[The life of Our Lady].

"[T]His book was compyled by dan John lydgate monke of burye, at the excitacion and styryng of the noble and victoryous prynce, Kyng harry the fyfthe, in thonoure glorye & reuerence of the byrthe of our moste blessyd lady mayde wyf, and moder of our lord Jhesu cryst ..."-- leaf [pi]1r.
Collation: [pi]² a-l⁸ m⁶: 96 leaves, leaf m6 blank.
Imprint from colophon (leaf m5r).
Paper format: Chancery folio
PML copy leaf dimensions: 28.1 x 19 cm
PML copy leaves a3.6 only. Heavily damaged by bookworms. Formerly bound with Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae ([Westminster]: William Caxton, [about 1478]), ISTC ib00813000, leaves [5]/4.5 (PML 23578.2, ChL 1766b). Lydgate leaves removed in June 1982.
Printed in Caxton's type 4:100G.
Sheets a2.7 and a3.6 are known in a different setting, all recovered as fragments of printers' waste from bindings. Proctor and Bühler believed they represented an otherwise unknown edition, but it seems more likely that they were rejected as faulty after printing, and have been replaced by reprinted sheets in the complete copies known (BMC XI 139-40).
Title from explicit (leaf m4v): "Here endeth the book of thelyf of our lady made by dan John lydgate monke of bury at thynstaunce of the moste crysten kynge kyng harry the fyfth."
Verse.