Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 19
| England |
| Oxford |
| Bodleian Library |
| Hatton 19 |
| SC 4110 |
| s. xv1 |
| English |
| Scribal dialect: Worcestershire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 382 278, LP 7610 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 249). |
A copy of William of Nassington's
Speculum Vitae from the first half of the fifteenth century.
Item: 1| ff. 3r-94v |
| Speculum Vitae (IMEV 245) |
| 'Allmyhty god in trynyte'. |
| 'That on tre for us wold hyng'. |
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| Codex |
| Parchment |
| 300 x 220 mm. |
| Twelve quires of eight. Ff. 1 and 2 originally flyleaves. First two folios blank. Quire 12 wants two leaves after f. 94. Catchwords for all quires except quire 1. Catchword in scroll with grotesque heads in profile - f. 18v. Catchwords in scrolls - ff. 26v, 66v. Collation: 18, ff. 1-10v; 2 8, ff. 11r-18v; 38, ff. 19r-26v; 48, ff. 27r-34v; 58, ff. 35-42v; 68, ff. 43r-50v; 78, ff. 51r-58v; 88, ff. 59r-66v; 98, ff. 67r-74v; 108, ff. 75r-82v; 118, ff. 83r-90v; 128, ff. 91r-96v (wants 2 between ff. 94 and 95, f. 96 originally back pastedown). |
| Pricking marks visible on fore edge - some slits, some round. Pricking marks for frame and columns, top and bottom, visible. Writing space of c. 230 x 80 mm. 10 mm between columns. Double columns with 45 lines. Frames ruled in russet. Lines ruled in dry point. |
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One scribe, Thomas Doule (f. 94v) writing in an Anglicana script, a neat, cursive book hand. Body height: 2 mm.
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In red: rubrics, titles, and running titles, scribal colophon.
Penwork on some letters on top lines. Delicate, foliate penwork flourishing to initial N of the scribal colophon (f. 94v).
Nota bene signs: ff. 65v, 66r - hand.
F. 3r: Two initials incorporated into bar-frame border of first page of text. Both are gold on a quartered ground of blue and rose with white line decoration with white circles and white dots.
F. 3r: Three-sided border constructed of a bar-frame on the inner margin with straight sprays along top and bottom margins. The border and initials are outlined in black with the predominant colours being rose/pink, blue, gold, and green. The bar extends along the inner margin with the four-line initial A at the top of the left margin, beginning the text, and the smaller two-line initial incorporated into the bar frame and positioned halfway down the page. The ground of the initial is quartered with blue and rose with white circles and white lines. The gold bar and rose vine move down from the bottom of the initial and terminate at the bottom of the page. The bar tapers onto a triangular ground of blue decorated with white lines, white circles and white dots whilst the vine terminates in a triangle which in turn gives rise to the straight spray forming the border at the bottom of the folio. The bar is broken at mid-point by an indistinct rose coloured leaf on a short vine. The leaf is topped by black pen squiggles with green tint. The spray along the bottom of the border is decorated with pairs of leaves, each pair being either blue or rose, decorated with circles of white shading with a central white circle and white lines. The leaves are accompanied by black curled feathering with oval voids at their ends topped by three pen squiggles along the vine. The spray terminates in a single blue leaf decorated with a shaded circle of white with a central white circle and white lines. The spraywork at the top of the folio is the same as the bottom spray.
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Medieval. Size: 300 x 220 mm. Covered with white leather now worn and torn. Rebacked. Support of oak boards cut flush with the quires. Channels for thongs cut out. All horizontal and cut level with one another, not staggered. Sewing with six thongs. Original thongs kept in place by small wooden pegs. Six bands across the spine. Leather cover is mitred and pasted. Evidence of two straps on the exterior with channels cut into the boards on fore edge and remains of leather straps.
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| ff. 96 really ii + 94. Modern pencil foliation 1-96. The first page of text is foliated as 3. |
| Notes by scribe: In red: 'Nomen scriptoris Thomas Doule plenus/ A. M. O. R. I. S'. The capital N of 'Nomen' is decorated with delicate and attractive foliate penwork flourishing. |
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| F. 94v carries the scribal inscription: 'Nomen scriptoris Thomas Doule plenus/ A. M. O. R. I. S'. Back cover - '...deryngton'. |
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Catalogued and encoded by Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, 2003.
- 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. 58, no. 551.
- 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., Craster, H. H., and Denholm-Young, N. 1937. A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, vol. 2, part 2, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 844.
- Pächt, O., and Alexander, J. J. G. 1973. Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol., 3, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 81, no. 932.
- Raymo, R. R. 1986. ‘Works of Religious and Philosophical Instruction’, in Hartung, A. E., ed, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 10 vols, New Haven, Connecticut: The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 7, pp. 2255-2378, p. 2261.
