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Manchester. The John Rylands Library, English MS 80

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Source
Manchester Digital Collections
Library
The John Rylands Library
Shelfmark
  • English MS 80
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • Mid 15th century [1444?]
Language
  • Middle English
Title
  • Later Version Wycliffe New Testament
Agent
Description
  • Extent:
    317 folios (iii+317+iv) Leaf height: 215 mm, width: 147 mm.
    Binding:

    Rebound byZaehnsdorfin blind-tooled tan pigskin in 1898.


    Decoration:
    At the beginning of most books there is a handsome initial in blue, pink and/or green with white penwork and floral infill, on a burnished gold ground, with a [ or I-shaped border with floriate extensions terminating in acanthus leaves, ivy leaves, bezants, etc.:
    on folios. 9v, 49r, 67v, 105r, 132r , 145r, 157v, 165v, 169v, 173v, 176v, 179r, 180r, 182v, 190r, 191v, 192v, 202v, 237v, 241r, 244v , 247v, 250v and 253v.
    There are numerous 3- and 2-line initials in blue ink with red penwork flourishes.
    There are numerous manicules throughout the volume. A balance has been drawn in the margins of folios 3r and6r against the calendar entries for the vernal and autumnal equinoxes


    Acquisition:

    Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands in 1897 from Henry Yates Thompson, and later transferred to the John Rylands Library. Accession no. R4994.


    Layout:

    36-38 lines in quires 4-9, and 30-32 lines in quires 10-40

    Written height: 160 mm, width: 108 mm.
    Collation:
    Quires 1-28,
    Quire 38 lacking 8, blank, after folio 23,
    Quire 48 lacking 1 before folio 24,
    Quires 5-228,
    Quire238 plus 1 leaf after 4 (folio 179),
    Quires 24-348,
    Quire 358 lacking 1 before folio 272,
    Quires 36-398,
    Quire 408 lacking 8, blank.

    Secundo folio:sterre (folio 24r).


    Script:

    Written in gothic anglicana formatafrom folios1r-271v

    A new hand begins at folio272r-317r. Written in gothic anglicana formata


    Subject(s):
    Bible. English (Middle English) Versions Wycliffe; Christianity; Religion; Calendars
    Abstract:

    Later Wycliffite version of the New Testament, preceded by a table of moveable feasts, a calendar, and table to find Easter from 1448 to 1520, etc. The New Testament incorporates an unusual prologue to Romans, and inserted in another hand is the Epistle to the Laodiceans. The volume concludes with Epistle readings from the Old Testament. On folio 271r is recorded 'Here endiþ þe Apocalipis Anno domini m ccco (sic) xliiii' [i.e. 1444].

    (1) Preliminaries to 2: (a) folio 1v, Table of movable feasts. (b) folios 2r-7v, Calendar in red and black. Peikola notes two unusual aspects of the calendar: the absence of astronomical material, and the choice of English rather than Latin as the language (see Bibliography below). Entries for Thomas Beckett have been erased at 7 July and 29 December, but 'Utas of seint thomas', 5 January, has not been erased. (c) folio 8r, Table to find Easter, 1448-1520. (d) folios 9r-22v, '...þus endiþ þe kalendir of lessouns pistlis and gospels of al þe ȝeer'; Forshall and Madden, iv. 683-98, but the text here and in Eng. MSS 76, 77, 78 and 91 differs substantially from theirs, which goes with the earlier Wycliffite version. A table for the common of saints is not provided here or in Eng. MSS 76, 78, 78 and 91: cf. Forshall and Madden, p. 696, footnote. The commemorations precede the proper of saints, as in Eng. MS 77. (e) folio 23r, 'The first place in augrym noumbre...' An explanation of arabic numbers.

    folios 1r, 8v and 23v were originally left blank. A calligraphic title page was added to folio 1r in the 17th century, and a table of contents to folio 8v. Folio 23 contains the missing text at the beginning of item (2) in imitation textura.

    (2) folios 24r-271v and folio 317, New Testament in the later Wycliffite version. Forshall and Madden, no. 157. All before 'sterre' (Matthew 2: 2) came on the leaf missing before folio 24r. 'Here endiþ þe Apocalipis Anno domini m ccco (sic) xliiii' (folio 271v) is followed by a prologue not usually found in English, 'Romayns ben þei þt of iewes and heþen... to pees and acorde', which is squeezed in on 271 and v and overflows onto a half leaf now pasted to folio371r ; the hand is that of folios 1r-271v. Other prologues are as usual. The leaf added to quire 23 contains the Epistle to the Laodiceans and its prologue.

    (3) folios 272r-316v, Epistle lections from the Old Testament. The first leaf is missing with all before 're him. And þei schulen clepe hem'. The temporal ends on folio 307vand is followed by a cue for the feast of relics and 'Here enden þe pistlis and lessouns of þe olde lawe for sonedaies and ferials; and begynnen commemoraciouns'. Commemorations, folios 307v-308r: of Our Lady, for brothers and sisters, for clear weather, for rain, for pestilence of beasts, and 'In masse of requiem or for deede'. Sanctoral, folios 308v-312: twelve feasts, Andrew, Conception of B.V.M., Purification of B.V.M., Philip and James, 'on mydsomer euyn', 'on mydsomer dai', Mary Magdalene, vigil, day, and octave of Assumption of B.V.M., Decollation of John, Nativity of B.V.M. Common of Saints, folios 312r-316v. folio 317v is blank.


    Foliation:

    1-317 (modern foliation). Folio 318r-318v is a parchment flyleaf.


    Format:
    Codex
    Material:
    Parchment
    Provenance:

    Inscription on folio 1r: '26 Jan 1692 this Booke was shewne to Mr Wm Fox at his Examination on the behalfe of John Cullum at ye suit of Thomas Shaftoe in the Court of Exchequer before me John Powell'.

    Belonged to Anthony Merry 1756-1835, diplomatist. Presented by him in 1847 to:

    Rev Wilmot Marsh of Bangor.

    Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham.. Appendix no. 18. According to Forshall and Madden, 'obtained after his [Marsh's] sale in 1847 by the 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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