Exeter College MS. 31
Martinus Polonus; Constitutiones ecclesiastici; Petrus Blesensis; etc.; England, s. xivex
Contents
Fore- and endleaves: fols. ir–iiv, blank; fol. iiir erased ex dono; fols. iiiv–ivv = text *A below; fol. ivv also bookplate; fols. Ir–IIv, blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Hand(s)
All sections are written by different scribes.
Binding
Sewn on six bands between millboards covered with reversed calf decorated with a blind roll with a delicate floral pattern, arranged to form panels (s. xviii).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Although A–E are written by different scribes they share a decorator and were probably produced and put together by the same workmen.
On fol. iiir are two thoroughly erased inscriptions. That at the top of the page is of at least twelve lines and the other of five lines. Neither is recoverable by ultraviolet light or infrared photography but the second is evidently an ex dono inscription, beginning ‘Istum(?) librum(?) … Robertas R…g Cancellarius ecclesie beati Petri Exon.’ The last line ended with a date, ‘anno domini millesimo cccc(?) nono(?).’ The donor is evidently Robert Rygge (Regge, Rigge, Rugge, Ryge, etc.), chancellor 1400–1410, and the book is presumably one of those referred to in the Rector’s Accounts for 1410, payment ‘pro tribus cathenis ad cathenand’ libros legatos per M. Robertum Rygge et M. Johannem Lydeford.’ On Rygge, fellow and visitor of Exeter College, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, benefactor to Exeter College, etc. see BRUO, Rygge. On Lydeford, d. 1407, see ibid., but no books from his bequest have been identified. Ecloga, no. 17, CMA, no. 46.
Exeter library identifications are, on the front pastedown: bookplate 3, ‘C2—9’ (deleted), ‘Ex: Coll: Oxon:’, ‘Q8–11 Gall’ (deleted), ‘172–E–7’, ‘Coxe MS XXXI’ (pencil); and, on fol. ivv, bookplate 1. ‘7’ is on a paper label at the top of the spine.
Exeter College MS. 31 – Part *A (fol. iii-iv)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
pr. PL 207. 416–22. See further item D below, but the presence of this letter in our manuscript is not noticed by Wahlgren. P. Rossig’ is likely to be Peter Russinol, one of King John’s clerks and the recipient of letter 23. See n. 1 in E. Revell, The Later Letters of Peter of Blois (Auctores Britannici medii aevi, 13; Oxford, 1993) for details of him; see also Sharpe, Latin Writers.
Physical Description
Layout
Two columns, c. 60–65 lines. Ruled in crayon.
Hand(s)
Secretary, with looped d, punctuated by low point and double virgula.
Decoration
None.
Exeter College MS. 31 – Part B (fols. 1 (3)-108 (110))
Contents
Language(s): Latin
pr. Nürnberg, 1481 (Hain, 10834), etc.; Kaeppeli, 2973; Verfasserlexicon, vi. 158–66.
After the text follow: ‘Nil ualet hoc metrum. sin hoc requirito Petrum. | Qui dedit expleri. laudetur corde fideli’ and ‘Nobilitas hominis est mens deitatis ymago. | Nobilitas hominis uirtutum claro propago. | Nobilitas hominis humilem releuare iacentem. | Nobilitas hominis mentem refrenare furentem. | Nobilitas hominis nisi turpia nulla timere | Nobilitas hominis nature iura tenere. Deo gracias’ (WIC 11860).
Physical Description
Layout
Two columns, c. 60–65 lines. Ruled in crayon.
Hand(s)
Bastard anglicana, punctuated by medial point.
Decoration
On fol. 1r a 27-line J in red and blue, elsewhere 3/4-line blue lombards flourished red, and 1-line red and blue initials; blue and red paraphs, lemmata underlined red.
Exeter College MS. 31 – Part C (fols. 109 (111)-204 (205))
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Fol. 204v (205v) is blank.
Physical Description
Layout
Two columns, c. 60–65 lines. Ruled in crayon.
Hand(s)
Bastard anglicana, punctuated by medial point.
A few headings in bookhand.
Decoration
Larger initials, 4/6-line, are in the same style and hand as those in B but there are also red-and-blue line-fillers. Occasional headings are in ink.
Exeter College MS. 31 – Part D (fols. 205 (207)-241 (243))
Contents
Language(s): Latin
On the Council and for references see Powicke and Cheney, ii. 237–8 and for the text of the canons 245–59.
On the Council see Powicke and Cheney, ii. 738–43 and for the text of the canons 747–92.
As far as fol. 219va/24 (221va/24) Canons of the Council of Oxford, 1222, pr. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 106–25, lacking the final paragraph. On the text see also C. R. Cheney, ‘Legislation of the medieval English church’, EHR 50 (1935), 193–224, 385–417, at 389–98 (repr. in C. R. Cheney, The English Church and its Laws in the 12th–14th Centuries (London, 1982)).
