Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawl. A. 389
| Shelfmark | Date and Language | Contents |
| Physical Description | History | Record History | Bibliography |

Shelfmark
Country:England
Settlement:Oxford
Repository: Bodleian Library
Idno:Rawl. A. 389
AltName:SC 11272
Back to Top
Date and Language
Date:s. xivex
Language: English
Dialect:Scribe of ff. 13r-20r, 85r-99r, 99r-104r - Scribal Dialect: Staffordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, vol. 4, p. 239). Scribe of ff. 77r-81r and ff. 81r-84r - Scribal Dialect: NE Lancashire 'Written probably at Lichfield' (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, vol. 1, p. 150), Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped, LP 21. Ff. 81r-84r - Scribal Dialect: South Nottinghamshire 'but written by a scribe of Lichfield' (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, vol. 1, p. 150), Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped.
Back to Top
Contents
A late fourteenth-century manuscript copied at Lichfield containing various texts in English and Latin including ones by Richard Rolle, Pecham, and Richard Maidstone. Doyle dates the manuscript to 1386-1398 (Doyle 1974, p. 334). Some later additions.

Item: 1
Locus:ff. 1r-11v
Title:Emendatio Vitae
Incipit:'Hic est libellus de emendatione siue de regula'.
Explicit:'Explicit libellus ricardi heremite de emendacione per catonis'.
Note:F. 12r-v blank.
Bibliography:See Comper, Mysyn and Underhill 1914, pp. 193-242.

Item: 2
Locus:ff. 13r-20v
Title:Penitential Psalms (IMEV 3755)
Incipit:'To goddis worschipe žat dere us bou?te'.'Graunte žou god and persones žre'.
Explicit:
Bibliography:Printed from this manuscript in Edden 1990.

Item: 3
Locus:ff. 21r-25v
Title:Philomena
Incipit:'Philomena ...'
Explicit:'Explicit cantus philomene deuotissimus'.
Rubric:'De cantu phylomene'.
Bibliography:Blume and Dreves 1922, pp. 50, 602-603.

Item: 4
Locus:ff. 25v-31v
Title:Devotion of St. Brigitte
Incipit:'Benedicta ...'
Explicit:
Rubric:'Hic oracio ...'
Note:Extract of the life of the Virgin from Revelations of St. Brigitte.
Bibliography:

Item: 5
Locus:ff. 32r-72v
Title:Incendium Amoris
Incipit:'Incipit liber qui uocatur incendium amoris'.
Explicit:'in secula seculorum. Amen. Explicit liber de incendio amoris'.
Bibliography:See Deansley 1915, p. 23.

Item: 6
Locus:ff. 72v-73r
Title:Prophecy: 'The Lion, the Lily and the Son of Man'
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 7
Locus:ff. 73r-73v
Title:Ampulla prophecy
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 8
Locus:ff. 73v-74v
Title:Historical prophecy of kings and emperors
Incipit:'Rex ierusalem rex francie rex anglie'.
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 9
Locus:f. 74v
Title:De mirabilibus Anglie
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 10
Locus:f. 74v
Title:Derivations of words
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:Derivations of words: terra, tellus, humus, arda, sicca and solum. Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 11
Locus:f. 75r
Title:Record of Battles of King Edward 1333-1347
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 12
Locus:f. 75r
Title:Latin verses
Incipit:'Non tempestate non fame ve posse moneri'.
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 13
Locus:f. 75v
Title:Latin verses
Incipit:'Domo ?cephis mille canis catulus & cocadrillus'.
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand. F. 76r blank.
Bibliography:

Item: 14.1
Locus:f. 76v
Title:Miscellaneous notes
Incipit:'De dei quinque modis operandi'.
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 14.2
Locus:f. 76v
Title:Miscellaneous notes
Incipit:'Quatuor elementa'.
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 14.3
Locus:f. 76v
Title:Geographical notes
Incipit:'Terra diuiditur in tres partes'.
Explicit:
Note:Filled in by a later fifteenth-century hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 15
Locus:ff. 77r-81r
Title:Ego Dormio (IPMEP 160)
Incipit:'Ego dormio'.
Explicit:'In heuen witouten endyng. Amen'.
Colophon:'Richard hermit'.
Bibliography:See Ogilvie-Thomson 1988, p. xliv. Horstmann 1895, vol. 1, p. 50-61. Allen 1931, pp. 61-72. A second version is on ff. 95v-99r.

Item: 16
Locus:ff. 81r-84v
Title:The Commandment (IPMEP 660)
Incipit:'Že comaundement of god is žat we lufe oure lord in al oure hert'.
Explicit:'& come to ye ioye of luf žis nome'.
Note:Written in a south Nottinghamshire dialect but by a Lichfield scribe. Three leaves cut out after f. 84.
Bibliography:See Ogilvie Thomson 1988, pp. 34-9. Allen 1931.

