Manuscript codex. Title from printed catalog. Errors in acrostic in book 1 naming Ranulf Higden as author. Collation: Parchment, fol. 142 ; 18(-8) 28(-8) 3-178 184 194 (imperfect with loss of text) ; leaves signed a1-qiiii (all leaves of quire 18 signed, quire 19 unsigned) ; catchwords present, written in scrolls in inner lower margin except for fol. 138 where catchwords has no scroll and is in outer lower margin. Layout: Written in 2 columns of 54 lines; ruled in red; prickings visible. Script: Written in bastard anglicana media. Decoration: fol. 15r: historiated initial 6 lines high depicting Saint Anthony with boar and bell, full acanthus borders decorated in blue, green, and gold; initials with floral decorations 6 lines high at the beginning of books II-VII; minor gold dentelle initials with white patterning on grounds of magenta and blue throughout; guides to rubricator present; fol. 15r: right margin badly cut... Origin: Written in England in the first half of the 15th century. Marginalia from the 15th-17th centuries. Arms of Bothe family of York, fol. 15r. Inscription on fol. 14v in littera textualis quadrata: "Orate pro anima Magistri Roberti Bothe quondam decani ecclesie cathederalis eboracensis [qui dedit hunc librum cathenandum in aula regia (only visible under ultraviolet light)] universitatis Cantabrigie anno domini mo ccccmo lxxxix cuius anime propicietur deus, Amen." Request of prayers for the repose of the soul of Robert Bothe, dean of... Inscription on fol. 14v in a 16th century hand: Edwadus Aiscoughe [Edward Ayscough 1549?-1617] hunc librum possidet. Formerly no. 1049 in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, number written under stamp on fol. 1r and in ink on front pastedown. On front flyleaf is pasted a clipping from a 19th century sales catalogue, printed in London by J. Barker, listing manuscript as no. 6089 with pencil notation "Sir T. P." Clipping appears to include another Phillipps MS, no. 1052, acquired from Thomas Townley; this is no. 6091 in the clipping and is also noted "Sir T. P." Note on fol. 1r in pencil, in the writing of Sir Thomas Phillipps, "From Mr. Yarnold of Great Saint Helens, sold at auction 6 June 1825."
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