Fols. 219va/25 (221vb/25)–221r(223r) contain, with variants, the following chapters of synodal statutes for an English diocese 1122 × 1125(?), Powicke and Cheney, ii. 139–54: 8 (our 1), 6 (our 8), 7 (our 9), 13 (our 10), 16 (our 11), 22 (our 12), 23 (our 13), 26 (our 14), 34 (our 15), 35 (our 16), 40 (our 17), 43 (our 18), 54 (our 19), 55 (our 20), 58–9 (our 21), 62 (our 22).
pr. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 669–85. On the text see ibid. 659–67, also Cheney, EHR 50 (1935), as in item (iii) above, at 402–6.
Ed. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 793–7. On the complicated history of the text see ibid. 792–3. The ‘Alia littera’ has not been identified.
pr. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 833 et seq., and Wilkins, Concilia, ii. 33–6. See C. R. Cheney, ‘The so-called statutes of John Pecham and Robert Winchelsey for the province of Canterbury’, JEH 12 (1961), 14–34 (repr. in C. R. Cheney, The English Church and its Laws in the 12th–14th Centuries (London, 1982)), and ‘Legislation of the medieval English church’, EHR 50 (1935), 193–224, 385–417, at 407–9 (repr. in Cheney, The English Church). Our text contains chs. 1–4, parts of 5, 6, 11–14 only.
pr. Wilkins, Concilia, ii. 552–4.
pr. Wilkins, Concilia, ii. 702–9. Our text lacks Wilkins, ch. 5, ‘De silua caedua decimanda’. This is the third series of Stratford’s canons as described by Cheney, ‘Legislation of the medieval English church’, as item vi above, at 415–17.
pr. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 1122–3. See articles by Cheney cited under item vi above.
pr. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 1390/3–1391, and see articles by Cheney cited under item vi above
pr. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 1391–3; Wilkins, Concilia, ii. 279, as proceedings of the Council of Merton, 1305, ch. 1
Not identified.
Not identified.
pr. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 1386–7.
pr. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 1382–5. See articles by Cheney cited under item vi above.
pr. Benoit XII, Lettres communes (1334–1342), ed. J.-M. Vidal. Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, sér. 3, ii bis (Paris, 1903), no. 4000; Friedberg, ii. 1280; Wilkins, Concilia, ii. 578–81.
Pr. J. C. Sbaralea, Bullarium franciscanum Romanorum pontificum, iv (Rome, 1768), 498, no. 179; Potthast, no. 24913.
pr. Les Régistres de Boniface VIII, ed. J. Digard. Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, sér. 2, ii (Paris, 1890), no. 3409; Potthast, no. 24881.
Against the beginning of the item in a later hand, is ‘Contra questores j⟨n⟩ hospital’ sancti Johannis ⟨in⟩ Anglia.’
Forty-five visitation articles, unidentified.
ed. Powicke and Cheney, ii. 848–9, from PRO Exch. TR Misc. Books 274, noting variants.
Physical Description
Layout
Two columns, c. 60–65 lines. Ruled in crayon.
Hand(s)
Bastard anglicana, punctuated by medial point.
Decoration
As C, but without line-fillers and with rubrics.
Exeter College MS. 31 – Part E (fols. 243 (244)-284 (285))
Contents
Language(s): Latin
pr. PL 207. 1–560. Our manuscript contains letters 1–13, 15, 17, 19, 21–2, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32–62, 65–75, 77–86, 88, 90–101, 128, 130, 136, 150, 153–6, 158, 162–3, numbered 1–100 in a medieval series of numbers and 1–101 in a post-medieval series, the discrepancy resulting from ‘94’ in the earlier series having been applied to letters 94 and 95, and ‘95’ being repeated for 96. No. 97 (fol. 279v (280v)) in the later sequence is the Instructio fidei catholicae, pr. PL 207. 1069–78 and no. 101 (fol. 282r (283r)) is the De itinere Hierosolymitana, pr. ibid. 1057–70. On these letters see L. Wahlgren, The Letter Collections of Peter of Blois. Studies in the Manuscript Tradition (Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia, 58; Gothenburg, 1993). This is Wahlgren’s MS 4 (see p. 192), a group a manuscript (see p. 26). On the authorship of the corpus of letters that goes under the name Petrus Blesensis see R. W. Southern, ‘The necessity for two Peters of Blois’, Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Margaret Gibson, ed. L. Smith and B. Ward (London and Rio Grande, OH., 1992), 103–18.
References are to the medieval series of numbers noted under E(i) above but since some numbers are as high as the 250s, it is evident that the index was taken over from another book.
In a hand of s. xiv, with many addenda in a later, cursive hand.
An unidentified text, concerning a clerk’s duty to render a proportion of the goods of the church at times of public need. A reference ‘beatus Thomas Cantuar. apud Norhampton’, suggests an English origin.
Fol. 289v (290v) is blank.
Physical Description
Layout
Two columns, c. 60–65 lines (except E(*iii) with 52 lines). Ruled in crayon.
Hand(s)
E(*i), bastard anglicana, punctuated by medial point.
E(*ii), bastard anglicana, punctuated by low point, with additions in anglicana.
E(*iii), anglicana with secretary g and sometimes a, unpunctuated.
Decoration
As C, but without underlined lemmata, paraphs, and line-fillers and with rubrics.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Exeter College Library.
Funding of Cataloguing
Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Rector and Fellows of Exeter College.
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2020-04-29: First online publication