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St John's College MS 147

Richard Rolle, Parce michi, saints’ lives

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. Fols. 1–123v:
Rubric: Moralitas venerabilis RICARDI heremite DE HAMPOLE super lectiones sancti Iob que leguntur in vigiljis mortuorum
Incipit: Parce michi domine […] Exprimitur autem in hijs verbis humane condicionis instabilitas que non habet
Explicit: visione demonum monstrorum serpencium draconum et incessu ignis Inhabitans internum
Final rubric: Explicit moralitas [as the initial rubric]
RICHARD ROLLE, Commentary on the office of the dead ('parce michi') (Sharpe, no. 1370 [501–3]), , ed. Malcolm R. Moyes, Richard Rolle’s Expositio super Novem Lectiones Mortuorum Volume Two, Elizabethan and Renaissance Studies 92/12 (Salzburg, 1988), 124–283, , with a description of our MS at 42–6. The usual four verses follow the explicit: ‘Talentum traditum timens subfodere fimum […] ’, Walther, no. 18987 (with an incomplete list of citations from this text). Fols. 124–5v were originally blank.
2. Fols. 126–33:
Rubric: Incipit vita sancti Alexij Confessoris
Incipit: Temporibus Archadij et honorij magnorum imperatorum fuit rome quidam vir magnus et mobilis
Explicit: deprecatus fuerit peticionis effectum sine dubio consequi valeat Per dominum nostrum ihesum cristum qui cum [form ending] Amen
Final rubric: Explicit vita sancti Alexij Confessoris

BHL 287, very similar to BHL 286, ed. Acta sanctorum, July 4:251–3; also appears in BL, MS Royal 12 E.i, fol. 116.

3. Fols. 133–8v:
Rubric: Incipit passio sancti Bonifacij martiris
Incipit: Temporibus Diocliciani impijssimi Imperatoris orta est sedicio maxima aduersus cristianos Vt omnes
Explicit: gloriosus martir bonifacius victorie coronam assumens in gloriam et laudem dei patris et vnigeniti filij eius et spiritus [form ending] Amen
Final rubric: Explicit passio sancti Bonifacij Martiris

BHL 1413, ed. Acta, May 3:280–3.

4. Fols. 138v–74v:
Rubric: Incipit vita sancti Marcialis Episcopi
Incipit: Predicante domino nostro ihesu cristo apud iudeam in tribu beniamin confluebat ad eum multa turba
Explicit: vt oracionibus eius muniti hereditatis eterne mereamur participes ascisci sanctorurn collegio in regnum domini nostri [form ending] Amen

BHL 5552 (the ‘Vita ps.-Aureliani’), ed. W. de G. Birch, Vite Sanctissimi Martialis apostoli: The Life of St Martial (London, 1872), 6–38.

5. Fols. 174v–5v:
Rubric: Incipit passio Sancti Vitalis Martyris
Incipit: Sanctus Vitalis pater erat sanctorum martirum Gervasij et prothasij quorum mater valeria
Explicit: cede eam mactauerunt Vt in triduo in mediolana vrbe migraret ad cristum cui est honor [form ending]

Unidentified; the incipit resembles BHL 8700 or 8702, an excerpt from the life of Gervasius and Protasius (cf. BHL 517–19).

6. Fols. 175v–6:
Rubric: [later rubric] In natali sancte Petronille virginis
Incipit: Igitur confessor cristi marcellus qui per beati petri apostoli predicacionem relicta symoniaci erroris
Explicit: funeris virginis petronille celebrarent cuius interuentu eterna nobis gaudia cristus largiatur qui viuit [form ending] Amen

Cf. BHL 6061; Acta, May 3:10–11 is Marcellus’s report.

7. Fols. 176v–9v:
Rubric: Incipit passio Sancti Eusebij Martiris
Incipit: Imperante maximiano maxencius quidam palestine provincie preses in iussum principis
Explicit: in eius exarsit exicium excruciatus pena multiplici nec seculo potuit placere nec cristo

BHL 2739, ed. Acta, August 3:150–1.

8. Fols. 179v–85:
Rubric: Incipit passio Sancti Agapiti Martiris
Incipit: Sub rege antiocho pagano erat quidam puer nomine Agapitus timens deum Hic omnibus suis renunciauit
Explicit: Et multi paganorum crediderunt deum per famulum dei agapitum et cristum dominum nostrum qui viuit [form ending]

BHL 125, ed. Boninus Mombritius, Sanctuarium, 2 vols. (Milan, before 1480), Hain 11544*, BMC 6:736–7, 1:14vb–16ra.

9. Fols. 185–9:
Rubric: Incipit passio sancti Magni Martiris
Incipit: Gloriosus rex et martir magnus regis olaui extitit filius Qui in fide cristi roboratus
Explicit: factus sum stabilis Hec itaque ad laudem sancti magni martiris contigerunt cui sit honor [form ending] Amen

Unidentified; Magnus does not appear in BHL.

