Ranulf Higden's hand represents his final recension of the Polychronicon, and is essentially what was printed as the E text; see V. H. Galbraith, "An Autograph Manuscript of Ranulph Higden's Polychronicon," Huntington Library Quarterly 23 (1959-60) 1-18 with plate of f. 281 and other small portions, J. Taylor, The Universal Chronicle of Ranulf Higden (Oxford 1966) esp. 92-96, and A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England (London 1982) 2:44-45 and pl. 2. The text is preceded by four prefaces; on f. 4v, there is a map of the world. On f. 281r-v, additions to the Polychronicon, 1340-48, evidently in Higden's hand with variations in ink color suggesting that they were not copied continuously, and with the final entry for 1352; ff. 282-283v, ruled, but blank; ff. 284-293v, alphabetical subject index referring to book and chapter. f. 294; ff. 294v-309v blank. Five Ages of the World. Incipit: Prima etas ab adam. Explicit: secundum verissimam [sic, but traced over the original script] vc xc vi. Latin. Note by Higden on the 5 ages of the world.

mssHM 132

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