Oxford, Bodleian Library, Lyell empt. 6
England |
Oxford |
Bodleian Library |
Lyell empt. 6 |
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s. xvin |
English |
Scribe 1: Scribal dialect: north west Gloucestershire (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 198). Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped. Scribe 2: Scribal Dialect: 'too short to assess but probably south central Midlands' (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 198). Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped.
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An early fifteenth-century copy of the
Prick of Conscience along with a Latin charm against fever added by a later hand.
Item: 1ff. 1r-116v |
Prick of Conscience (Southern Recension, IMEV 3429). |
'The my?t of že fadir of hevene'. |
'Žat for oure loue made alle žynge. Amen'. |
'Here endith the tretys žat is callyd že prykke off conciens'. |
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Item: 2f. 117v |
Charm against the fever |
'Sicut verum est quod maria virgo concepit'. |
'pater noster et ave maria. Amen. Probatum'. |
Eight lines of a Latin prose charm to protect 'iohannes' (name written over an erasure) added in a later hand. |
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Codex |
Parchment |
230 x 148 mm |
Quire 18, ff. 1-7r (wants vi) 8 leaves added round the quire, only ff. ii-iii and 8-11 remain; 210; 312; 410; 5-712; 8-108; 116; 128. No catchwords. |
Pricking of round holes where visible but usually cropped. Writing space of 170 x 90 mm. Single columns with 33 lines. Faint traces of brownish ruling on some folios. |
Scribe 1 (ff. 1r-99r, 110r-115v) - Anglicana with Latin quotations sometimes in Anglicana Formata. Characteristics: double compartment g and a; B-shaped w; hooked l; reversed circular e; 2-shaped r; ž; ?. Hairline strokes on serifs. Body height: 3mm.
Scribe 2 (ff. 99v-109v) - Anglicana with Latin quotations sometimes in Anglicana Formata. Characteristics: double compartment g; B-shaped w; 2-shaped r; dotted y; long s in medial position; ž; ?. Fewer hairline strokes than Scribe 1, cleaner appearance. Body height: 2mm.
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Latin quotations in red.
Two-line blue initials with red penwork flourishing begin new paragraphs.
F. 12v: five-line gold champ initial A on a quartered rose and blue ground with white line decoration and sprays of black feathering topped by gold balls and a gold trefoil in central position. F. 22v: six-line gold champ initial D on a quartered rose and blue ground with white line decoration. The motifs are as for f. 12v but with extra coloured balls on the perimeter of the initial frame. The balls are alternately blue/rose with black squiggles. F. 35r: five-line gold champ initial on a quartered rose and blue ground with white line decoration. Motifs are as on f. 12v but with the addition of daisy bud motifs. The daisy buds have a green calyx with a pink tip and white hatching. F. 53r: six-line champ initial H on a quartered ground of rose and blue with white line decoration with motifs as for f. 12v. F. 86r: four-line gold champ initial M with blue infill with white line decoration and surrounded by rose with white line decoration. The initial carries motifs as for f. 12v but with the addition of alternately coloured balls with black pen squiggles. F. 96v: gold champ initial A on a rose/blue quartered ground with white line decoration with motifs as above.
F. 1r: Full bar-frame border. Gold bar with alternate blue and rose vine. Five-line initial T in blue and rose with white shading/decoration in a serrated pattern. The descender of the T curls round to form an infill of blue/rose leaves decorated with a white line and white circle on a gold ground. The vine carries alternate blue and rose leaves on short stems that cross into the text space. Where they cross to the margin they are used to rationalise daisy bud motifs, usually in groups of three. The daisy buds have a green calyx and a pink tip with black hatching. At the corner are roundels of blue/rose leaves and daisy bud motifs. Outlined in black.
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Not medieval. 235 x 150 mm. Covered in dark red velvet. Mitred and pasted. Resewn. Four bands across the spine. Double thongs.
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iii + 117 + ii (end flyleaves foliated 118 - 119). F. i is new with re-binding. |
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Unknown |
Fifteenth century: f. 118r ' capellano plegit pro iii s iiii d'. Ff. iiir, 118r - 'Johannes Graunge'. F. 118v - 'T plegges ffor stemulus conciencie In latyn a sequenciarie a lytyl book of a treteys of John of Burdews and a Rolle of al že cete of Rome et aliis'. A also owned Cambridge, St. John's College, MS 179 (G. 11) and MS 195 (G. 25) (de la Mare 1971, p. 288).
