Manuscripts of the West Midlands Catalogue

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 103

Shelfmark

Country:	England
Settlement:	Oxford
Repository:�	Bodleian Library
Idno:	Douce 103
AltName:	SC 21677

Date and Language

Date:	s. xvmed
Language:�	English
Dialect:	Scribal Dialect: of ff. 53r-57r: Staffordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 417 318, LP 515 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, vol. 4, p. 237). Scribal Dialect of ff. 119r-164v: Northamptonshire (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, vol. 1, p. 147).

Part 1

Contents

A composite manuscript made up of five manuscripts of mainly Latin texts but including a short English grammar which has a Staffordshire dialect. It also contains John Mirk's Instructions to Parish Priests although this text has been allocated a Northamptonshire dialect.

Item: 1

Locus:	f. 1r-9r
Title:	'Dicciones Psalterii'
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:	Explanation of words used in the Psalter.
Bibliography:

Item: 2

Locus:	ff. 9v-36v
Title:	Short notes, for a beginner of Latin, on the Psalms and Canticles.
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Physical Description

Form:
Support:�
Extent:	x
Collation:
Layout:
Writing:
Decoration:	Underlining in red, some letters highlighted red.
Binding:
Foliation:
Additions:
Condition:

Part 2

Contents

Item: 1

Locus:	ff. 37r-52r
Title:	Rearrangements of the words of Latin Hymns
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:	Rearrangement of words of Latin hymns to make their translation easy for beginners. Similar to notes on ff. 34-6. Ff. 52v blank.
Bibliography:

Physical Description

Form:
Support:�
Extent:	x
Collation:
Layout:
Writing:
Decoration:	Letters highlighted in red, red running titles.
Binding:
Foliation:
Additions:
Condition:

Part 3

Contents

Item: 1

Locus:	ff. 53r-57r
Title:	Accidence/ Liber Accidencium (IPMEP 308)
Incipit:	'How many partyse of speche ben ther? viii'.
Explicit:
Note:	Late fourteenth/early fifteenth-century grammatical treatise. Ff. 57v-58r blank.
Bibliography:	Thomson 1984, p. 55.

Physical Description

Form:
Support:�
Extent:	x
Collation:
Layout:
Writing:	Scribe of the English grammar beginning on f. 53r wrote in an Anglicana hand. Characteristics: dotted y; sigma s; long s in medial position; backward e in final position, long/v-shaped r in medial position; single compartment a; hooked ascender on h; long s in initial position. Body height 2mm.
Decoration:	Some letters highlighted red.
Binding:
Foliation:
Additions:
Condition:

Part 4

Contents

Item: 1

Locus:	ff. 58v-76r
Title:	Rearrangements of the words of Latin Hymns to make the translation easy for beginners.
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:	Ff. 76v, 77r-v blank.
Bibliography:

Item: 2

Locus:	ff. 77v-78v
Title:	Lists of Feasts
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Part 5

Contents

Item: 1

Locus:	ff. 79r-84v
Title:	Rules of prosody - the quantity of vowels before consonants.
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 2

Locus:	ff. 85r-116v
Title:	Explanations of similar words.
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 3

Locus:	ff. 117v-118v
Title:	Lists of Feasts
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Part 6

Contents

Item: 1

Locus:	ff. 119r-164v
Title:	Instructions to Parish Priests (IMEV 961)
Incipit:	'God seith himself as writen i fynde'.
Explicit:	'Explicit tractatus qui dicitur pars oculi de latino in anglicum translatus per fratrem iohannem mirkes canonicum regularem monasterii de lilleshull cuius anime propicietur deus. Amen'.
Note:	Includes The Great Sentence/The Order for Pronouncing Excommunication (IPMEP 122)
Bibliography:	Cf. Peacock 1902, pp. 21-24.

Physical Description

Form:	Codex
Support:�	Paper
Extent:	210 x 150 mm
Collation:	Unascertainable
Layout:	Pricking: none. Writing space: various. Columns: single. Lines: various. Ruling: none.
Writing:	Scribe of Mirk's Instructions wrote in a well-spaced Anglicana. Characteristics: 2-shaped r in final position; v-shaped r in medial position; single compartment a; 8-shaped g; long s in medial position; �. Body height: 2mm.
Decoration:	Underlining in red, first letter of each line tinted red.
Binding:	Not medieval.
Foliation:	ff. ii + 169.
Additions:
Condition:	Good.

History

Origin:	Unknown
Provenance:	Unknown

Record History

Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, June 2004.

Related Manuscripts and other documents Scribal The scribe of Myrk's Instructions to Parish Priests is also that of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 108 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 60.

Bibliography

Braswell, L. 1987. The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist IV: A Handlist of Douce Manuscripts Containing Middle English Prose in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, pp. 36-37.

Madan, F. 1897. A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 522-523.

McIntosh, A., Samuels, M. L. and Benskin, M. 1986. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English: General Introduction, Index of Sources, Dot Maps, 4 vols, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1.

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.

Peacock, E., ed, 1902. Instructions for Parish Priests by John Myrc: edited from Cotton MS. Claudius A. II, EETS, os, 31, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr�bner.

Thomson, D., ed, 1984. An Edition of the Middle English grammatical texts, Garland Medieval Texts, 8, London: Garland, pp. 56-58.

Thomson, D. 1977. ‘A Study of the Middle English Treatises on Grammar’, University of Oxford, D.Phil thesis, pp. 277-282.