Oxford, Balliol College, 239
| Shelfmark | Date and Language | Contents |
| Physical Description | History | Record History | Bibliography |

Shelfmark
Country:England
Settlement:Oxford
Repository: Balliol College
Idno:239
AltName:
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Date and Language
Date:s. xv
Language: English
Dialect:Scribal Dialect: Warwickshire (scribe of ff. 93r-140v). Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 425 252, LP 4684 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 244).
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Contents
Originally two separate fifteenth-century manuscripts but bound together by the sixteenth century and considered as one manuscript here. Only the hand of Mandeville's Travels has been analysed in McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin (p. 244).

Item: 1
Locus:ff. 1r-24r
Title:Honorius AugustodunensisElucidarium
Incipit:'Qui fecit celos intellectu sol et luna'.
Explicit:'Omnibus diebus vite tue. Amen'.'Explicit lucidarius'.
Bibliography:

Item: 2
Locus:ff. 24v-26r
Title:Dialogus Adriani et Epicteti
Incipit:'Tribunus commendavit illum comiti'.
Explicit:'Saxones comparantur equis britones - capreis picti unuentio (?) scoti vulpilis'.
Note:F. 26v is blank.
Bibliography:

Item: 3
Locus:ff. 27r-77v
Title:Speculum Christiani
Incipit:'Deus in evangelio qui ex deo est verba dei audit'.
Explicit:'bona coniungunt aut mala disiungunt'.
Rubric:'& incipit speculum christiani'.
Note:This text begins with a 'Kalendarium speculi christiani', which lists all the chapters and their content in two columns, ff. 27r-v. Text is followed by three double circles. On ff. 77v-78v are some short Latin texts, see Mynors 1963, p. 260.
Bibliography:Holmstedt 1933.

Item: 4
Locus:ff. 79r-83v
Title:
Incipit:'Apostolica vox clamat per orbem'.
Explicit:'retrahens inanes efficiat'.
Rubric:'Augustinus de conflictu viciorum & virtutum'.
Bibliography:

Item: 5
Locus:ff. 83v-91v
Title:Synonimi
Incipit:'Manus meas quodam'.
Explicit:'vita mea placens Amen Explicit liber sinonimi'.
Rubric:'Incipit liber secundus qui vocatur sinonimi'.
Note:Two leaves are lost, after ff. 87 and 91.
Bibliography:

Item: 6
Locus:ff. 91v-92r
Title:Commentary on the Apostles' Creed
Incipit:'Accepto spiritu sancto apostoli per totum orbem terrarum teste augustino'.
Explicit:'in secula seculorum. Amen'.
Note:Theological notes with reference to Origen, Tully, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, and Augustine.
Bibliography:

