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Cambridge. Corpus Christi College, Parker Library MS 20

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Source
Parker Library On the Web (Cambridge)
Library
UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library
Shelfmark
  • MS 020
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • 1300 - 1325
Language
  • Latin
  • Middle French
Title
    • Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 020: Apocalypse. Visio Sancti Pauli
    • Apocalypse || The Apocalypse in Latin with a French metrical version and prose comment
    • Visio Sancti Pauli || The Vision of S. Paul in French verse
    • Order of Coronation of a King || Order of Coronation of a King
    • see more
Description

  • Summary: This richly illustrated Apocalypse, CCCC MS 20, was made for Sir Henry de Cobham in the decade before his death in 1339. He kneels in the historiated initial at the beginning of the book. It subsequently passed to Juliana de Leybourne, Countess of Huntingdon (d. 1367) who bequeathed it to St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. With no less than 106 pictures, it is one of the finest fourteenth-century illustrated copies of the Apocalypse in Anglo-Norman verse, although the commentary text is in Anglo-Norman prose. It is closely related in both iconography and text to another Anglo-Norman Apocalypse, Toulouse, Bibliothèque municipale MS 815, which is by a different artist. Both manuscripts also contain the Vision of St Paul (the Journey of St Paul to Hell), in Anglo-Norman verse, accompanied by illustrations. In addition, the Corpus manuscript contains the English Coronation Ordo in Anglo-Norman, preceded by a frontispiece showing the crowned king in his coronation vestments, flanked by the bishops. The text mentions a Prince Edward, and may be a version of that used for the coronation of Edward III in 1327. The style of the illustrations suggests the 1330s.


    Contents :


    1r-61r - Apocalypse || The Apocalypse in Latin with a French metrical version and prose comment

    Note: a.

    incipit: (1r) Apocalypsis Ihesu Christi quam dedit etc.

    Note: b.

    incipit: (1r) La uision ke Ihesu Crist A son serf moustrer fist

    Note: c.

    incipit: (1r) Cest liuere entre les autres liueres de nouel testament

    Note: (1r) 1. L. Last Supper. John on Christ's breast. R. (a) John put on Patmos out of ship, (b} John seated, angel by him

    Note: (1r) Initial: Knight kneeling in armour, on his surcoat arms, gules a chevron or bearing 3 lions rampant sable (not the Huntingdon arms)

    Note: (1r) Border: at bottom, hunter blows horn: three dogs, two chase a rabbit to a warren and trees on R.

    Note: (1v) 2. John looks at seven churches

    Note: (2r) 3. Men kneel. Christ in clouds. Angel blows trumpet over John's head

    Note: (2v) 4. Christ among the candlesticks, with gold face. John bowing on L.

    Note: (3v) 5.-11. f. 3v to f. 7r. John writes letters to the seven churches. In each case there is a large church on R. and a small angel standing on some part of it. The forms of the churches are interestingly varied

    Note: (7v) 12. The vision of iv 2 sqq.

    Note: (9r) 13. Elders adoring

    Note: (9v) 14. The Lamb takes the book

    Note: (10r) 15. Similar

    Note: (10v) 16. The book opened. Elders adore

    Note: (11r) 17. God, the Lamb, the Elders

    Note: (11v) 18. f. 11v to 21. f. 13r. The four horsemen. (Seals 1-4)

    Note: (13v) 22. Fifth seal. Souls under the altar

    Note: (14r) 23. Sixth seal. Earthquake. Stars fall

    Note: (14v) 24. Angels hold winds (human faces). Multitude sealed on their foreheads

    Note: (15v) 25. The great multitude of vii 9-17

    Note: (16r) 26. The trumpets given

    Note: (16v) 27. The censer cast into earth

    Note: (17r) 28. f. 17r - 31. f. 18r. The first four trumpets

    Note: (18v) 32. The eagle crying Woe

    Note: (19r) 33. The fifth trumpet

    Note: (19v) 34. The locusts and their leader, Abaddon, a huge demon. Very effective