Item: 17
Locus:ff. 85r-95r
Title:Form of Perfect Living (IPMEP 351)
Incipit:'In vche synful man or woman žat is bounden in dedly synne aren žre'.
Explicit:'In heuen wižout endynge. Amen'.
Colophon:'Explicit quoddam notabile richard rolle heremite'.
Note:Includes IMEV 2017.5, 4056.
Bibliography:See Ogilvie-Thomson 1988, pp. 1-25. Horstman 1895, vol. 1, p. 106. Allen 1931.

Item: 18.1
Locus:ff. 95v-99r
Title:Ego Dormio
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 18.2
Locus:f. 98r
Title:Cantus Amoris (IMEV 2270)
Incipit:'My sange es in syhtyng my lyfe es in langynge'.
Explicit:
Note:Verse lines in Ego Dormio above.
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1896, vol. 1, p. 60. Cf. Allen 1931, p. 70.

Item: 19
Locus:ff. 99r-104v
Title:Almighty God in Trinity (IMEV 244)
Incipit:'Aly?ti god in trinite ffadur & son & holy gaaste žat is god and persones žre'.
Explicit:'In heuen žer euer is ioye inowe'.
Bibliography:See Horstmann 1895, vol. 2, pp. 36-45. Comper, Misyn and Underhill 1928, pp. 293-294.

Item: 20
Locus:ff. 104v-105v
Title:Song of Love to Jesus (IMEV 1781)
Incipit:'Ihesu ži swetnes whoso my?te it se And žerof haue a clene knowyng'.
Explicit:'And lede me lord in to ži blis Wiž že to wone wižouten ende. Amen'.
Bibliography:See Horstmann 1895, vol. 1, pp. 368-369; Comper, Misyn and Underhill 1928, pp. 287-292.
Back to Top
Physical Description
Form:Codex
Support: Parchment
Extent:250 x 170 mm
Collation: iii + 18, 24, 38, 412 (wants 12 - neatly cut), 512, 610, 7-812, 912 (wants 4 (neatly cut), 9-12 (roughly cut)), 10-118, 125 (probably lacks 6-8) + ii.
Layout:Pricking: where visible small horizontal slits. Writing space: prose - single columns: 190 x 130 mm and 39 lines; verse - double columns - 90 x 65 mm and 37 lines; verse - single columns - 200 x 70 mm and 40 lines. Ruling in drypoint.
Writing: Scribe of ff. 1r-11v writing in an Anglicana hand. Scribe of ff. 13r-31v and ff. 77r-105v writing in an Anglicana Formata hand with the Latin in a more formal display script. Scribe of ff. 32r-72v writing in an Anglicana hand. Another scribe writes in an untidy cursive hand of the fifteenth century. His work fills blank spaces in ff. 72v-76v.
Decoration: Text 2, ff. 13r-20v: three-line blue initials with red penwork flourishing along margin (first letter of each Psalm). One-line red and blue Lombardic capitals. Red underlining. Text 3, ff. 21r-25v: three-line blue initial with red penwork begins text. Two-line blue initials with red penwork. Verses bracketed red. Red paraphs. Text 4, ff. 25v-31v: Six-line blue initial with red penwork begins work. Four lines in red introduce work.
Binding: Not medieval - first half of seventeenth century; rebacked in the nineteenth century. Size: 260 x 180 mm. Cover of brown leather with stamped gold shield over pasteboard (armorial bearings of Langley family). Five bands across the spine. Evidence of two metal clasps.
Foliation:ff. iii + 105 + ii. Edden - 'iii (vellum) + 112 + ii. Foliation modern, includes folio cut out at 1(4) excludes one leaf between ff. 32 and 33 (ie E2) and the folios cut out at D12, I9-12' (Edden 1990, pp. 12-14).
Additions:Insertions (see Contents).
Condition:Good
Back to Top
History
Origin:Probably written during the episcopate of Richard Scrope at Lichfield (Doyle 1974, p. 334. McIntosh 1963, p. 7).
Provenance:Various scribbles on f. 105v 'liber est ' in a fifteenth-century hand. 'liber est ?'. Ker notes that, 'Reedhill was prebend of Upton from 16 February 1451-2, Rynold from 27 January 1471-2; the manuscript belonged to the prebends of Lichfield from at least the second half of the fifteenth century' (1985, pp. 281, 288-289). The manuscript was at Lichfield Cathedral from c. 1470 until 1627.
Back to Top
Record History
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, March 2004.
Back to Top
Related Manuscripts and other documents Scribal Scribe of ff. 1-11v was also responsible for Cambridge, Trinity College, MS 383 (R.3.8) (McIntosh 1963, p. 7). The fragment of the Penitential Psalms found in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. poet. e. 17 was also written by a scribe of this manuscript.
Bibliography
Back to Top