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Manchester. The John Rylands Library, English MS 113

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Source
Manchester Digital Collections
Library
The John Rylands Library
Shelfmark
  • English MS 113
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • Second half 15th century
Language
  • Middle English
Title
  • Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and other works (Canterbury Tales)
Agent
Description
  • Extent:
    190 folios (v+190+ii) Leaf height: 297 mm, width: 210 mm.
    Binding:

    Medieval binding of brown leather over wooden boards; six bands; five bosses on each cover, now missing; two clasps, missing.


    Decoration:
    Pen-flourished initial 'W' in blue and red ink, with alternate blue and red ceasura on folio 6r.
    Other spaces for initials are not filled in.


    Acquisition:

    Purchased by the John Rylands Library from the London bookseller Bernard Quaritch, 1819-1899 Ltd in May 1910 for £180; invoice dated 24 May.


    Layout:

    One column, 54-60 long lines. Written space c. 235 x 12 mm in the Parson's Tale.


    Collation:
    Quires 1-724
    Quire 822

    There is a strip of parchment down the gutter in the middle of each quire.

    Secundo folio:musyng (folio 4r) or vnder his (folio 7r).


    Script:

    'Current anglicana of a rather legal sort' (Ker). The scribe of the Tales has been identified as John Brode of Haberton, near Totnes, Devon.


    Subject(s):
    English poetry--Middle English, 1100-1500; Literature, Medieval; Poetry, Medieval
    Abstract:

    A late fifteenth-century manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, along with other verse texts written on the flyleaves and in blank spaces of quire 8, including a poem on the death of Edward IV, 'The Prentise unto Woe' by Henry Baradoun, and memoranda of the deaths of English kings from Edward I to Edward V.

    (1) Folios 6r-194r, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, described by J.M. Manly and E. Rickert, The text of the Canterbury Tales (1940), vol. 1, pp. 349-55 (see Bibliography). They assign this 'Ma' manuscript to the A group of Canterbury Tales manuscripts, and they note that the text is closely related to 'Cn', the Cardigan MS, formerly the property of the Brudenell estate, now Austin, University of Texas, HRC Pre-1700 MS 143, and that the hand is like that of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 181, folios 1-39, which ends with the words 'Explicit Edorb quod'.

    (2) (a) Folios 3r-3v, 'King Edward the iiiith. Wher is this Prynce that conquered his right... for hym to pray Explicit.' Index of Middle English Verse, no. 4062. Printed from here by F.J. Furnivall in Political, religious, and love poems (see Bibliography below), pp. xlvi-xlviii. (b) Folios 4r-4v, 'The Prentise unto Woe' by Henry Baradoun: 'Musyng alone voide of consolacion... and wo. Baradoun Henricus transtulit istud opus per semetipsum.' IMEV, no. 2227. Printed from here by Furnivall, op. cit, p. 289. (c) Folios 4v-5v, 'Articuli passionis cristi. Cristus imminente passione... custoditus est.' Sixty-three heads.

    (3) (a) Folio 194v, 'Periculum animarum periuratorum secundum diuersos autores.' Twelve lines, each beginning 'Cristus Qui iurat voluntarie': swearing on Book, putting hand on Book, kissing Book. (b) Folio 195r, Dates of death or cessation of English kings, Edward I-Edward V: 'Memorandum quod Rex E' primus post conquestum filius Regis Henrici tercii obiit die translacionis sancti Thome Martiris anno regni sui xxxvto sicut continetur in Rotulo xxxvo dicti Regis E primi in Surr' et Sussex' in titulo Vic'... Memorandum quod E vtus cessauit a regimine xxvito die Iunii anno regni sui primo Et Rex Ricardus tercius incepit regnare.' (c) Folio 197r, 'Qui cepit vxorem cepit absque quiete laborem...' (4 lines).


    Foliation:

    Foliated 1-197 (modern foliation)


    Format:
    Codex
    Material:
    Paper, except folio 5r-5v, conjoint with the pastedown, and folios 196r-197v, a conjoint pair, of which 197 was formerly a pastedown
    Provenance:

    John Brode on folio 194r is recorded 'Iste liber constat Iohanni Brode Iuniori etc' ', in the hand of the text, suggesting that item (1) was probably copied by John Brode, and item (2) was added by him on various occasions (Ker). Manly and Rickert identify Brode as an individual living at Harberton near Totnes, Devon.

    John Hull, etc. The manuscript probably came into the ownership of John Hull (d. 1549), a customs officer of Exeter and Dartmouth; his scribbles are on folios 1r, 194v, 195r, 195v, 196r and 196v. There are various names in sixteenth-century hands, including Robert Croke (folio 195r) and Thoma Jonsun.

    Mr Woolcombe of Pitton near Yealmpton, Devon, mid-17th century. A John Woollcombe of Pitton, Yealmpton, gentleman, was party to leases in 1672 and 1689: Plymouth and West Devon Record Office, refs 279/106 and 279/113.

    Reverend Samuel Winter Pearse. By 1846 the manuscript had for some time been in the possession of the family of Reverend Samuel Winter Pearse, of Shaugh and Sampford Spinney in Devon. At this point, a transcript of the manuscript was made by William James Pynwell (the transcript is now MS 1580 in the Schøyen Collection). Reverend Pearse probably sold the manuscript soon after.

    Lawrence W. Hodson of Compton Hall near Wolverhampton. His bookplate appears on the inner upper cover; Hodson 39. However, the manuscript does not appear in the catalogue for the Hodson Sale at Sotheby's on 3 December 1906.


    Additions:
    Doodle of small skull on folio 1r.Four lines of Latin annotation on folio 197r.
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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