Manchester, John Rylands University Library, Eng. 90
| Shelfmark | Date and Language | Contents |
| Physical Description | History | Record History | Bibliography |

Shelfmark
Country:England
Settlement:Manchester
Repository: John Rylands University Library
Idno:Eng. 90
AltName:Ashburnham 136
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Date and Language
Date:s. xiv/xv
Language: English
Dialect:Scribal Dialect: Shropshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 373 286, LP 4218 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 234).
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Contents
A late fourteenth/early fifteenth century (Ker 1983, p. 413) copy of the Prick of Conscience with Lollard interpolations. The other part of this manuscript is now London, British Library, MS Additional 34779, a copy of the C-text of Piers Plowman. McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin (1986, p. 234) state that the 'language of the two MSS is not identical, but may plausibly be assigned to the same area'.

Item: 1
Locus:ff. 2r-62va
Title:Prick of Conscience (Main Version, IMEV 3428)
Incipit:'The my?t of že fadur almy?ti'.
Explicit:'žat for ous fouched saff to henge'.
Note:Text with Lollard interpolations.
Bibliography:Ed. Morris 1863. Allen 1927, pp. 388-93.

Item: 2
Locus:f. 62va-b
Title:Conscientia
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:52 lines of Latin prose.
Bibliography:

Item: 3
Locus:ff. 63ra-65vb
Title:Pater Noster (IPMEP 604)
Incipit:'Sith the pater noster ys the best prayer žat is'.
Explicit:'blisse and ioye with him withouten ende. Amen'.
Rubric:'Explicit pater noster'.
Note:Lollard interpolation.
Bibliography:Shirley 1875; Arnold 1869-71, vol. 3, pp. 98-110.
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Physical Description
Form:Codex
Support: Parchment
Extent:340 x 240 mm
Collation: 1-7 8; 84 (ff. 58-61); 94 (ff. 62-5). Catchwords: 3v; 9v; 17v; 33v; 41v; 57v (this looks to be in a later hand?); 61v (in a very small hand in red ink at very bottom of folio).
Layout:Item 1 - Pricking not visible. Writing space: double columns with each column 280 x 95 mm with 51 lines. Frame ruled in brown crayon?, or now discoloured drypoint, lines not visible. Item 2 - Pricking not visible. Writing space: double columns with each column 280 x 100 mm and 55 lines. Frame ruled in drypoint - now discoloured.
Writing: Scribe 1 writing in brown ink in an Anglicana hand. Characteristics: e with pointed head; B-shaped w; double compartment a in medial position; 2-shaped r in medial position; long s in initial position; 8-shaped s in final position; hooked (soft) ascender on b, h and b; split/v-shaped r in initial and final position; 8-shaped/double compartment g; double compartment/looped d; ž. Body height: 3mm. Scribe 2 writing in brown ink in an Anglicana hand. Characteristics: looped ascender on h; v-shaped/split r in medial position; sigma s in initial and final position; long s in initial and medial position; 2-shaped r in final position; B-shaped w; looped ascenders on l, h, and b; double compartment a.
Decoration: Item 1: Initial page: f. 2r: first letter of each line tinted red; red brackets; at top left of first column five-line blue Lombardic initial T of 'The' with fine red penwork extending along length of first column along top margin and one third of way down left margin. Latin lines in red; two-line blue initials at beginning of text; some letters coloured red within text. First letter of each line of verse tinted red with red brackets; two-line blue Lombardic initials with red penwork; six-line initial, eg. f. 8r, blue with red penwork to begin part of the text.
Binding: Not medieval. Size: 350 x 260 mm. Cover of tan leather with blind tooled edging consisting of two sets of double rows along the edge. Five raised bands of double cords across the spine. Marbled paper inside. The binding has now come apart.
Foliation:i (paper) + ii (modern parchment) + 65 + v (these final leaves are made up of one original flyleaf (f. 66), 2 modern parchment flyleaves (ff. 67-68), and one paper flyleaf (f. 69), the last, f. 70, is the back pastedown.
Additions:Flyleaves: Accounts on ff. 1r (very faded), 66v (illegible).
Condition:Good but needs rebinding.
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History
Origin:Unknown
Provenance:F. 1v: 'Iste sunt testes hugone Chattok Taylor of Sint Albons Wyllyham scheddebolt Bayly araunt dwelling in the same Toune' in a fifteenth/sixteenth-century hand. F. ii verso, 'A./ C. A. R. & W./ 1869'. F. 2r ' pre: 3s' in a seventeenth-century hand. Probably sold as lot 497 'Poetical Commentary on the Pater Noster, MS. on vellum, very curious' bought by (James) (1800-83: DNB), or lot 498, 'A curious MS. of Devotional Poetry, Eng. and Lat. on vellum', bought by Crossley for £4. Sold in 's sale (1793-1876; rector of Strand near Manchester: DNB): his sale at Sotheby's 28 July 1868, lot 697. Ashburnham Appendix sale at Sotheby's, 1 May 1899, lot 165 (Ellis, £39.10s). J. Scott sale at Sotheby's, 27 March 1905, lot 1961.
Acquisition:Bought for £54 from J. and J. Leighton in 1908: invoice dated 6 July.
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Record History
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, May 2004.
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Related Manuscripts and other documents Textual According to Lewis and McIntosh this manuscript is a member of the Lollard subgroup (1982, p. 90). Another part of this manuscript is now London, British Library, MS Additional 34779, a C-text of Piers Plowman.
Bibliography
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