10. Fols. 189–93v:
Rubric: Incipit passio sancti Simphoriani Martiris
Incipit: Cvm aduersum cristianum nomen persecucionis dire procella detonaret et ad delendam religioinem
Explicit: et omnium votorum plenitudini felix aperiatur ingressus per ipsum dominum nostrum ihesum cristum qui est [form ending] Amen

BHL 7967, ed. Acta, August 4:496–7.

11. Fols. 193v–4v:
Rubric: Incipit passio Sancti Rufi Martiris
Incipit: Eodem tempore Rufus patricius et ex consul ducatum agebat ravenne cuius vnica filia infirmabatur
Explicit: in campana vrbe sexto kalendas septembris pro cristi nomine martirium sumpsit

BHL 7377, unpublished; another copy appears at Chartres, BM, 500, fol. 282v.

12. Fols. 194v–202:
Rubric: Incipit passio sancti hermetis martiris
Incipit: Qvinto loco a beatro [sic] petro apostolo romane ecclesia Cathedram sedit Alexander Episcopus sanctitate incomparabilis
Explicit: theodolum presbiterum iussit in vinculis arcius custodiri quorum triumphos in vita eorum exponitur

In fact a Vita Alexandri pape (BHL 266), ed. Acta, May 1:375–8, paraphrased at the conclusion.

13. Fols. 202–7v:
Rubric: Incipit passio sancti Calixti pape et Martiris
Incipit: Temporibus Macrini et Alexandri incendio diuino concremata est pars capitolij a meridiano
Explicit: sepultum est in eadem ciuitate sub die quartadecima kalendarum nouembrium regnante domino nostro [form ending] Amen

BHL 1523, ed. Acta, October 6:439–41.

14. Fols. 207v–22v
Rubric: Incipit Vita et passio Sancti Eustachij Sociorumque eius
Incipit: In diebus traiani imperatoris demonum preualente fallacia erat quidam magister
Explicit: et invocare eos in presidio impetrant que promissa sunt sanctis per gratiam domini nostri et saluatoris [form ending] Amen

BHL 2760, ed. Acta, September 6:123–35.

15. Fols. 222v–4v:
Rubric: Incipit passio sancti Saturnini martiris
Incipit: | [fol. 223] Temporibus quo maximianus Augustus redijt de partibus affrice ad vrbem romam volens placere
Explicit: die apud tolosam saturninus episcopus qui in capitolio eiusdem vrbis a pa ||

In fact a Passio Marcelli pape (BHL 5234), ed. Acta, January 2:369–71, ending in par. 8, with an extra five lines; the text has been paraphrased. There is another copy at Rouen, BM, MS 1379, fol. 107.

16. Fols. 225–59v:
Incipit: Adueniente iam et iminente tempore miseracionum et misericordiarum domini nostri
Explicit: occurrunt ei gaudenter seipsos exortantes atque dicentes Benedictus dominus deus israhel quia visitauit et fecit redempcionem plebis sue

‘BONEAUENTURA de passione Ihesu cristi’ (so Ebesham’s index of contents, fol. iv), i.e. PS.BONAVENTURA, Meditaciones de passione Christi, ed. M. Jordan Stallings (Washington, 1965), 87–130/23, with a reference to our MS at 46.

17. Fols. 259v–60:
Incipit: Ad quem infernum cristus descendit si scire volueris nota secundum sanctam THOMAM de veritate theologie libro quarto quod nomen inferni dicitur dupliciter scilicet pro pena et pro loco pene
Explicit: pro purgatorio sicut et ibi sumitur pro limbo quando dicitur cristus descendit ad inferos hec sanctus THOMAS

A note from AQUINAS on limbo, separated from the preceding item only by a lightly inked paraph, perhaps later.

18. Fols. 260–1:
Incipit: Ueniens dominus ihesus cum honorabili multitudine angelorum ad monumentum die dominica
Explicit: liberauit de inferno et omnia que fecit in illo triduo Ecce nunc ergo magnum pascha etc

PS.-BONAVENTURA, Meditationes vitae Christi, ch. 87, ed. A. C. Peltier, S. Bonaventurae Opera Omnia 12 (Paris, 1868) 616–17; cf. the Middle English, ed. Michael G. Sargent, Nicholas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ (New York: Garland, 1992), 196/6–197/22. Fols. 261v–4v were originally blank.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: tela
Form: codex
Support:

Vellum and paper. From fol. 225 completely vellum (FSOS/FHHF); before that point, each quire comprises a vellum sheet folded around two paper sheets (to fol. 125) or a single paper sheet, both vellum and paper in quarto, in each quire with an additional paper half-sheet. There are four main paper stocks, typically appearing in blocks:

A: Unidentified, perhaps a small armorial: the sole stock in quires 2–4 and 10–11, the watermarked half-sheet of quire 5 (eight full sheets and six halves, three with the mark).

