John Gower, "Confessio Amantis" [Fragments] Four leaves (2 bifolia) from an illuminated manuscript copy of Gower's Confessio Amantis, parchment. The text is the B version and is part of Book V, as identified by the page headings "Liber" (verso, preceded by a gold paraph) and "Quint[us]" (recto, preceded by a blue paraph). Text begins from "Wher of may wel be iustifyed that thei may nought be defied..." on f.1r and ends with "And of Ninus king of Assire I rede how that in his Empire..." on f.4v. Main body text in black in a small Gothic script of high quality in two columns of 48 lines each, orginal line rulings visible. With alternating blue/red and gold/purple pen-flourished decorated capitals, each a single line in height. There are two larger illuminated capitals: a 2-line T on f.2r in gold on a blue background and a 5-line "Y" (thorn) on f.4v in gold on a blue and yellow(?) background with blue pen flourishes. With marginal annotations/gloss in Latin in the same hand marked by alternating blue and gold paraphs. Also some faint marginal annotations on f.1r/v which seem to refer to the text but have been partially erased. Pencil numbers 1-4 appear in the top right corner of each folio, probably 20th century. A medieval arabic f.4(?) is marked in pen at the bottom right corner of f.3r. 15th Century