Manchester. The John Rylands Library, English MS 412
- Source
- Manchester Digital Collections
- Library
- The John Rylands Library
- Shelfmark
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- English MS 412
- Biblissima authority file
- Date
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- 15th century
- Language
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- Middle English
- Title
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- Pore Caitif (Pore Catiiff | Poore Caitiff)
- Agent
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- Preferred form
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- John Stow (1525-1605)
- Role
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- Former owner
- Original form
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- John Stow, 1525?-1605
- Stow, John, 1525?-1605
- Other form
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- John Stowe
- Stow, John
- Stow, John, 1525?-1605, former owner, attributed name.
- Biblissima portal
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Thomas Percy (1729-1811)
- Role
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- Former owner
- Original form
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- Thomas Percy, 1729-1811
- Percy, Thomas, 1729-1811
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Henry Thomas Wake (1832?-1914)
- Role
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- Former owner
- Original form
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- H.T. Wake, c.1832-1914
- Wake, H. T., c.1832-1914
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Joseph J. Green (1854-1921)
- Role
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- Former owner
- Original form
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- Joseph J. (Joseph Joshua) Green, 1854-1921
- Green, Joseph J. (Joseph Joshua), 1854-1921
- Biblissima authority file
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- Preferred form
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- Elizabeth Green
- Original form
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- Mrs Elizabeth Green
- Biblissima authority file
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- Description
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- Extent:
72 folios (xii+72+vii) Leaf height: 205 mm, width: 140 mm.
Binding:
Quarter burgundy morocco, buckram-covered boards, 19th century
Decoration:
None; spaces for 2-line initials are not filled in.
Acquisition:
Purchased by the John Rylands Library from Mrs Elizabeth Green, widow of Joseph Green, on 17 January 1927 for £10.
Layout:
One column, 31-32 long lines
Written height: 145 mm, width: 90 mm.
Collation:
Quires 1-98
Secundo folio:not now; he is denied
Quires are signed f-o,'but not quite in the usual late medieval way, since leaves 2-4 in each quire are marked ii-iiii, without a quire letter' (Ker).
Script:
Anglicana formata by one hand throughout.
Subject(s):
Christianity; Religion
Abstract:
This manuscript comprises nine quires from a more extensive volume, containing parts 1, 2 and 8 of The Pore Caitif, together with the Mirrour of Sinners and six other theological pieces. The Pore Caitif (Poor Wretch) was a popular fourteenth-century compilation of fourteen treatises intended for the religious instruction of the laity, and has variously been attributed to John Wycliffe and Richard Rolle. It survives in more than fifty manuscripts.
(1) Folios 1r-34v, Parts 1, 2, 8 of The Pore Caitif. Jolliffe, A check-list of Middle English prose writings of spiritual guidance, B. Begins imperfectly in part 1 (Creed), 'þe þridde is sorowe'. Part 2 (Commandments) begins on folio 6v, and part 8 (Horse) on folio 30r.
(2) Folios 34v-39r, Mirrour of Sinners. '[F]or þt we ben in þe wey... wt his herte blood. Amen.' Jolliffe, F.8.
(3) Folios 39v-42r, De officio militis. '[S]eþ no man mai come to blisse... to þe blisse euerlastinge Amen.'
(4) Folios 42r-43r, '[I]ohannes eat nomen eius. Manie men han þis name... makinge redi his wey.'
(5) Folios 43r-48r, '[S]eint Austyn þe holi doctour techeþ... haue mercy on me. Amen.' Jolliffe, I.32.
(6) Folios 48r-49v, '[T]his lore þat folewt techeþ crist... stinkynge bifore god. and so knowen to god.' Jolliffe, K.12: this copy only.
(7) Folios 50r-72r, '[M]emorare nouissima. ecclesiastici 7. þe help and þe grace... þe siȝt of þi face. Amen.' Also in Bodleian Library, Rawlinson C.751.
(8) Folios 72r-72v, '[T]hou shalt loue þi lord god... for to deceyue men wiþ' (ends imperfectly: catchword 'whanne he'). Jolliffe, G.27.
Foliation:
Foliated 1-72
Format:
Codex
Material:
Parchment
Provenance:
John Stow, 1525?-1605,historian. Annotations in his distinctive hand appear on folios 6v, 19r, 30r, 34v, 59v, etc.
Thomas Percy, 1729-1811 , Bishop of Dromore, collector of ballads. Notes on folio 1r are said to be in his hand. Sale of his books at Sotheby's, 29 April 1884, lot 285; sold to Wake for £4.
H.T. Wake, c.1832-1914, Quaker bookseller of Fritchley, Derbyshire. Henry Thomas Wake appears in Bulmer's History, topography and directory of Derbyshire (1895) as an antiquarian bookseller. Biographical dates are derived from online census and civil registration records. The manuscript is listed in Wake's catalogue 86, and was purchased from him by J.J. Green for £5 on 30 May 1884 (receipt enclosed).
Joseph J. (Joseph Joshua) Green, 1854-1921, collector and antiquary
Condition:
Front board is detached.
Accompanying Material:
Front endpaper: Tipped in to the volume is a receipt to J. J. Green from H.T. Wake, bookseller, dated 30th of May 1884.
Front endpaper: Tipped in is a printed plate of John Wycliffe dated 1832.
Flyleaf 1r: Tipped in printed text on the 'Pore Caitif' from the 1832 publication 'The Life of Wyclif' by Charles Webb Le Bas.
Flyleaf 1r: Printed cutting describing the contents of the 'Pore Caitif'.
Flyleaf 2r: Tipped in letter written by Charles Webb Le Bas in 1822. The letter seems unrelated to the contents of the manuscript.
Flyleaf 3r: Tipped in letter written by Charles Webb Le Bas in 1826. The letter seems unrelated to the contents of the manuscript.
Flyleaf 4r: Tipped in newspaper cutting relating to the sale of a Wycliffe New Testament manuscript
Flyleaf 5r: Flyleaf with the contents of the manuscript listed in ink.
Flyleaf 6r: Tipped in annotated cutting relating to the date of the manuscript.
Flyleaf 6v: Tipped in cutting of a printed photograph showing Professor W.W. Skeat.
Flyleaf 7r: Tipped in letter from Professor W. W. Skeat to J. J. Green about the manuscript, dated July 22nd 1884.
Flyleaf 8r: Tipped in letter from Professor W. W. Skeat to J. J. Green about the manuscript, dated July 26th 1884.
Flyleaf 9r-Flyleaf 11r: Tipped in newspaper cuttings from 'Christian World' 1893, relating to a theological manuscript discovered in Sudbury.
Flyleaf 11r: Newspaper cutting from the Herts and Essex Observer 1885, a published letter written by J. J. Green.
- Extent:
- Place
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- Preferred form
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- England (United Kingdom)
- Original form
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- England
- Other form
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- 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]
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