Structure and Layout

Parchment, 396 fols. ii + 394 + 2?: I (1) 3; II (4) 8; III (12) 8; IV (20) 6; V (26) 8; VI (34) 8; VII (42) 8; VIII (50) 8; IX (58) 8; X (66) 8; XI (74) 4; XII (78) 8; XIII (86) 8; XIV (94) 8; XV (102) 8; XVI (110) 8; XVII (118) 8; XVIII (126) 8; XIX (134) 8; XX (142) 8; XXI (150) 8; XXII (158) 8; XXIII (166) 8; XXIV (174) 8; XXV (182) 8; XXVI (190) 8; XXVII (206) 8^[4]

315 × 210 (justification, 210 × 145) mm. Text written in 2 columns, 34 lines, ruled in red ink. Glosses in smaller script in separate columns of differing sizes surrounding text on 4 sides. Prefatory matter, chapter headings, glossaries of difficult words, and indexes of noteworthy subjects written in 2 columns, 34 lines. Gothic bookhand, unidentified scribe (close to Raoulet d'Orléans), brown ink. Catchwords, lower right verso; correction marks (Cor .), lower left corner of last folio of gatherings. Except for titles of Book I of the Politiques (fol. 4) and the Yconomique (fol. 370), which are written out, book numbers appear in Roman numerals, upper margin, in red-and-blue filigrees; chapter numbers in blue and red Roman numerals in margin. Alternating blue and red line endings and paraphs. Rubricated introductory summary paragraph, incipit and explicit lines, chapter numbers corresponding to those in margins, chapter titles, and key words in glosses in rubrics. Below miniatures at beginning of each book, 5–8-line gold initial, dentellated and foliated. Alternating red and blue 3–5-line initials for first words of chapters of text; 2 lines for chapter headings. Diagrams, fols. 175, 227, and 278.

Renvois in brown ink stroked with yellow. Occasional fantastic pen initials (fish heads). Drollery, fol. 378 (woman spinning). Dragons as upper terminals of initials, fols. 128, 170, 220, and 254. Ivy-leaf borders: with birds and rabbits, fols. 2, 32, 75, and 327; with arms of France (3 fleur-de-lis), fol. 1 (1), 32v (2), 33 (1), and fol. 75 (2).

Binding, 18th century, brown calf, stamped with arms of owners. Remains of the original green silk binding described in 15th-century inventories still fixed to the parchment folio attached to the back board.^[5]