Item: 7
Locus:ff. 93r-140v
Title:Mandeville's Travels (IPMEP 233)
Incipit:'that it may come to mynde and specially for hem'.
Explicit:'leveth and reignet god withoute end'.
Rubric:Amen Explicit maundeuyle'.
Bibliography:
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Physical Description
Form:Codex
Support: Parchment
Extent:290 x 193 mm
Collation:Note on the first flyleaf, 'The order of the quires, badly confused in the 18th century. Rebinding, was set right in 1929.' 18 (wants 1), catchword f. 7v; 28, no catchwords; 38, catchword f. 23v; 48, catchword f. 31v; 58, catchword f. 39v, 68 (wants 1), catchword f. 46v (Boxed in brown ink), 78 (wants 4), catchword on f 53v, 88 (wants 1), catchword f. 60v (in red and half boxed on the left and bottom); 98, catchword f. 68v; 1010, 118, catchword f. 86v; 128 (wants 2 and 7) no catchword; 138 (wants 1), catchword f. 99v (boxed in brown and then tinted in red); 148, catchword f. 107v (boxed in brown and then tinted in red); 158, catchword f. 115v (boxed in brown ink); 168 (wants 2-3-4-6), catchword f. 119v (boxed in brown and then tinted in red); 178 (wants 6), catchword f. 126v (boxed in brown and then tinted in red); 188, catchword f. 134v (boxed in brown and then tinted in red); 198, (this could be a quire of 8 with two leaves missing, in the centre there are marks of a sharp knife cutting through f. 3 in the gutter);
Layout:Small and rounded pricking visible both to trace the writing frame for the columns and the ruling of each lines. Writing space: 210-216 x 63-67 mm. Double columns ruled for 31-38 lines in brown crayon.
Writing: Scribe 1 (ff. 1-78v, 87-92v) writing in dark brown ink in an Anglicana Formata script with Secretary features, rather compact, but with tall ascenders which often decorate the header of folio. Characteristics: double compartment Anglicana a, often replaced by Secretary a; diamond-shaped lobe of d with bended ascender curving from the left to the right terminating at the top of the head and forming another closed lobe; 8-shaped and compact g with rounded head, the descender closes into a diamond shape lobe, finishing in a squarish point attached to the head. There is a small but pronounced tail on the right of the head. Straight descender with a tail pointing down on the top left side of the p, rounded top head forming a square angle at the bottom whilst turning towards the left, finishing just past the meeting point with the descender; short, long and l-shaped r are used both in medial and final position; rounded s in final position; long s used in initial and medial position; minims are traced continuously in a Secretary style tendency of hairline in the last minim when it appears in final position. Body height: 2mm. Scribe 2 (ff. 79-86v) writing in dark brown ink in a Secretary hand with Anglicana features, small and compact in appearance, use of hairlines but they do not extend too much below or above the line of writing, thick penstrokes, the pen perhaps not very sharp. Characteristics: single compartment secretary a; diamond shape lobe of d with bended ascender curving from the left to the right terminating at the top of the head and forming another closed lobe; secretary g with u-shaped head closed by a small horizontal stroke across the head, straight descender finishing with a hairline turning on the right. Curved descender with a tail pointing down on the top left side of the p, rounded head formed with a stroke which finishes just past the meeting point with the descender; long s is mostly used both in medial and final position; very rarely rounded s in final position; short r used in all other instances, no long r; minims are traced continuously in a Secretary style, first minim usually starts with a hairline when in initial position. Body height: 1.5 mm. Scribe 3 (ff. 93r-140v) writing in dark brown ink in an Anglicana Formata hand, influenced occasionally by Bastard Anglicana and Secretary scripts. Ascenders and descenders often end in an otiose hairline and the head and feet of the minims often terminate with serifs. Characteristics: double compartment Anglicana a rather compact, but upright; the lobe of d is of squarish proportion with curved ascender curving towards the right terminating in a hairline without closing on itself; Secretary g with open head, closed by a horizontal stroke, curved open descender towards the left. Straight descender of the letter p, rounded head with shaft starting apart from the stem of the descender finishing just past it; short r used both in medial and final position; closed sigma s used regularly in final position; long s used in medial position; dotted þ is used occasionally. Open w with the first stem terminating with a small serif on the left, the second back stroke at the same level of the letter terminating with a small tail. Two closed lobes finish the letter on the right side. Body height: 2mm.
Decoration: Text 1 - Lombardic two-line capitals in blue with red penwork, red paraphs, rubrics and marginalia. The decorated ascenders on the header are tinted in red, as are the litterae notabiliores in the text. Text 2 - Emphatic one-line capitals in blue, red ink to emphasise names, speech or other textual parts. Text 3 - The Kalendarium has each chapter number in red and the initial of each description tinted in red. The text of the Speculum has a decorated border on the right column in elaborate penwork in red and blue. The border forms a T-shape running at the top of the two columns with red and blue infill. Lombardic two-line capitals in blue with red penwork, red rubrics and marginalia and also in red parts of speech or other emphatic text. At times capitals tinted in red over brown ink. Text 4 - Lombardic two-line capitals in blue with red penwork, red rubrics and also in red parts of emphatic punctuation. Capitals or litterae notabiliores tinted in red over brown ink. Text 5 - Lombardic two-line capitals in blue with red penwork, red rubrics and marginalia. Capitals tinted in red over brown ink. Explicit in red. Item 6 - same as Item 5, with one-line capitals in red occasionally. Text 7 - Lombardic two-line capitals in blue with red penwork, red rubrics and marginalia. Paraphs in blue and corrections in red, mainly by horizontal stroke. Capitals tinted in red over brown ink.
Binding: Not medieval. Probably seventeenth century. Size: 294 x 195 mm. Boards covered with brown suede. Sewn on six bands across the spine, however five are exposed and guilded with double lines. Front and back cover decorated with a frame in printed flowers like patterns and four flowers at each end corner. Re-use of previous binding when MS rebound in 1929.
Foliation:ff. ii+140+i. The missing leaves are not taken into account here.
Additions:
Condition:Good, but strips have been cut from f. 139 and f. 140.
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History
Origin:Unknown
Provenance:On f. 92 in a sixteenth-century court hand is: ' / Esq. Governour of Graston / when I writt / this Booke. / John Maundevile K. of Lyes.' Other such scribbles are on ff. 117 and 118, 'Richardus' in another hand on f. 104. A scrap of paper pasted on the foot of f. 1 is inscribed: 'Ex dono Gulielmi Dickins Art: Magistri et Coll: Bal: Socii Anno Domini 1656'.
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Record History
Catalogued and encoded: Orietta DaRold, University of Birmingham, January 2005.
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Related Manuscripts and other documents Textual In Mandeville's Travels closely related to Oxford, Queen's College, MS 383 (Mynors 1963, p. 260).
Bibliography
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