Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 141
| England |
| Oxford |
| Bodleian Library |
| Douce 141 |
| SC 21715 |
An early fifteenth-century copy of the
Prick of Conscience,
Abbey of the Holy Ghost and various other didactic/devotional texts. The copy of the
Prick of Conscience was written by two scribes with differing scribal dialects. The other texts have not been analysed.
Item: 1| ff. 1r-129v |
| Prick of Conscience (Main Version, IMEV 3428) |
| 'Že my?t of že fader almy?ti'. |
| 'Žat for us voched save on rode to hynge'. |
| 'Explicit tractatus qui dicitur stimulus conscientie here endež že tretys žat ys called že prykke of consciense here endež že sermon žat a clerk made žat was clepyd alquim to gy of warwyk [erroneous]'. |
|
Item: 2.1| ff. 130-138r |
| Pater Noster: Exposition (IMEV 958). |
| 'God of heuene that syttest on trone'. |
| 'ffor loue of his moder dere lygge we alle y fere. Amen'. |
|
Item: 2.2| f. 138r-v |
| Nine Points Best Pleasing to God (IPMEP 410) (IPMEP 410, 847) |
| 'Hyt was an holy man and bysou?t god to sende hym grace'. |
| 'žat to hym lyž whoso wele kepe žese commaundementes ten schal neuer deye say we amen.' |
Horstmann 1895.
|
Item: 3| ff. 138v-139r |
| Summary of the Seven Deadly Sins and Corporal Virtues (IMEV 1856). |
| 'Leue man i byseche že že seuen dedly synnes žat žou fle'. |
| 'hys my?t his sete is set wyž seyntes euere in godes sy?t'. |
|
Item: 4| ff. 139r-145r |
| Abbey of the Holy Ghost (IPMEP 39) |
| 'Mi dere brožer and suster yse wel žat many wolde be in relygioun'. |
| 'žoru? že bysychyng of hys moder dere seynte marie amen.' |
| 'Here bygynnež že abbay of že holi gost & of good concience'.'Žus endež že abbey of že holygost and of že conscience in že whiche bež funded alle good vertues and wikked vices of synne driven out'. |
| Devotional treatise translated from French, 1350-70. |
Perry 1867, rev. 1914, pp. 51-62, Blake 1972, pp. 88-102.
|
Item: 5| ff. 145r-148r |
| Paraphrase of the 51st Psalm (IMEV 2157) |
| 'Mercy god of my mysdede'. |
| 'He schulte vs all from helle fyre'. |
Edden 1990, pp. 72-81.
|
Item: 6| ff. 148r-149v |
| Song of Love to Jesus (IMEV 1781) |
| 'Iesu thi swetnes who myžte hit se'. |
| 'And bryng me to žin endeles blis wiž že to wone wižouten end. Amen.' |
|
| Codex |
| Parchment |
| 246 x 160 mm |
| Manuscript interleaved with paper. Collation not possible. |
| Pricking not visible. Writing space of 194 x 85 mm. Single columns with 36-37 lines. Frame ruled in drypoint. |
|
Scribe 1 copied ff. 1r-96v in Textura with some Anglicana features.
Scribe 2 copied ff. 97r-129v in Textura.
|
|
Two and three-line blue initials with red penwork flourishing. F. 5v - nine-line blue initial I with red penwork flourishing. Initial page (f. 1r): thirteen-line blue initial Ž with extensive fine red penwork flourishing forming a two-sided border. Motifs include green dots and lines.
Drawings in ascenders of a profile head on ff. 13, 123 and a face on f. 50.
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|
Not contemporary. Early 18th century. 250 x 160 mm.
|
| ff. v + 151 + iii. The first five flyleaves are paper, the flyleaves at the end are paper apart from ii. The foliation includes an additional modern leaf between ff. 102 and 103, foliated 103a, first end flyleaf foliated 151. The manuscript is foliated with Roman numerals and the whole is interleaved with blank modern leaves. |
|
| Good |
| Unknown |
| Armorial bookplate of Joseph Haslewood and his printed description of the Prick of Conscience is pasted onto the initial flyleaves, ff. iii recto-iii verso, and signed 'Eu. Hood'. |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, 2003.
Related Manuscripts and other documents
See Lewis and McIntosh 1982, p. 100.
- Blake, N. F. 1972. Middle English Religious Prose, York Medieval Texts, London: Arnold.
- Boffey, J. 2003. ‘The Charter of the Abbey of the Holy Ghost and its Role in Manuscript Anthologies’, Yearbook of English Studies, 33, 120-130.
- 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. 44-45.
- Dennison, L., Driver, M. W., Eljenholm Nichols, A., and Scott, K. L. ed, 2001. An Index of Images in English Manuscripts from the Time of Chaucer to Henry VIII c. 1380-c.1509: Fascicle 2, MSS Dodsworth-Marshall, London, Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, p. 36, No. 464.
- Edden, V., ed, 1990. Richard Maidstone’s Penitential Psalms: edited from Bodl. MS Rawlinson A 389, Middle English Texts, 22, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 16.
- Horstmann, C. 1895. Yorkshire Writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole and His Followers, Library of Early English Writers, 2 vols, London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1.
- 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. 100-101.
- Madan, F. 1897. A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 535-536.
- 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.
- Morris, R. ed, 1863. Richard Rolle of Hampole, The Pricke of Conscience (Stimulus Conscientiae), Berlin: Asher.
- Perry, A. J., ed. 1867 rev. ed. 1914. Religious Pieces in Prose and Verse, EETS, os, 26, London: Kegan Paul
- 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.