    Note: (20v) 35. The sixth trumpet

    Note: (21r) 36. The horsemen on lion-like beasts

    Note: (21v) 37. The great angel with gold face and fiery feet

    Note: (22r) 38. John forbidden to write the words of the seven thunders

    Note: (22v) 39. The great angel raises his hands to heaven

    Note: (23r) 40. John takes the book

    Note: (23v) 41. John measures the temple (a great church)

    Note: (24r) 42. The two witnesses in black holding candles

    Note: (24v) 43. Antichrist mounted on the beast emerging from Hell-mouth slays them

    Note: (25r) 44. They lie dead: people dance over them. So in Brit. Mus. Add. 18633

    Note: (25v) 45. They stand up

    Note: (25v) 46. They ascend to heaven. The city falls

    Note: (26r) 47. The seventh trumpet

    Note: (26v) 48. The temple seen in heaven

    Note: (27r) 49. The great dragon

    Note: (27v) 50. The dragon. Birth of the child

    Note: (28r) 51. Fight with the dragon; three devils on his back

    Note: (28r) 52. The dragon cast out

    Note: (28v) 53. God and angels above. Devils falling below

    Note: (29r) 54. The woman flying. The dragon casts out water

    Note: (29v) 55. Saints fight the dragon

    Note: (30r) 56. The beast on the sea

    Note: (30v) 57. The dragon gives staff to the beast

    Note: (31r) 58. Men adore the beast

    Note: (31v) 59. Men fight the beast

    Note: (32r) 60. The false prophet (horned beast) makes men adore the other beast

    Note: (32v) 61. The false prophet slays saints

    Note: (33v) 62. The Lamb and other lambs on Mount Sion. So also in Add. 18633

    Note: (33v) 63. The harpers and the new song

    Note: (34v) 64. The angel flying with the Gospel

    Note: (35r) 65. Babylon falls

    Note: (35r) 66. The third angel, the beast below (xiv 9-12)

    Note: (35v) 67. Beati mortui. Martyrs slain on R.

    Note: (36r) 68. The harvest of earth, gathered by a man

    Note: (36v) 69. The vintage of earth gathered by a man

    Note: (37v) 70. Angels with vials

    Note: (37v) 71. Harpers on the sea of glass

    Note: (38v) 72. Angels in temple with vials

    Note: (39r) 73. They are bidden to pour them out

    Note: (39v) 74.-79. ff. 39v-41r. The first six vials

    Note: (41v) 80. The three beasts cast forth frogs

    Note: (42v) 81. The seventh vial: fall of city

    Note: (43r) 82. The woman on hill, with rivers flowing from it

    Note: (43v) 83. The woman on the beast

    Note: (44v) 84. Similar

    Note: (46r) 85. Fall of Babylon

    Note: (46v) 86. Men come out of Babylon: a chain across the gate

    Note: (47v) 87. Babylon burning. Men lament

    Note: (48v) 88. Millstone thrown into the sea

    Note: (49r) 89. Song of triumph over Babylon

    Note: (49v) 90. The Lamb and the bride at table

    Note: (50r) 91. John kneels to the angel

    Note: (50v) 92. Christ on the white horse with followers

    Note: (51r) 93. Christ on white horse with followers amid fragments of a winepress

    Note: (51v) 94. Birds eat the flesh of princes. Angel in the sun

    Note: (52r) 95,96. Fight between the saints and the beasts

    Note: (52v) 97. Dragon imprisoned in the bottomless pit

    Note: (53r) 98. The Three Persons of the Trinity as men seated as judges

    Note: (54r) 99. Siege of the holy city

    Note: (54v) 100. Beasts cast into Hell-mouth

    Note: (54v) 101. The Judgment. Books open in air

    Note: (55v) 102. The vision of the city. God on R.