F. 12r (all in the same hand) - 'Government must be maintained without Rule/ Endeavour to imitate ingenious Perform___/ Inummerable annoyances accompany mans Life/ Innumerable annoyances accompany a Wife' [space] 'A short pleasure brings a long Repentance' [space] 'Excommunicate vain imaginations from your mind' [space] 'Felix quem faciunt aliena per____/ _____' [space] 'Thomas Bower Scripsit/ Etatis sue 17 Ann: Dom: 1737/ Learnt fro Willis of West Orchard'. F. 12v (same hand as f. 12r) - 'On cock fighting made a Shrove Tuesday' followed by ten lines of Latin verse beginning 'Carnis ut impleto qua exultat rauca Theatro' and 'Thomas Bower 1737'. F. 85r, in space at bottom, 'A beautifull Countenance is a silent Commendation' [space] 'Thomas Bower' [space] 'Thomas Bower 1737/ Scripsit'. F. 85v (same hand as before) - 'Thomas Bower 1737'. F. 117r - shield with three talbots' heads and the name 'Thomas Bower' above. F. 117v - '' c. sixteenth century hand written just under text. F. 118r (other hands) - various inscriptions - illegible. F. 118v - armorial shield with three talbots' heads and 'Thos Bower'. 'Thomas Bower/ 1737' written at bottom of shield (within) and 'Thomas' on the left at the shield's point and 'Bower 1615' written on the right side; this inscription is less accomplished than the rest. Fifteenth/sixteenth century - f. iii ' of Wybrede' (?); f. 119 ''. No. 2734 in the collection of Sir Thomas Phillips. Phillips sale, Sotheby's June 1899, lot 670. Bought by Lyell in April 1937. |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, July 2003.
Related Manuscripts
Textual
Textually related in the
Prick of Conscience: Lichfield Cathedral, MS 16; Lichfield Cathedral, MS 50; London, British Library, MS Harley 1731; London, British Library, MS Harley 2281; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 601; Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Library, MS Garrett 138; San Marino, California, Huntington Library, MS HM 125; San Marino, California, Huntington Library, MS HM 128; and San Marino, California, Huntington Library, MS HM 130 (Lewis and McIntosh 1982, pp. 10, 143-144).
- Allen, H. E. 1927. Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole and Materials for his Biography, Modern Language Association of America Monograph series, 3, New York and London: Modern Language Association of America, pp. 385-386 and 386, n. 2.
- DEvelyn, C. 1930. An East Midland recension of the Pricke of Conscience, Proceedings of the Modern Language Association, 45, 180-200, pp. 180-200.
- Hanna, R. 1986. The Index of Middle English Prose: Smaller Bodleian Collections, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, p. 25.
- Lewis, R. E., and McIntosh, A. 1982. A Descriptive Guide to the Manuscripts of the Prick of Conscience, Medium Aevum Monographs 12, Oxford: Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literatures, pp. 143-144.
- McIntosh, A., Samuels, M. L. and Benskin, M. 1986. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English: County Dictionary, 4 vols, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 4.
- Madan, F., and Craster, H. H. 1922. A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, vol. 2, part 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 287-288.
- de la Mare, A. 1971. Catalogue of the Collection of Medieval Manuscripts Bequeathed to the Bodleian Library Oxford by James P. R. Lyell, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 287-288.
- Morris, R. ed, 1863. Richard Rolle of Hampole, The Pricke of Conscience (Stimulus Conscientiae), Berlin: Asher.
- Pächt, O., and Alexander, J. J. G. 1973. Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol., 3, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 72-73, no. 819.
- Warton, Thomas. 1871, rpt. 1970. History of English Poetry from the Twelfth to the Close of the Sixteenth Century, London: Reeves and Turner, rpt. New York: Haskell House Publishers, pp. 239-243.
- Waters, S. 1976. The Pricke of Conscience: The Southern Recension, Book V, University of Edinburgh, Ph.D thesis.