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Manchester. The John Rylands Library, English MS 3

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Source
Manchester Digital Collections
Library
The John Rylands Library
Shelfmark
  • English MS 3
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • Beginning 15th century
Language
  • Middle English
Title
  • Wycliffe Gospels
Agent
Description
  • Extent:
    200 folios (xii+200+iii) including a slip between folios 47v-48r. Leaf height: 173 mm, width: 120 mm.
    Binding:

    Full black morocco with silver ornaments and two silver clasps, 19th century.


    Decoration:

    Running headers repeated continuously in the upper margin of each folio.

    Occasional red rubrication introduces sections in the text. Example on folio 118v.

    Rubricated paraph marks (pilcrows) in blue ink on several sections throughout, highlight and denote internal text divisions. Example on folios 50r and 84v.


    Initials

    Two illuminated initials 'T' and 'W' on a blue ink background introduce the nineteenth-century transcription on folio 1r.

    At the beginning of each book is a 4 or 5 line initial in blue and red ink with red penwork infill and flourishes:

    Pen-flourished initial ‘I’ on 2 folios: 7v, 71v
    Pen-flourished initial ‘T’ on 2 folios: 119v, 172v

    A number of 2-line initials in blue ink with red penwork flourishes:

    Pen-flourished initial ‘A’ on 54 folios. Examples: 11r, 61v, 164r, 205r
    Pen-flourished initial ‘B’ on 7 folios: 68r, 89r, 101v, 103v, 129v, 167v, 170v
    Pen-flourished initial ‘H’ on 1 folio 49r
    Pen-flourished initial ‘I’ on 7 folios: 13v, 105r, 122r, 136v, 139r, 142r, 185v
    Pen-flourished initial ‘L’ on 1 folio: 7v
    Pen-flourished initial ‘M’ on 2 folios: 118v, 171v
    Pen-flourished initial ‘N’ on 1 folio: 128r
    Pen-flourished initial ‘P’ on 1 folio: 199r
    Pen-flourished initial ‘T’ on 15 folios. Examples: 77v, 119v, 164r, 172v
    Pen-flourished initial ‘Thorn (th)’ on 1 folio: 71r
    Pen-flourished initial ‘W’ on 1 folio: 110r


    Acquisition:

    Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 1847-1913, 26th Earl of Crawford, and later transferred to The John Rylands Library. The recto of the front endpaper bears the heraldic bookplate identifying the codex as having once been part of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, the private library of James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford.


    Layout:

    Two columns, 24 lines. Ruling is distinct throughout; pricking marks are evident along the outer margins of the folios, mostly trimmed but visible.

    Written height: 130 mm, width: 82 mm.
    Collation:

    Folios 7-206:

    Quires 1-48
    Quire 58 plus a slip after 8 (folio 47v)
    Quires 6-168
    Quire 176 (folios 136r-141v)
    Quires 18-248
    Quire 2510 lacking 10, blank

    Catchwords can be found in the lower right margin of the verso of the final leaf of each quire: 47v, 87v, 88v, 181v, 197v.

    Secundo folio:in his natyuyte


    Script:

    Written in a fairly large textura by a single scribe.


    Subject(s):
    Bible--Manuscripts, English; Bible. English (Middle English)--Versions--Wycliffe; Haigh Hall (England)
    Abstract:

    The Gospels of Luke (folio 7r), John (folio 71v), Matthew (folio 119v) and Mark (folio 172v) in the later Wycliffite version. The usual prologue precedes each Gospel. The scribe missed all between 'Be glad wiþ' (Luke 15:6) and 'me. for' (Luke 15:9) and made good his error on a slip, folio 47r-47v.


    Foliation:

    Foliated 7-206 (modern foliation).


    Format:
    Codex
    Material:
    Parchment
    Provenance:

    Allegedly presented by Francis Newport to Queen Elizabeth in 1560. Fawtier and Ker regard this claim as spurious.

    James Dix of Bristol. The manuscript is first noticed as part of the collection of James Dix esq. of Bristol, who had an interest in early English Bibles. The inner upper cover (upper pastedown) bears the bookplate: Biblical Collection, James Dix Bristol 1850, Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost, Motto: Y e ende crownes.

    Lord Crawford. In 1861Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, later 25th Earl of Crawford, purchased it from Dix for £250 through the offices of the bookseller Bernard Quaritch. See Barker, pages 199-201.


    Additions:
    Folios 1r-6r contain a nineteenth-century transcription of what purports to be a long address to the Queen by Francis Newport. Fawtier considered this to be a fabrication (see Bibliography).
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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