Title from end of Trevisa's letter to Thomas, Lord Berkeley (leaf 1/4r): ... Thus endeth the dyalogue The Epystle of sir Johan Trevisa chapelayn unto lord Thomas of Barkley upon the translacion of Polycronycon in to our Englysshe tongue...
Colophon (leaf 55/7r): And here I make an ende of this lytel werke as nygh as I can fynde after the forme of the werk to fore made by Ranulph monk of Chestre/ And where as there is fawte/ I beseche them that shal rede it to correcte it/ For yf I coude have founden moo storyes/ I wold have sette in his moo/ but the substaunce that I can fynde and knowe I have shortly sette hem in this book. to thentente that such thynges as have ben done syth the deth or ende of the sayd boke of polycronycon shod be had in remembraunce and not putte in oblyvyon ne forgetynge/ prayenge all them that shall see this symple werke to pardone me of my symple/ and rude wrytynge/ Ended the second day of Juyll the xxii yere of the regne of kynge Edward the fourth [et] of the Incarnaction of oure lord a thousand four honderd foure score and tweyne/ Fynysshed per Caxton.
Printed in Caxton's type 4:95B.
On the date, see BMC.
Collation: a-b⁸ C⁴; 1-28⁸ [28*]²; 29-48⁸ 49⁴; 50, 52-55⁸: 450 leaves, leaves a1, 1/1, 1/5, [28*]/2, and 55/8 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio
Translated by John Trevisa. Edited, with a continuation for the years 1358 to 1460 by William Caxton.
PML 684 leaf dimensions: 27.8 x 19.2 cm, trimmed.
PML 684 missing 48 leaves: a-b⁸, C⁴, 1/1-5, 14/8, 20/2, 23/1, 42/1, 43/1.8, 47/1, 54⁸, and 55⁸.
Polychronicon.
Hand decoration: Rubricated, red lombards, paragraph marks, and marginalia produced in Caxton's shop, Rubricator Hand B (see BMC XI 347, pl. 14b). Marginal rubrication begins on leaf 11/5r with Genesis, Chapter 10. Annotations: Heavy marginal notations in several 15th-17th century hands. Note on reading progress, 19 Sept. 1557 (leaf 41/1v).