Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth 395 D
| Wales |
| Aberystwyth |
| National Library of Wales |
| Peniarth 395 D |
| Hengwrt 226 |
| s. xiv/xv |
| English |
| Scribal Dialect: Staffordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 396 341, LP 319 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 237). |
A late fourteenth/fifteenth-century manuscript containing the
Speculum Vitae,
Mirror of St. Edmund, medical recipes and shorter religious poems.
Item: 1| ff. 1r-164v |
| Speculum Vitae (IMEV 245) |
| 'Almyghti god in trinite' |
| 'Ŝat on cros for vs wold hynge amen'. |
|
Item: 2| ff. 165r-173v |
| Mirror of St. Edmund (IPMEP 800) |
| 'Videte vocationem vestram these wordes in latyn ben ŝe apostles wordes & ben to say in Englisshe sees ?hore'. |
| 'ŝat we mowen for oure worshepe be worsheped for oure loue be loued for our humblesse ben heghed in ŝe ioy of heuene ŝat vs is ordeyned'. |
| 'Ŝis is ŝe tretyce of seynt edmond of pountenay translated out of frenche into englysche & cetera'. |
| Contains the quatrain (IMEV 2320) beginning, 'Now gos sonne vnder wode Men reweth in Marie ŝi fayre rode' on f. 171v although it is not marked out in the text. |
Cf. Perry 1867, 15-67; Horstman 1895, 219-40.
|
Item: 3| f. 174r-v |
| Poem (IMEV 4121) |
| 'Whoso kon suffre & hald hym still'. |
| 'Ŝan has yon wele and suffre i mot amen'. |
Robbins 1969.
|
Item: 4| ff. 174v-175r |
| Earthquake of 1382 (IMEV 4268) |
| '?hit is god a curteys lord & curteysse con schew his myght'. |
| 'Ŝat of his godnesse & his gras con send suche warnyng to beware'. |
| Religious poem on the earthquake of 1382. Cf. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet. a.1, f. 411rb-c. |
Cf. Horstmann 1901, pp. 719-721.
|
Item: 5.1| f. 175r |
| Medical Recipes |
| 'Take and do gedere on mushumerisday soon after ŝe sunne'. |
| 'ŝe pacient to drynke wyth a litill stall ale or wyne and he schall stanche'. |
| 'A medecyne ffor stanchynge of blod of ony wounde or annythynge elle? be anny blodyng'. |
Printed in full in Marx 1999, p. 62.
|
Item: 5.2| f. 175r |
| Medical Recipe |
| 'Knawyn be it ŝat for ŝe begynnyng of marche ŝat is to wete in vii ŝou schalt lete ŝe blod on ŝe ryth arme'. |
| 'ne ŝou schall noght haue ŝe ffauers as longe as ŝou leue?'. |
| 'Ffor blod letyng'. |
| Fragment of a text on phlebotomy. Cf. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1481; Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Brogyntyn II.1. |
Printed in full in Marx 1999, p. 62.
|
Item: 5.3| f. 175v |
| Medical Recipe |
| 'Ffor the dropesye tak weybrode milfoyl water'. |
| 'with a mes of porter or ellis with a cheam'. |
Printed in full in Marx 1999, p. 62.
|
Item: 5.4| f. 175v |
| Medical Recipe |
| 'Ffor ŝe iaundes tak ix croppes'. |
| '& do ŝe syke to drinke it at eue & at morne'. |
Printed in full in Marx 1999, p. 62.
|
Item: 5.5| f. 175v |
| Medical Recipe |
| 'Ffor sore eyen tak whyt coperose'. |
| 'in a sauserful of euerose & do ŝat water in ŝe sore ey?e at euen & at morne'. |
Printed in full in Marx 1999, p. 62.
|
| Codex |
| Parchment |
| 260 x 135-140 mm |
|
Catchwords on ff. 12v, 24v, 36v, 48v, 60v, 72v, 84v, 96v, 108v, 120v, 142v, 154v, 164v.
|
| Speculum: writing space: 220-225 x 95-110 mm. Single columns with 48 lines. Ruling in crayon. |
|
One scribe writing in an Anglicana script. Characteristics: double compartment a; reversed circular e; sigma s in initial position; long s in medial position; looped descender of h almost giving the appearance of a figure of 8; y-shaped ŝ.
|
| Very little decoration apart from two/three-line red lombardic initials on ff. 68r-93r.
|
|
Not medieval.
|
| ff. 175 |
| The medical recipes have been added at the end of the manuscript but in the same hand as that of the main part of the manuscript. |
| Some staining. |
| At the foot of f. 173v is written 'Dammary' and according to McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin the family is known from Thaxted, Essex, ca. 1500. |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, August 2003. Manuscript consulted on microfilm.
- Furnivall, F. J., ed, 1901. The Minor Poems of the Vernon Manuscript, EETS, os, 117, Part 2, London: Kegan Paul & Trübner.
- Horstmann, C. 1895. Yorkshire Writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole and His Followers, Library of Early English Writers, 2 vols, London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1, pp. 219-40.
- Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales. 1943. Vol. 1. Aberystwyth , p. 9.
- 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.
- Marx, W. 1999. Index of Middle English Prose: Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. Handlist XIV, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, pp. 61-62.
- Perry, A. J., ed. 1867 rev. ed. 1914. Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse, EETS, os, 26, London: Kegan Paul.
- Robbins, P. R. 1969. A refrain-poem from N.L.W. Peniarth MS. 395, Trivium, 4, 43-9.