B: Waffen/ Coutelas: not elsewhere recorded, with the hilts of the swords forming a circular rim; cf. Briquet, no. 5157 (Florence 1456, Udine 1459) and Piccard IX (Werkzeug und Waffen) 2, Type 7, nos. 531–3 (Italian, 1453 x 1469): two sheets in quire and the sole stock of quires 6–9 (ten full sheets and four halves, two with the mark);

C: Ochsenkopf/ Tête de boeuf: generally of Piccard Type 1, but not elsewhere recorded, with prolonged muzzle: the sole stock of quires 12, 14–15, and the full sheet of quire 17 (four full sheets and three halves, one with the mark).

D: Traube/ Raisin: of the type Piccard XIV (Frucht), nos. 1–174, in common use 1437 x 1460+: the sole stock of quires 18–19 (two full sheets and two halves, one with the mark).

No watermarks have been found in quire 13. Quires 16–17 include a full sheet and two watermarked halves of two further unidentified stocks (one certainly of Briquet’s type Indéterminé). Quire 1 includes a different very small example of Ochsenkopf, on a leaf (fol. 4) which appears to have replaced a cancel; the quire originally was entirely on a fifth stock:

E: Ochse/Boeuf: of the type Piccard XV (Vierfüssler), 3, Type 6, nos. 1040–74 (1446 x 1453, with four later examples recorded as late as 1463, Germany and the Netherlands): probably two full sheets and an unwatermarked half.

Extent: Fols. iv + 264 + ii (numbered fols. v–vi).
Dimensions (leaf): 214 × 143 mm.
Dimensions (written): 120–2 × 73 mm.
Foliation: A seventeenth-century foliation 1–265 (including as 225 a leaf following fol. 224, now a stub).

Collation

1–814 914 (–13, a stub) [fol. 125, a booklet boundary] | 10–1810 1910 (–10, a stub) [fol. 224, a booklet boundary] | 20–248. Catchwords in the gutter, once underlined in red in booklet 1, more usually boxed and/or in scrolls with red highlights. In booklet 1, no signatures; in booklets 2–3, all leaves in the first halves of each quire signed with a letter and a roman numeral, some in quires 10 and 11, all in quire 21 cut away; quires 10–19 = f–p, quires 20, 23–24 = a, c, d. As Doyle suggests (316), the signatures imply that booklet 3 was planned to precede booklet 2. Although the final quire is sewn as an eight, the last three leaves do appear to be the same parchment as the first half and are perhaps pasted in binding leaves.

Layout

In long lines, 21 lines to the page (some sections more closely packed, e.g. after fol. 126 writing area 140 × 100 mm. in 25 lines, on or above top line). No prickings; bounded in stylus or by folding, with no rules, and from fol. 225 on bounded in brown crayon.

Hand(s)

Written in secretary by William Ebesham; see A. I. Doyle, ‘The Work of a Late- Fifteenth-Century Scribe, William Ebesham’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 39 (1957), 298–325 at 316–17. Punctuation by medial point, punctus elevatus, and occasional virgula. Doyle’s plates VI A and B reproduce fols. 123v and 132v in part.

Decoration

Headings in red.

At the heads of texts, 3- and 4-line blue lombards on red flourishing with sprays.

Text lemmata in decorative textura.

Texts divided by red paraphs and red-slashed capitals.

Binding

A modern replacement. Sewn on five thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf, one modern paper flyleaf, two medieval vellum flyleaves (the first a former pastedown); at the rear, where fol. 264 is a former pastedown, one modern paper flyleaf and another marbled leaf (v–vi).

History

Origin: s. xv3/4 ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

Ebesham’s index for the volume (fol. iv).

Iste liber constat ⟨Thome Lynne⟩ Monachus Westmonasterij’ (fol. iiiv; textura, s. xv). Doyle (316–17) identifies Lynne as a monk who said his first Mass c.1455–6 and died 1473/4.

‘Iste liber pertinet Willielmo Graunt et Willielmo Grove Monachi⟨.⟩ Westm'' (fol. 263v; textura quadrata, s. xv ex., in red). According to Doyle (317), Grant and Grove were Westminster monks, 1469–1510 and 1485–92 respectively.

‘Richardi Butler rectoris de Aston in walles ex dono Magistri Al[a paste stain] Butler senioris 24 Decembris 1607’ (fol. iiiv).

‘Liber Collegij Sanctj Johannis Baptistae Oxon ex dono Richardi Butler Doctoris Theologiae Archidiaconi Northampt’ procurante Reuerendo in Cristo Patre Johanne Episcopo Roffensi 1613’ (fol. 2, upper margin).

