Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodl. 652
England |
Oxford |
Bodleian Library |
Bodl. 652 |
SC 2306 |
s. xiii2 |
English |
Scribal dialect, ff. 1r-10v: Gloucestershire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 418 235, LP 6930 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 196).
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A late thirteenth-century tri-lingual manuscript containing Latin, English, and French texts.
Item: 1ff. 1r-10v |
Jacob and Joseph (IMEV 4172) |
'Wolle ?e nou ihere wordes swiþe gode'. |
'bote alle worssipe mest & cristes blessinge. Amen'. |
'Explicit iacob & iosep'. |
Napier 1916.
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Item: 2ff. 11r-46r |
Elucidarius |
'Souentefois mauoient prie mi disciple'. |
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Translation into French of the Elucidarius of Honorius Augustodunensis. |
Meyer 1956, pp. 117-118.
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Item: 3ff. 46v-51v |
Letter from Prester John to the emperor Frederic (Barbarossa) |
'Prestre iohans par la grace de ihesu crist rois'. |
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Item: 4ff. 52r-64r |
Castle of Love (IMEV 652) |
'Qui ben pense ben peut dire'. |
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'Tractatus in lingua romana secundum dominum robertum grosseteste lincolniensem episcopum'. |
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Codex |
Parchment |
190 x 120 mm. |
Unable to ascertain.
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No pricking visible. Writing space: Item 1 - 145 x 90 mm. Item 2 - 155 x 90 mm. Item 3 - double columns 150 x 45 mm each. Columns are single and double. Lines: Item 1 - 27; Item 2 - 32; Item 3 - 34. Ruling in dry point. |
One scribe writing in brown ink. Characteristics: forked tops to ascenders; double compartment g; double compartment a; B-shaped w but distinct (like two v's); ascender of d 45 degrees to left; long s in initial and medial position; ; frequent use of þ and ?. Body height: 2-3 mm.
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Artist 1: ff. 1r-10v - blue initial W with red pen-line flourishing. Alternate red and blue paraphs.
Artist 2: ff. 11r-56v - eight-line gold initial S boxed in rose ground with blue infill with white decoration. Three-line blue initials. Two-line blue (aqua) initials with red penwork flourishing. Some initials tinted red.
Artist 2?: f. 11r - five small figures drawn and coloured along top margin, unfortunately their heads have been cropped off. Right margin - well drawn and painted stork with a raised head and a ladybird (red with black spots) on the end of its beak.
Artist 3: ff. 57r-64r - five-line gold initials boxed in rose with blue infill with white decoration on initial page (f. 57r) and four-line gold initial boxed in blue with rose infill with white decoration. Two-line blue initials with red penwork. Alternate blue and red two-line initial letters. Alternate red and blue initials mid-text. Some words and sentences in red, glosses in red.
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Not medieval, but early, after 1520. Size: 197 x 125 mm. Coverered in plain brown leather mitred and pasted onto pasteboard. Four double thongs of white leather. Four raised bands across the spine. Evidence of two clasps on front cover fore edge and back cover. Not decorated.
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ff. i-vii + 70 (i and ii parchment - musical notation; iii - vi paper (no watermarks); vii original parchment flyleaf), 65-68 paper (no watermarks), 69 and 70 musical notation). |
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Good |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Presented by Richard Worseley in 1607. |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, August 2003.
- 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. 300-301.
- 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.
- Meyer, P. 1956. La Lettre de Prêtre-Jean, Romania 25, 117-18.
- Napier, A. S., ed. 1916. Jacob and Joseph: A Middle English Poem of the Thirteenth Century, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Pächt, O., and Alexander, J. J. G. 1973. Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol., 3, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 44, no. 480.
- Taylor, A. 2003. Manual to Miscellany: Stages in the Commercial Copying of Vernacular Literature in England, Yearbook of English Studies, 33, 1-17, pp. 16-17.