Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the Works of John Gower
Derek Pearsall

This ongoing project focuses on providing a detailed description of all early manuscripts of John Gower's works. The lists of manuscripts on the following pages are based upon the the manuscript list in "The Manuscripts and Illustrations of Gower's Works" (Pearsall 73-79). Descriptions are also published concurrently in the John Gower Newsletter as they are completed.

The abbreviations in brackets at the end of a manuscript entry indicate the presence of the Traitié, the Cronica Tripertita and the various short Latin pieces in verse and prose that often accompany the texts of the major poems, as follows: (Pearsall 73-74)

• Ad - 'Ad mundum mitto'
• CT - Cronica Tripertita
• Ex - 'Explicit iste liber'
• M - Minor Latin poems (sixteen Latin poems, mostly very short, occurring in various permutations)
• P - Carmen Super Multiplici Viciorum Pestilentia
• Q - 'Quia unusquisque' (prose colophon)
• QC - 'Quam cinxere' with preceding prose rubric 'Epistola super huius'
• T - Traitié

Works Cited

Pearsall, Derek. “The Manuscripts and Illustrations of Gower’s Work.” A Companion to Gower. Ed. Siân Echard. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004. 73-97.