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Manchester. The John Rylands Library, English MS 87

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Source
Manchester Digital Collections
Library
The John Rylands Library
Shelfmark
  • English MS 87
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • End 14th/beginning 15th century
Language
  • Middle English
Title
  • The Pore Caitif (Poore Caitiff | Poor wretch)
Agent
Description
  • Extent:
    119 folios (v+119+v) Leaf height: 150 mm, width: 105 mm.
    Binding:

    Blind-tooled brown morocco, 19th century.


    Decoration:

    3-line initials in blue ink with red penwork flourishes.


    Acquisition:

    Purchased by Mrs Enriqueta Rylands from Henry Yates Thompson in 1897, and later transferred to the John Rylands Library.


    Layout:
    Written height: 93 mm, width: 65 mm.
    Collation:
    Quire 18 lacking 2 after folio 1 and 7 after folio 5,
    Quire 28,
    Quire 38lacking 8 after folio 21,
    Quires 4-148,
    Quire 158 lacking 2 after folio 110,
    Quire 168lacking 5-8 after folio 119.

    Secundo folio:den at her

    Quires are signed b-r in the usual late medieval way, except that the leaf numbers are written below the quire letters (cf. English MS 85)
    Script:

    Written in gothic anglicana formata


    Subject(s):
    Religion; Christianity; Theology--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500
    Abstract:

    The Pore Caitif (Poor Wretch) was a popular fourteenth-century compilation of fourteen treatises intended for the religious instruction of the laity, and has variously been attributed to John Wycliffe and Richard Rolle. It survives in more than fifty manuscripts.

    (1) folios1r-119v, Pore Caitif. Jolliffe, A check-list of Middle English prose writings of spiritual guidance, B. This and twenty-two other manuscripts containing all fourteen parts are listed by M.T. Brady in Traditio, vol. 10 (1954), pp. 529-48. Part 1, on the Creed, begins imperfectly at folio1r, 'do but also of dedis left undo' (probably eight leaves are missing), lacks a leaf after folio1v, and ends imperfectly at folio5v, 'Seynt symond seide. I bileeue forȝifnesse of' (one leaf missing); part 2, on the Commandments, begins imperfectly at folio 6r, 'þerfore ech man and womman', and lacks a leaf after f. 21; part 3, on the Lord's Prayer, folio52r; part 4, folio66v; part 5, folio70r; part 6, folio73r; part 7, folio74r ; part 8, folio81v (running title 'þe hors'); part 9, folio90v; part 10, folio94v; part 11, folio98v; part 12, folio102r; part 13, folio103v; part 14, folio106v; it lacks a leaf after folio110v and all after 'þis is my filosofie. þis is my victorie'.

    (2) folio120r (flyleaf), on recto, Directions for masses, etc., beginning imperfectly: 'of all the apostolus wt xii candelys xii almysdedys and offyr as tohu (sic) dydys before... proued of the Court of Rome'. Directions for (Wednesday), Thursday, Friday, and Saturday votive masses and for saying the eight verses of St Bernard to help deliver souls from purgatory. On verso, an early 15th-century prayer: 'Domine ihesu criste fili dei viui qui gloriosum corpus tuum... per eundem cristum dominum nostrum Amen'.


    Foliation:

    folios 1-120. folios 120-1 are parchment flyleaves.


    Format:
    Codex
    Material:
    Parchment
    Provenance:

    George Radcliffe/Ratcliffe. 16th-century inscription on folio 68r: 'George Ratlyfe oweth Thys bocke god macke hym a good man'.

    Thomas Dodd. Inscription on folios 76v-77r: 'THOMAS DODE est verus huius possessor libri 1555 20 agusti'; inscription on folios 80v-81r: 'Thomas Dode: Kateren Dode: Alice Dode: John Dode: Marie'. Other early inscriptions include Richard Dumbalrd (folio 29r), George LowsonLowson, George (folio 40v), George Sapcote (folios 52r and 103r, the former written in the same hand as 'Thomas Dode' on folio 51v), Myles Garard (folios 100v, 101r, 102r), and Nycolas Hasson (folio 116r).

    Thomas Martin 1697-1771, antiquary. He wrote his name, the number '155', and the remark 'Note all old English Mss are very valuable' on folio iii verso. Cf. English MS 50 , also owned by Martin and previously possessed by Peter le Neve, of whom Martin was executor.

    Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham.

    Henry Yates Thompson. He purchased the Ashburnham Appendix in May 1897 and almost immediately resold the manuscript to Mrs Rylands.

Place
  • Preferred form
    • England (United Kingdom)
    Original form
    • England
    Other form
    • Angleterre
    • Angleterre (?)
    • Angleterre.
    • Angleterre ?
    • Anglaterra
    • Inglaterra
    • Engeland
    • Angleterre (Salisbury ?)
    • Anglaterra (Salisbury?)
    • Inglaterra (Salisbury?)
    • England (Salisbury?)
    • [Oxford?]
    • [England]
    • England, Norwich?
    • England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's Abbey?
    • England, Cornwall?
    • England, St. Albans?
    • England, North?
    • England, York?
    • England, Witham?
    • England, Winchester or St. Albans
    • England, Reading or Leominster
    • England, Cirencester?
    • England, Sherborne?
    • England, Worcester?
    • England, Bury St. Edmunds?
    • England, Tewkesbury?
    • England, East Anglia?
    • England, Peterborough?
    • England, Mercia?
    • England, Canterbury, Christ Church?
    • England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's?
    • England, Winchester?
    • England, Oxford?
    • Flanders (possibly executed in England)
    • England and Netherlands
    • England, Canterbury?
    • England, West Midlands?
    • England, London?
    • England, Crowland?
    • England, Wessex?
    • England, Reading?
    • England, Northeast?
    • England, Southeast?
    • England, Ely?
    • England, Winchester or Hereford?
    • England, Salisbury?
    • England, Oxford or Salisbury
    • German (but made in England)
    • England, South East (?)
    • England. Peterborough (?) or Lincoln (?)
    • Hereford?, England
    • England, Durham ?
    • England, Durham?
    • England, probably Durham
    • England, Oxford (?)
    • England, possibly Oxford
    • England (?Oxford)
    • England, Durham (?)
    • England, London/Westminster
    • Unknown, possibly London and Cambridge
    • Royal Chancery, London; Cambridge
    • Engeland (?)
    • England (II)
    • I. England
    • [Engeland]
    • see more
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  • Provided by The University of Manchester. Zooming image © University of Manchester Library, All rights reserved. Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Images and Metadata made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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