Cambridge, St. John's College, 34
| England |
| Cambridge |
| St. John's College |
| 34 |
| B.12 |
| s. xvin |
| English |
| Scribal Dialect: Herefordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 361 244, LP 7450 (McIntosh, Samuels, and Benskin 1986, p. 199). |
An early fifteenth-century copy of the
Confessio Amantis.
Item: 4| The manuscript has not been foliated. |
| Confessio Amantis (IMEV 2662) |
| 'Of hem þat writen ous to fore'. |
| 'Oure ioie may ben endeles'. |
| 'Incipit prologus'. |
| A copy of the first recension (Pearsall 2004, p. 74). |
|
| Codex |
| Parchment |
| 310 x 230 mm |
|
1-27 8 with catchwords. Quire 12 wants 7 (stub remains, initial letters visible). Quire 14 wants 1 (stub remains, initial letters visible).
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| Pricking of small rounded holes in the header (10 mm from the edge), footer (21 mm from the edge) and external margin (15 mm from the side and 22 mm from the top edge) to indicate the framing space. Writing space: double columns: c. 82 x 23 mm with 39 lines. |
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One scribe writing in a neat Anglicana Formata hand. In the Latin summaries the hand becomes smaller and more angular, whilst retaining the same degree of cursiveness. Each line terminates with a square-shaped full stop. Double compartment a; diamond-shaped lobed d with square ascender curving 90 degrees from the left to the right, ending in an otiose hairline; 8-shaped g with rounded head, the descender closing into a rounded lobe, finishing in a squarish point attached to the head. This does not extend below the level of writing. There is a small tail on the right of the head; straight descender with a tail on the top left side of the p, rounded head with shaft starting from the right towards the left, finishing just past the meeting point with the descender; long and short r are used both in medial and final position; long r in conjunction with 'er', short r with 'or'; long and sigma s used regularly; no rounded s; dotted þ; the stem of þ is slightly bent towards the left by 45 degrees, ending with a small tail, the shaft does not extend past the stem/descender, it is used regularly in initial and final position; open w with the first stem terminating in a small tail and the second back stroke extending above the level of the letter turning towards right with a sharp angle and terminating with a tail. Two closed lobes finish the letter on the right side. Capital letters are decorated with double lines across the ascenders, otiose dots in the lobes of letters. Body height: 3 mm in the English text; 2 mm in the Latin.
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| The first page has a full border decorated in blue, red and gold with leaf motifs prominent on the external margin. First letter of the first word of the prologue is a two-line capital in gold, with red and blue background. No other decoration except for two-line Lombardic capitals in blue with red penwork decoration to indicate the beginning of each section. Initial letters of each line are tinted in yellow. Other Litterae Notabiliores written in blue or red, no paraph marks.
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Perhaps medieval, skin over board. Size: 320 x 245 mm. Sewn on six double bands across the spine. Fixing of cover on the boards: four leather strips across the spine between the board and the leather of the binding. No exterior furniture or decoration.
|
| ff. 214, the manuscript is not foliated. |
|
A medical recipe beginning, 'for þe strangury' is written on the first cover. Also written in a sixteenth-century hand on the inside first cover is a text (IMEV 1422) which begins, 'Yf on the Rockes of Scilla and caribdis I doe chaunce'. Folio 1r carries the inscription, 'doe well and feare nott. R & B'. On 214v: 'mem. quod a. d. m. quingentesimo tricesimo quarto et die mens. septembris decimo quinto erat terre motus magnus mane in aurora ante solis ortum per ista anglie confinia ita quod fere omnes turbarentur in lectis'.
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| Good. |
|
| On f. 1r: ' owethe this book' and again on f. 214v: 'John nycholas owethe this book 1576'. Other names on f. 214v: '', '', 'Nicholas Helyfex', '...'. Also: '' (on the parchment covering the board).
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| On the board 'Tho: C. S' along with an Ex Libris: 'Gulielmi Crashaw, A.M. Huius Collegii olim socii, codices Manuscriptos CLXVII coemptos, D. D. vir Honorabilis, Thomas Comes Southamptoniensis, A. D. 1635'. The book was bought by Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, from William Crashaw, Fellow of St. John's College, and presented by him to the College Library in the year 1635. Donor, T. C. S. Priced at 3li. |
Catalogued and encoded: Orietta DaRold, University of Birmingham, November 2004.
- James, M. R. 1913. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St. John’s College Cambridge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 46-47.
- www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/manuscripts/medieval_manuscripts .
- Macaulay, G. C., ed, 1957. The English Works of John Gower, EETS, es, 81-82, London: Oxford University Press, pp. lxxxi and lxxxii.
- 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.
- Pearsall, D. 2004. ‘The Manuscripts and Illustrations of Gower’s Works’, in Echard S., ed, A Companion to Gower, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, pp. 73-97.
