Vellum manuscritp leaf. Written in long lines, 2-line initials in blue with red ornamentation, 1-line initials in red and blue. Part of the 'Synonyma', a treatise on poetical metre, attributed to Johannes De Garlandia, the philologist, with commentary by Galfridus Anglicus. The verses are written in a text hand, the commentary in an anglicana formata hand. Later reused as a wrapper or spine and board lining, annotated in pencil by Sir Owen Morshead 'English c.1400' John Edward Jackson (1805-91) was a clergyman antiquary who spent his working life in the South West of England, beginning his career as curate at Fairleigh Hungerford (Somerset) in 1834, and in 1845 appointed rector of Leigh Delamere (Wiltshire), a post which he retained for the rest of his life. He had a life long interest in the antiquities and local history of the area, and was an archivist for the Marquess of Bath at Longleat. The so-called Jackson Fragments are a fairly random collection of vellum manuscript fragments, which were often cut up and used as parts of book bindings. Not surprisingly, most of them are from liturgical, legal and theological manuscripts. Jackson’s library collections were sold after his death in two sales by Hodgsons in May and November 1895; these fragments can probably be identified as lot 1106 in the November sale ‘Old parchment and other deeds. A parcel’, which was sold for £1 2s. Adapted from: 'Catalogue of the Jackson Collection of manuscript fragments in the Royal Library Windsor Castle', by Jenny Stratford (London: Academic Press, 1981)