Cambridge. Corpus Christi College, Parker Library MS 20
- Source
- Parker Library On the Web (Cambridge)
- Library
- UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library
- Shelfmark
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- MS 020
- Biblissima authority file
- Date
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- 1300 - 1325
- Language
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- Latin
- Middle French
- Title
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- 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
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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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