Polycronicon
Details
Type of record: Book
Title: Polycronicon
Classmark: Wentworth-Woolley Hall P256
Creator(s): Higden, Ranulf (1282-1364)
Additional creator(s): Trevisa, John (1402) (Translator); Caxton, William (1422-1491) (Printer); Wentworth, Godrey Wentworth (Former owner); Wentworth family (Former owners)
Related people: Trevisa, John; Caxton, William; Wentworth, Godrey Wentworth; Wentworth family
Publisher: William Caxton
Publication city: [Westminster]
Date(s): [between 2 July and 8 October 1482]
Language: English
Size and medium: [19], CCCCxxviij leaves
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/124756
Printed items catalogue: https://leeds.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=44LEE_INST:VU1&docid=alma991008688689705181
Collection group(s): Incunabula
Description
Signatures: a-b⁸ C⁴ 1-28⁸ chi² 29-48⁸ 49⁴ 50⁸ 52-55⁸.
Imprint from ISTC.
Translated by Johann de Trevisa.
Continued for the years 1387 to 1460 by William Caxton.
Printed with 40 lines to a full page.
Printed headlines and foliation.
On leaf Cxxv there is a blank space for music.
Indexed in: ISTC no. ih00267000.
Indexed in: S.T.C. 13438; Hain 8659; Duff 172; De Ricci 49.
Features
Marginal annotations in black and red ink manuscript, sixteenth-century.
Major initials supplied in red.
Paragraph markers and underlinings supplied in red.
This copy is wanting: the whole of signatures a, b and C; leaves i-ij (signatures 1.1-1.2); leaves iiij-vij (signatures 1.5-1.8); leaf CC (signature 25.8); leaves CCCl-CCCli (signatures 44.4-44.5); and leaves CCCCviij-CCCCl (signatures 53.2-55.8).
Leaf ix (signature 2.2) is wrongly bound after leaf x (signature 2.3).
Leaf xiij (signature 2.6) is wrongly bound after leaf xiiij (signature 2.7).
Gathering 50 (leaves CCClxxxxi-CCClxxxxviij) is wrongly bound after leaf CCCCv (signature 52.8).
Leaves iiij and CCCCviij-CCCCl are supplied in black ink manuscript on leaves foliated iiij and CCCCviij-CCCCxlj.
Leaf CC is supplied in black ink manuscript in an earlier hand on an unfoliated leaf.
Several of the leaf edges have been mended.
Bindings
Eighteenth-century binding of full brown calf over pasteboard. The upper and lower covers are gold-tooled with a border of triple fillets. The spine has six slightly raised bands with four gold-tooled fillets to either side of each. Gold-tooled in the second panel is the title: Polychronycon. Gold-tooled at the base of the spine is a gryphon, the device of the Wentworth family, and beneath is the name: Caxton. The leaf edges are marbled in red, blue, black and cream. The book has pastedowns of marbled paper featuring the spot pattern in red, yellow, blue, brown and black. The board edges are gold-tooled with a double fillet and the turn-ins with a repeating pattern of stylised foliage. The upper and lower boards have become detached from the spine. Size: 290 x 220mm. Leaf size: 280 x 203mm.
Provenance
Armorial bookplate of G.W. Wentworth [presumably Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth] on the front pastedown.
Access and usage
Access
Access to this material is unrestricted.
On our website
Profile: Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth (1773-1834)
Biography of Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth, who is associated with the incunabula held in Special Collections at Leeds University Library.