    Note: (57r) 103. John and the angel. Jerusalem on R.

    Note: (58v) 104. The River of Life

    Note: (59v) 105. John kneels to angel. God on R.

    Note: (60r) 106. The angel points John to God on R.

    Note: Ends

    Note: a.

    explicit: (60v) Gratia domini nostri Ihesu Christi cum omnibus nobis amen

    Note: b.

    explicit: (60v) La grace de ihesu nostre seignourSeit od nous a tut iour amen

    Note: (61r) c.

    explicit: (61r) en sa gloire en corps et en alme sanz fin regner amen amen

    Note: The metrical version is edited by M. Paul Meyer from other MSS. (seven are known) in Romania XXV (1896) pp. 184 sqq.

    Note: The prose comment is edited by M. P. Meyer from a number of MSS. in L'Apocalypse en Français au xiiie siècle (Soc. des Anc. Textes Fr. 1901)


    61r-68r - Visio Sancti Pauli || The Vision of S. Paul in French verse

    incipit: (61r) Oyez qe ieo troeue en escritDes peynes qe seint poul uit

    Note: (61r) 1. Paul and angel on L. as throughout. Hell-mouth on R. Men hung on fiery tree

    Note: (61v) 2. Souls in a tower-like oven

    Note: (62r) 3. Paul weeps. Angel points down

    Note: (62r) 4. Souls walk over arched bridge. Some fall into river below, where are crowds of souls, and devils

    Note: (62v) 5. Souls in furnace. Devil with club: others blow the fire

    Note: (63r) 6. Souls in furnace. Beasts and reptiles tear them

    Note: (63v) 7. Souls on a huge wheel turned by devil in C.

    Note: (63v) 8. A soul torn by devils: one offers him a sheaf

    Note: (64r) 9. Paul holds his nose. Souls in a well with seven locks

    Note: (64v) 10. Souls in the mouth of a monster

    Note: (64v) 11. A female soul torn by demons. Other souls in hell-mouth

    Note: (65r) 12. Paul kneels. A soul taken up by angels

    Note: (65v) 13. (1) Paul, angel, souls in hell-mouth. (2) Christ with resurrection cross appears to souls in hell. Paul and angel follow

    Note: (66r) 14. Souls in caldron: one roasted on spit

    Note: The pictures in the Toulouse MS. reproduced in Romania XXIV closely resemble these

    Note: (66r) Ends

    explicit: Ke uous en peyne demoergesE pardon iammes ne haz

    Note: (66r) The same in Latin prose

    incipit: (66r) Interrogandum quis primus rogauit ut anime requiem haberent in inferno

    explicit: (68r) beati ergo qui custodiunt diem dominicam quoniam ipsi habebunt partem cum sanctis in secula seculorum.

    Note: This French version is printed from a MS. at Toulouse by M. P. Meyer, Romania XXIV 365, with facsimiles

    Note: For notices of the Latin text see H. Brandis, Visio Pauli, and my Apocrypha Anecdota 1st series


    68r-72v - Order of Coronation of a King || Order of Coronation of a King

    Note: (68r) Frontispiece

    Note: (68r) The picture of the Coronation. See above for references to reproductions of it

    Note: (68v) Text begins

    incipit: Le iour qe nouel roy deit estre corone

    Note: Ends with rubric

    rubric: (72v) e ly Roy a honur au palays remenee

    Note: This is printed in full in Three Coronation Orders, Henry Bradshaw Society, 1900, by J. Wickham Legg, pp. xxxi sqq., 39 sqq. A long description and discussion of the illustration to this is given in the introduction. The picture is reproduced in collotype (Pl. II); a reproduction in colour is in Strutt's Horda Angel-cynnan 1776, in Pl. xxvii, and in the illustrated edition of Green's Short History of the English People I, opp. p. 414

    Note: (72v) At the bottom is a catch-word partly cut off quid ultra bon ... ke si sa

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  • Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
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