London, British Library, Cotton Claudius A.ii
| England |
| London |
| British Library |
| Cotton Claudius A.ii |
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| s. xv1 |
| English |
| Scribe of f. 3v - Scribal Dialect: Staffordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped. Scribe of ff. 4r-30v - Scribal Dialect: Staffordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped. Scribe of ff. 40r-128r - Scribal Dialect: Staffordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 239). Scribe of ff. 129r-154v - Scribal Dialect: Shropshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 373 317, LP 52 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 233). Scribe of ff. 154v-155r - Scribal Dialect: Staffordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: not mapped (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 239). |
A mid-fourteenth-century manuscript (c. 1425-50) with a variety of texts most suited for use by a parish priest including John Mirk's
Festial and
Instructions for Parish Priests.
Item: 1.1| f. 3v |
| Festial: Prologue in verse (IMEV 956) |
| 'God maker of alle thyng be at oure begynnynge and ?ef vs alle hys blessyng and bryng vs alle to a good endyng amen. |
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| Given here in full. This rubric immediately precedes the prose prologue below and is written in the same hand. |
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Item: 1.2| f. 3v |
| Festial: Prologue in prose |
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| 'By myne owne febul lettrure y fele how yt faruth by othur that bene in the same degre that hauen charge of soulus and bene holdyn to teche hore pareschoners of all the principale festus that cometh in the ?ere schewyng home what the seyntus soffreden and dedun for goddus loue so that thay schuldon haue the more deuocion in goddus seyntys and with the better wylle com to the chyrche to serue god and pray to holy seyntys of her help. But for mony excuson ham by defaute of bokus and sympulnys of letture therfore in helpe of suche mene clerkus as I am my selff I haue drawe this treti sewyng owt of legenda aurea with more addyng to so he that hathe lust to study there in he schal fynde redy of alle the principale festis of the ?ere a schort sermon nedful for hym to techym and othur for to lerne and for this treti speketh alle of festis i wolle and y pray that it be called a festial the whyche begynnyth the forme sonday of the advent in worschip of god and of alle seyntes that be wryten there in. Explicit prefacio incipit liber qui vocatur festial. In dei nomine. Amen'. |
| The Festial begins on f. 4r but this text is in red and appears to have been added after the copying of the Festial, the quire is a singleton and is of a different colour to the quire to which it is attached. The pricking, frame, and ruling also mark it out as an addition to the quires containing the Festial. |
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Item: 2| ff. 4r-125v |
| Festial (IPMEP 734) |
| 'Thys daye ys kalled şe first sonday yn şe advent'. |
| '& so şe myste vanysches away'. |
| 'God maker of alle thyng be at oure begynnyng and ?ef vs alle hy blessyng and bryng vs alle to a good endyng amen'. |
| 'Explicit tractatus qui dicitur ffestial per fratrem iohannem mirkus compositus...amen'. |
Printed in Peacock 1868; Erbe 1905.
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Item: 3.1| ff. 125v-128r |
| The Great Sentence/The Order for Pronouncing Excommunication (IPMEP 122) |
| 'Şe grete sentens I wryte şe here'. |
| 'Tyl şay comen to amendemente & satiffaction made. Fiat fiat amen'. |
| 'De magna sentencia pronuncianda hoc modo'. |
Kristensson, 1974, pp. 105-7; Peacock 1902, pp. 60-67.
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Item: 3.2| f. 128r |
| Instructive Verse Regarding Excommunication (IMEV 3372) |
| 'Than you şi candul kaste to grownde'. |
| 'You my?te se many mo'. |
Kristensson, 1974, pp. 105-7; Peacock 1902, pp. 60-67.
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Item: 4| ff. 129r-154v |
| Instructions for Parish Priests (IMEV 961) |
| 'God seyth hym self as wryton we fynde'. |
| 'God vs graunte ffor hys myght'. |
| 'Explicit tractatus qui dicitur pars oculi de latino in anglicium translatus per fratrem iohannem myrcus...Amen'. |
Peacock 1902.
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Item: 5| ff. 154v-155r |
| List of months of the year with various feasts. |
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Item: 6| ff. 155v-156r |
| Various ordinances of the popes |
| 'In Gregory the tenthe pope ordeyned şat man schulde'. |
| 'fadures in here lyues'. |
| An addition in a later fifteenth-century hand. |
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| Codex |
| Parchment |
| 240 x 160 mm |
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14 quires of 12 |
| Pricking not visible. Writing space of c. 195 x 130 mm, text often protrudes into right margin. Single columns apart from list of months which has double columns. Lines vary from 26-42. Ruled in drypoint but from f. 129r onwards frame ruled in brown crayon. |
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Scribe 1: ff. 3v - Textura Semi-Quadrata. Body height: 3mm.
Scribe 2: ff. 4r-30v - Bastard Secretary - single lobe g; single lobe a in medial position; long tapered s in medial and initial positions; circular e; double compartment/looped d. Hand becomes increasingly untidy and large - from 2-3mm.
Scribe 3: ff. 40r - 128r - Anglicana Formata - double compartment g; 2-shaped r; long v-shaped ş; ascenders of letters on top line extend into top margin. Small neat hand. Body height: 2mm.
Scribe 4: ff. 129r-154v - Anglicana Formata - late fourteenth century. Body height: 3mm.
Scribe 5: ff. 154v-155r - Textura Quadrata. Body height: 3mm.
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Prayer and prologue preceding the Festial, f. 3v. Initial G of Festial in red and blue; initials of first words of homilies or new subjects decorated throughout - two-line blue initials with fine red penwork spreading in margin; red and blue paraphs; following text decorated in the same manner. Ff. 153v-154r not rubricated or embellished in any way. Ff. 129r-154v, Mirk's Instructions to Parish Priests - red title in Latin; two-line red initial to begin text with fine grey penwork extending into margin; one-line red initials with grey penwork; red and blue paraphs; initial letters of some lines touched red.
Nota bene - hand.
Sketch of seated dog with human or animal head - bottom f. 58r.
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Not medieval. Covered in brown leather with blind tooling on edges within three gold bands with flower at corner, gold stamped shield in middle. Five raised bands across the spine.
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| ff. vi + 154 + iv. 4 modern paper + 2 parchment flyleaves at beginning; 2 parchment + 2 modern paper flyleaves at end.
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Two folios at the front formed part of the directions and music for the Office of the Dead. The two at the back are part of the Litany. |
| Good |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, March 2004.
- British Museum. 1802. A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum, London: no publisher, p. 188.
- Erbe, T., ed. 1905. Mirk’s Festial: A Collection of Homilies by Johannes Mirkus, John Mirk edited from Bodl. MS. Gough Eccl. Top. 4, with variant readings from other MSS, EETS, es, 96, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, pp. cxiii-cxvii.
- Horstmann, C., ed, 1881. Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge, Heilbronn: Henninger.
- Kristensson, G., ed, 1974. ‘John Mirk’s Instructions for Parish Priests edited from MS Cotton Claudius A II and six other manuscripts with introduction, notes and glossary’, Lund Studies in English, 49, Lund: CWK Gleerup.
- 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, Trübner.
- Peacock, E. ed. 1868. Instructions for Parish Priests by John Myrc, EETS, os, 31, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner .
- Powell, S. 1991. ‘John Mirk‘s Festial and the Pastoral Programme’, Leeds Studies in English, 22, 85-102.
- Wakelin, M. F. 1967. ‘The Manuscripts of John Mirk’s Festial’, Leeds Studies in English, 1, 93-118.
