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
PML 685 leaf dimensions: 24.5 x 19.4 cm, trimmed.
PML 685 missing 47 leaves: a1.8, C1.4, 1/1, [28*]/2, 45/8, 50⁸, 52-55⁸ (including blanks a1, 1/1, and [28*]/2). Text leaves replaced in facsimile by Bennett (see his notes on first fly leaf verso). Leaf 50/1 tipped in: added from another copy with different rubrication and leaf dimensions of 26.7 x 19 cm, but also present in facsimile.
Translated by John Trevisa. Edited, with a continuation for the years 1358 to 1460 by William Caxton.
Polychronicon.
Hand decoration: Rubricated, red lombards and paragraph marks (backwards P-type); marginal apparati according to Caxton's shop model, in a rather loose hand (same hand as PML 686). Annotations: Contemporary marginal notes in several hands, mostly bleached/washed. Elaborate R in margin whenever the text deals with Rome. 19th-century colored engraving of Higden or Trevisa before king (4th fly leaf verso).