Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing John Lydgate, Verse life of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Parchment, smooth; quires with flesh-side outermost; outer and lower edges cropped; flyleaves f.1 and 94 previously pastedowns.
foliated, 1-24, 26-94 in 18th century
1-108, 118 wants 8 (blank ?) after f.90, 124
No evidence of pricking. Item (1): Written space 210 x 105 mm; framed in soft brown or, quires 2-11, faint grey; 35 unruled long lines. Item 2: Written space 225 x 140 mm; ruled in brown; 27 long lines.
Item (1): written in current secretary, neatly, by one hand, with whip like top line ascenders and a little strap work: f.75v reproduced as frontispiece in Lauritis. Sidenotes and chapter rubrics in red by same hand, the latter altered in black by the revising hand. Item (2): written in brown ink, in a calligraphic textura of somewhat Franco-Flemish appearance (cf. spellings “may” and “ay” for “maij” and “gaij”), expertly, with slightly elaborated major initials.
In item (1) only. First letters of item (1) chapter rubrics in table stroked with red. Initials: (i) to item (1) chapters, 2 or 3 line, in blue, with red infilling and flourishing; (ii) to first chapters of books II and III (but not IV) of division added to item (1), 4 line, as (i); (iii) to item (1) prologue (f.5r), 5 line, in blue and red, with red infilling and red and blue flourishing, and with a cascade (or J-border) down the left edge, and across the top of the text block, composed of an inner plain blue line and jagged alternately red or blue sections 20-45 mm long. Running titles: Roman chapter numbers on each full page of item (1), in red, altered with book numbers in black by the early 16th century revising hand.
Standard Tuckett binding, mid 19th century full brown calf over thick wooden boards (Charles Tuckett, binder to the British Museum, rebound many Durham manuscripts in the 19th century)
Written in England, mid 15th century.
The addition of item 2, a portion only of a martyrology, suitable for conventual reading, suggests a monastic house with access to an exemplar of Canterbury ancestry, and the Benedictine nunnery of Barking Abbey, Essex, in the London diocese, is a possibility. Inscriptions: “Iesu Marcy thys boke ys Jane Fyz loy wys”, also an escutcheon, correct for Fitzlewis, chevron between three threfoils, with “mary” above it and “mary revares (?)” below it, 15th/16th century, f.1v (former pastedown); by the same hand “orly (?) C(s?)ullement Jane Fytzlowys”, f.94r lower left hand corner. In B.L., MS Royal 18 D.vii a different and superior script is used for “Marie Rivieres” (the second wife of Anthony Wydevill, 2nd Earl Rivers, whom he married before October 1480; the daughter and heir of Sir Henry Fitzlewis of Horndon, Essex). Jane Fitzlewis occurs amongst a number of other names of noble and gentle families on B.L. MS Royal 17.D.VI.
“oon I obey Anne Crowmer”, 15th/16th century, f.1v (former pastedown). “For my lady” and upside down “for Joan (?)”, 15th/16th century, f.47r middle of the right margin.
An erased and irrecoverable inscription, 15th/16th century, f.94r top.
“Dum spiro spero”, 17th century italic, f.94r centre, a motto used by Henry (?) St George, Clarencieux King-of-Arms (1581-1644) but also by others.
“.v./.a.”, f.2v, a 16th/17th century bookseller's cypher.
“WBrowne”, f.3r, is similar to the inscription “Willelmus Browne 1612” in Cosin MS V.II.15 f.2r (see Edwards 1997).
“Geo. Davenport. 1664”, f.1v; and his note from Pitsaeus on Lydgate, f.2v.
Used by Lauritis as the base text, being judged early (c. 1450), fairly complete (omitting only two lines, III.1426, V.532; also two stanzas, IV 162-8, 169-75 transposed), and with several superior readings; the reported “slight northern coloring” in the spelling, “undoubtedly that of the scribe”, presumably refers to such forms as “awne”, “thay” and “thayre”. The stanzas (ababbcc) are not separated or marked in any way. The continuous numeration 1-87 in the table of chapters, f.3r-4v, the running titles and the marginal numbers were altered by an awkward 16th century humanistic hand, to give a four book division of the text (using type (ii) initials), each with separate chapter numeration, as against the six book division found in other manuscripts and the 1483 printing by Caxton. Keiser 1995 argues that the Cosin chapter reviser must have used Lambeth Palace Library MS 344.
With English additions, e.g “depositio sancti patris nostri domini anselmi archiepiscopi” and “In britannia: sancti melliti episcopi et confessoris” (21 and 24 April). The former points to Canterbury, the second perhaps to the diocese of London. BL MS Arundel 68 (Christ Church, Canterbury, 13th century) has Anselm “Cantuarie” without “sancti patris nostri” as its last entry for 11 kal. May.
f.92v-94v otherwise blank, save for pen trials
Catalogi veteres librorum Ecclesiae cathedralis
dunelm. Catalogues of the library of Durham cathedral, at
various periods, from the conquest to the dissolution, including
catalogues of the library of the abbey of Hulne, and of the mss.
,
Surtees Society 7, (London: J.B. Nichols and Son, [1838]).
Edwards, A. S. G., "Medieval manuscripts owned by William Brown of Tavistock (1590/1?-1643/5)", in Carley, James P. & Tite, Colin G. C., ed., Books and Collectors 1200-1700: Essays presented to Andrew Watson (London: British Library, 1997), 441-449
Keiser, G. R., "Ordinatio in the manuscripts of John Lydgate's Lyf of Our Lady: its value for the reader, its challenge for the modern editor", in Medieval literature: texts and interpretation , ed. Machan, T. W., (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1991), 39-58
Keiser, G. R., "Serving the needs of readers: textual division in some late-medieval English texts", in New science out of old books , ed. Beadle, R., & Piper, A. J. (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995), 207-226
A critical edition of John Lydgate's Life of Our Lady , ed. Lauritis, J. A., Klinefelter, R. A. & Gallagher, V. F. Duquesne Studies, Philological Series 2, (Pittsburgh 1961)
A new index of Middle English verse , ed. J. Boffey & A. S. G. Edwards (London: British Library, 2005)
Walther, H., Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina 1. Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris latinorum: alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Versanfänge mittellateinischer Dichtungen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959-69)
Walther, H., Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi. Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in alphabetischer Anordnung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963-86)