Added texts

Contents

Language(s): Latin and Middle English

a. Fols. 124–5
Incipit: Here shewyth A tretys þat tellyth howe there were vj. Doctours asemelyd togydre And eche of hem axid of oþer whereof they myght beste
Explicit: god \is/ with hym And berith that hevy charge of tribulacion with hym And tribulacion ||

‘The Six Masters on Tribulation’ (IPMEP 287), ed. Carl Horstman, Yorkshire Writers, 2 vols. (London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1895–6), 2:390, breaking off in the words of the fifth master. Added in secretary s. xv ex.

b. Fol. 262v:
Incipit: Sexdecim sunt gaudia in celo scilicet Quatuor Miracula Quatuor dignitates […]

With distinctiones.

The texts in textura with some anglicana forms, s. xv ex., item (g) a different contemporary textura, presumably added by one of the Westminster monks who owned the book (see Provenance).

c. Fols. 262v-3:
Incipit: Ambrosius Quid nobis miserius qui nudi et spoliati in hunc mundum proicimur […]
d. Fol. 263:
Incipit: Septem Criminalia Lucifer perijt per Superbiam | Adam per gulam […]
e. Fol. 263v:
Incipit: Quid est Mulier Hominis confusio Insaturabilis bestia Continua solicitudo
Explicit: Humanum Mancipium SECUNDUS Philosophus

Section 11 in the translation of WILLIAM OF GAP, ed. Ben E. Perry, Secundus the Silent Philosopher (Ithaca, NY, 1964), 96. For further discussion, see R. Bultot, ‘Sur quelques poèmes pseudo-Anselmiens’, Scriptorium 19 (1965), 30–41 at 34.

f. Fol. 263v:

‘Post cenam stare vel passus mille meare | Mane pete montes post prandia flumina Fontes | Femina fax sathane fetens rosa dulce venenum | Semper prona rei que prohibetur ei’.

Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 21983.

g. Fol. 264:
Incipit: Ad mensam thalami quo uentribus esca paraturus | Frater ibi pauper claustralis
Explicit: hij Monachi pecuales | Uentres equales quibus et longi genitales

Ten lines, not in Walther.

History

Origin: s. xv ex.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Ralph Hanna, A descriptive catalogue of the western medieval manuscripts of St. John's College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) (with correction of typographical errors in the incipit of added item [a])

Availability

For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact St John's College Library.

Bibliography

    Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (Brussels, 1898-1901).
    Birch, W. de G., Vite Sanctissimi Martialis apostoli: The Life of St Martial (London, 1872), 6–38.
    Briquet, C-M., ed. Allan Stevenson, Les filigranes: Dictionnaire historique des marques du papier des leur apparition vers 1292 jusqu'en 1600: A Facsimile of the 1907 edition with supplementary material contributed by a number of scholars, 4 vols. (Amsterdam, 1968).
    Bultot, R., ‘Sur quelques poèmes pseudo-Anselmiens’, Scriptorium 19 (1965), 30–41.
    Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century Now in the British Museum, 8 vols. (London, 1909).
    Doyle, A. I., ‘The Work of a Late-Fifteenth-Century Scribe, William Ebesham’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 39 (1957), 298–325.
    Hain, L., Repertorium bibliographicum, 8 vols. (Stuttgart, 1826–38, repr. Milan, 1948), with Supplement by W. A. Copinger (London, 1895–1902; repr. Milan, 1950).
    Horstman, C., Yorkshire writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole, an English father of the church, and his followers, 2 vols. (London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1895–6).
    Moyes, ed. Malcolm R. (ed.), Richard Rolle’s Expositio super Novem Lectiones Mortuorum Volume Two, Elizabethan and Renaissance Studies 92/12 (Salzburg, 1988).
    Peltier, A. C., S. Bonaventurae Opera Omnia 12 (Paris, 1868).
    Perry, Ben E.Secundus the Silent Philosopher (Ithaca, NY, 1964).
    Piccard, Gerhard, Die Wasserzeichenkartei Piccard im Hauptstadts-archiv Stuttgart: Findbuch, currently 17 vols. (Stuttgard, 1961– ).
    Sargent, Michael G. (ed.), Nicholas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ (New York: Garland, 1992).
    Sharpe, Richard, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 1 (Turnhout, 1997).
    Stallings, M. Jordan (ed.), Meditaciones de passione Christi (Washington, 1965).
    Walther, Hans, Initia carminum ac versuum Medii Aevi posterioris Latinorum, 2nd edn (Göttingen, 1969).
    Walther, Hans, Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi: Lateinische Sprichwörter, 5 vols. (Göttingen, 1963-7).

Funding of Cataloguing

Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Thompson Family Charitable Trust

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2023-10: First online publication

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