London, British Library, Additional 38666
| England |
| London |
| British Library |
| Additional 38666 |
| Bramshill House MS and Cope MS |
| s. xvmed |
| English |
| Scribal Dialect (ff. 5r-173v): Shropshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 363 331, LP 223 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, vol. 4, p. 233). Hand of f. 174r-v: language similar to main hand and 'belongs probably to N Salop' (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, vol. 1, p. 102). |
A mid fifteenth-century copy of the
Stanzaic Life of Christ (Foster 1926, p. xi);
Dialogue between a Clerk and a Husbandmen added by a later hand.
Item: 1| ff. 5r-173v |
| Stanzaic Life of Christ (IMEV 1755) |
| 'Ihesu şat born was of a may'. |
| 'And with hym in şat blisse be'. |
| 'Nunc scripsi al this pro christo da michi my seruys''. |
First 66 lines printed in Foster 1926, pp. 1-3.
|
Item: 2| f.174r-v |
| Dialogue between a Clerk and a Husbandmen (IMEV 344) |
| 'As I cowthe walke because of recreacioun'. |
| 'Thou scalle note make me myse beleue'. |
| This text is a later addition. |
Printed in Brown 1918, pp. 415-17. Robbins 1959, pp. 180-181.
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| Codex |
| Parchment |
| 220 x 145 mm |
|
Gatherings of 12 leaves.
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| Pricking not visible. Writing space of 165 x 90 mm but text does not fill a line. Single columns with 32 lines. Frame ruled in drypoint which has a slight purplish tinge. |
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Main scribe (ff. 5r-173v) writing in a small cursive hand. Characteristics: single compartment a and single compartment a with pointed head; reversed circular e; hooked ascender on l; double compartment d; B-shaped w with looped ascenders on left. Body height: 1.5-2mm.
Scribe 2: responsible for the later additional material only writing in a fifteenth-century cursive script.
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| Ff. 1v, 2r - two-line blue initials with red penwork flourishing. Initial folio of Stanzaic Life - nine-line blue initial I with red penwork flourishing forming a two-sided border. F. 87v - two-line blue initial with red penwork flourishing into margin.
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Medieval binding (mid fifteenth century). Size: 220 x 145 mm. Covered in white leather now discoloured to light brown, mitred and pasted onto boards that are much thinner than usual. Five double leather thongs across the spine. Remains of leather thongs on front fore edge, presumably for using as a strap. Evidence on inside back cover of place where straps would have been.
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| ff. 178 |
| On f. 178v are further additional texts which are now illegible possibly in the same hand as item 2.
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| Good |
| On f. 4 is a note of ownership from the thirteenth century: 'Liber sancti cuthberti dunelmi in quo continentur iii libri prosperi de vita contemplatiua et actiua'. F. 178v has accounts of the weight and cost of bells at St. Bride's Major, in the diocese of Llandaff, and of Merton College, '32 quaterniones et dimidum sunt in hoc libro preter psalterium et kalendarium' and '24 quaterniones et ii folia sunt in hoc libro preter psalterium et kalendarium'. After the account of the Merton College bells, but in a different hand, is written 'Empte fuerunt campane prescripte anno domini MoCCCCmoXXVIIo'.
Later owners are also evident: f. 3r carries the fifteenth/sixteenth-century inscription, 'Iste liber pertinet ad ihoannem balye' whilst f. 3v carries another inscription of the same date, 'iste liber constat '. Other sixteenth-century inscriptions are: 'Pray ffor ye sole of ' (f. 176r); 'thys boke ys [?]' (f. 176v); and 'my lady da... do?ter (?) to Sir ' (f. 178r). The book belonged to Sir, Bart., of Bramshill Park, Southampton, described in Historical Manuscripts Commission, Appendix to Third Report, p. 243 (Sotheby's sale catalogue, 4 March 1913, lot 117). |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, March 2004.
- British Museum. 1925. Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1911-15, London. compiled by the staff of the dept of MSS, revised by Julius P. Gilson, London: printed for the trustees. 1925, p. 194.
- Brown, C. 1918. ‘Dialogue between a Clerk and a Husbandman’, Modern Language Notes, 33, 415-17.
- http://searcharchives.bl.uk.
- Foster, F. A. ed, 1926 for 1924. A Stanzaic Life of Christ compiled from Higden’s Polychronicon and the Legenda Aurea edited from MS Harley 3909, EETS, os, 166, London: Oxford University Press .
- Furnivall, F. 1866. Political, Religious, and Love Poems, EETS, os, 15, London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, p. 117.
- Horstmann, C., ed, 1875. Altenglische Legenden. Kindheit Jesu. Barlaam und Josaphat. St. Patrik’s Fegefeuer. Aus den verschiedenen Mss. zum ersten Male herausgegeben, Paderborn: Ferdinand Schoningh, p. xxxviii.
- 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.
- Robbins, R. H., ed, 1959. Historical Poems of the XIVth and XVth Centuries, New York: Columbia University Press.
- Ward, H. 1910. Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, London: Trustees of the British Museum, 2, pp. 690, 738.
