A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

MS. Bodl. 131

Summary Catalogue no.: 1999

Contents

1. (fol. 1)
Ps.-Bonaventure, Meditationes uitae Christi (English translation by Nicholas Love: 'The Mirrour of the blyssed Lyfe of Ihesu Christ')

Preceded by a list of chapters and a 'proheme'.

Incipit: (proem) Quecunque scripta sunt ... Thise be the wordes of the gret doctour'
Incipit: (text) Amang other vertus
Final rubric: Explicit speculum Vite Cristi, quod John Morton
Language(s): Middle English
2.i. (fol. 122)
William Flete, De remediis contra temptaciones (English tr., version Ia)
Incipit: For als mekyll as the apostell says

Jessica Lamothe, 'An edition of the Latin and four Middle English versions of William Flete’s De remediis contra temptaciones (Remedies against Temptations)'. PhD thesis, University of York, 2017

Followed by:

‘Cleanness of Soul’

A translated extract from Catherine of Siena’s Documento Spirituale, Jolliffe I.7c. (ed. Lamothe, thesis, pp. 51–2, and by Dirk Schultze in Anglia 136, no. 2, 11 June 2018)

'The Twelve Points' Jolliffe I.13c, , an extract from Book 2, Chapter 16 of the Revelations of St Bridget of Sweden (Domenico Pezzini, ‘The twelf poyntes: Versioni di un trattato Brigidino (Rev. II,16) nel quattrocento inglese’, Aevum, 62 (1988), 286–301)

Language(s): Middle English
2.ii. (fol. 131v)
Ps.-Bonaventure, Meditationes de passione Christi
Incipit: In libro qui dicitur Legenda Aurea
Incipit: Cum enim a cena surrexit

Abridged version, with added prefatory material introducing the hours of the Passion (Lamothe, thesis, p. 52)

Language(s): Latin
2.iii. (fol. 136v)
Form of confession
Incipit: I knaw me to God

Jolliffe, C.33, this manuscript only; followed by short texts on suffering, contrition and confession, Jolliffe J.1 and Jolliffe E.18, Lamothe, pp. 52–3.

Language(s): Middle English
3. (fol. 140v)
Verses on the kings of England ( DIMEV 727, NIMEV 444)
Incipit: This myghty William

Fol. 141 is slightly injured.

Language(s): Middle English
4. (fol. 144v)
Carthusian verses on the monastic life
Incipit: Ad regnum celi suspires mente fideli

Michael G. Sargent, ‘The Latin Verses over the Cell Doors of London Charterhouse’, in Studies in Carthusian Monasticism in the Late Middle Ages, ed. by Julian Luxford (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009), pp. 179–97.

Followed by three short Latin theological pieces in different hands (see Lamothe, p. 54).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment and paper
Extent: ii + 150 leaves
Dimensions (binding): 8.25 × 5.875 in.
Musical Notation:

Notation on staves (see van Dijk 1957).

Binding

White leather on bevelled boards, clasp lost, contemporary English work

History

Origin: 15th century, middle ; English, York (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Written by John Morton (art. 1), presumably the John Morton who received the letters of confraternity bound in at fols. 148–9, perhaps for his own use.

Probably acquired by the Library between 1605 and 1611.

MS. Bodl. 131 - endleaves (fols. i-ii)

Contents

Gradual (fragment, leaves marked xxix, xxx)
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Musical Notation:

Musical notation.

Decoration

Initial. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 191)

History

Origin: 12th century, third quarter ; English

MS. Bodl. 131 - endleaves (fols. 148–149)

Contents

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

Decoration

Good initial. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 900)

History

Origin: 1438 ; English, York

MS. Bodl. 131 - endleaf (fol. 150)

Contents

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

History

Origin: 1396 ; English

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description adapted (April 2020) from the following sources, with additional reference to published literature as cited:
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford , III (1973), nos. 191 (fols. i-ii), 900 (fols. 148–9) [decoration, origin, date]
Summary Catalogue (1922) [main manuscript]

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    Jessica Lamothe, 'An edition of the Latin and four Middle English versions of William Flete’s De remediis contra temptaciones (Remedies against Temptations)'. PhD thesis, University of York, 2017, pp. 49–56
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 5: Fragments - Mass Books (typescript, 1957), p. 72

    Online resources:

Last Substantive Revision

2020-04-08: Revised to incorporate all information in SC and with reference to recent publications.