London, British Library, Harley 2417
England |
London |
British Library |
Harley 2417 |
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s. xv1 |
English |
Scribal dialect: North West Worcestershire. Earlier, incorrectly analysed as Staffordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 371 273, LP 702 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 249).
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A copy of Mirk's
Festial from the first half of the fifteenth century. The other part of this manuscript is now London, British Library, Harley 2420.
Item: 1ff. 1r-87v |
Festial (IPMEP 734) |
'he şat dyeth in'. |
Unreadable |
Erbe 1905.
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Codex |
Parchment |
c. 200 x 135 mm |
110 wanting 1 (this stub is foliated as 1), ff. 2-9v, catchword; 28, ff. 10r-17v, catchword; 38, ff. 18r-26v, catchword; 48, ff. 27r-33v, catchword; 54 + 2 [the first 2 folios appear to be missing, just stubs remain but the text is unaffected], ff. 34-39v, catchword; 68, ff. 40r-47v, catchword; 78, ff. 48r-55v, catchword; 88, ff. 56r-63v, catchword; 98, ff. 64r-71v, catchword; 108, ff. 72r-79v, catchword; 118, ff. 80r-87v. |
Pricking where seen, very small, neat, round holes. Writing space of 140 x 90 mm. Single columns with 30 lines. Frame and lines ruled in drypoint. |
Characteristics: a compact Anglicana Formata with ascenders not much higher than the minims; dotted y; hooked ascenders on b, h, and k; long s in initial position; double compartment d; 2-shaped r; B-shaped w; double compartment g; single lobed a. Body height: 2mm.
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In red: titles, first initial of each homily, underlining of key words and phrases, rubrication throughout. No other decoration.
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Not contemporary. Rebound in 1968. Each quire is now remounted.
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ff. 87 |
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Homily for the Translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury crossed through. Folio 84r onwards - leaves badly stained. Writing on ff. 86v-87r very faint. Folio 87v - discoloured and writing virtually illegible. Incomplete, ends at f. 87v halfway through Homily for All Souls. |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, August 2003.
Related Manuscripts and other documents
Scribal
The same scribe worked on what is now London, British Library, Harley 2420. The two manuscripts were originally one.
- A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 1808-1812, 4 vols., London: G. Eyre and A. Strahan, 2. Commenced by H. Wanley, and successively continued by D. Casley, W. Hocker, C. Morton, index by T. Astle, p. 691.
- Erbe, T., ed. 1905. Mirks 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.
- Fletcher, A. J. 1987. John Mirk and the Lollards, Medium Aevum, 56, 217-224.
- 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.
- Powell, S. 1982. A new dating of John Mirks Festial, Notes and Queries, 227, 487-89.
- Powell, S. 1991. John Mirks Festial and the Pastoral Programme, Leeds Studies in English, 22, 85-102.
- Powell, S. 1997. Prolegomena to a New Edition of the Festial, Manuscripta, 41, 171-84.
- Powell, S. 2003. St. George of England: An Edition of the sermon for St. Georges Day from Mirks Festial, The Ricardian, 13, 371-83.
- Wakelin, M. F. 1967. The Manuscripts of John Mirks Festial, Leeds Studies in English, 1, 93-118.