Add MS 34779

THE VISION OF PIERS THE PLOWMAN, by William Langland [circ. 1332-1400]. The last 42 lines of the poem are wanting. The text is according to the third recension (Skeat's C-text: see The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, by W. W. Skeat, Oxford, 1886, vol. ii. pp. xiv.-xxi.); and a collation of the test passages given by Dr. R. Kron (William Langley's Buch von Peter dem Pflüger, Erlangen, 1885, pp. 39-50) indicates that it is akin to the Ilchester MS. [xxxii. in Skeat's list, op. cit., p. lxxi., D3 in Kron], but with many variants of its own. Numbered xliii. by Skeat, P³ by Kron, but never fully examined or collated. Vellum; ff. 94. Early XVth cent. About 39-42 lines to a page. Titles and Latin quotations in red. A hand of the 16th cent. has added some various readings in the margins. The name of Lawrence Ball (16th cent.) is written on f. 32. On f 1 is the number "58" in the hand of Thomas Martin of Palgrave (ob. 1771), with a note referring to a MS. in the possession of [Joseph] Ames (ob. 1759); also the names, as owners, of Matthew Lee and Thomas Huckell Lee (18th-l9th centt.). Subsequently in the collection of Richard Heber (sale-catalogue, part xi., 1836, no. 974), no. 1003 in Thorpe's sale-catalogue for 1836, and no. 9056 in the Phillipps library. Small Folio.

Poetry: Piers Plowman,: late 14th cent.

William Langland: Piers Plowman,: late 14th cent- 15th cent.