St John's College MS 190
Preaching materials: tracts and sermons
Physical Description
Binding
A modern replacement. Sewn on three thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf (the date 1879 on the verso) and two modern paper flyleaves; at the rear, two vellum flyleaves from MS, two modern paper flyleaves and another marbled leaf (12–13, iv–vi).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
'Anno domini MoCCCo Nonagesimo sexto dominus Thomas de Arundell Archiepiscopus eboracensis et domini Regis cancellarius celebrauit dominica apud Westm’ die sancte pentecostis et feria secunda proxima sequenti’ (fol. 312; anglicana s. xv in.).
'Liber iste ecclesie beati petri Westmonasterii ex procuracione fratris Willieimi de hasele ⟨fu⟩it domni Willielmi de feltham uicarii quondam de b⟨au⟩he cuius anime propicietur altissimus’ (fol. 1, in red with a faded blue initial; textura, s. xv) (Ker, MLGB 197, 314). Hasele’s floruit is c.1266, and he also donated BL, MS Additional 8167; but his book can have included no more than the first three MSS here. The remainder must represent a Westminster preaching collection.
'Liber Richardi Butler rectoris de Aston in le walles ex dono Magistri Albani Butler senioris 24 Decembris 1607’ (fol. 1, upper margin).
MS 190 - binding leaf (a)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
The remains of a bifolium, its conjoint stub immediately preceding it, is blank except for an added note (see Provenance); fol. 312v has very faded theological notes in brown crayon.
MS 190 - binding leaf (b)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
From another MS, a former pastedown. The verso is blank.
Physical Description
Layout
In double columns, each column 97 × 33–4 mm. with 8 mm between columns, in 23 lines to the column.
Hand(s)
Written in gothic textura quadrata, s. xiv in.
History
Manuscript 1 = Fols. 1–8
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Hand(s)
The sermon is in a mixed anglicana/secretary, s. xv med.
The theological notes are in textura, s. xiii ex. Punctuation by point.
Decoration
History
Manuscript 2 = Fols. 9–14
Contents
Language(s): Latin
The canon tables for the gospels.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In double columns, each column 127 × 48 mm. , with 5 mm between columns, in 33–4 lines to the column. No prickings; bounded and ruled in lead.
Hand(s)
Written in gothic textura quadrata, s. xiii2/4 (below top line). Punctuation by point and double point.
Decoration
A 6-line red initial at the head of item 1; at the head of item 2, a 5-line blank for a capital is unfilled.
History
Manuscript 3 = Fols. 15–69
Contents
Language(s): Latin
The sixteen-book summary of GARNERIUS ‘GREGORIANUS’ OF ST VICTOR, ed. PL 193:25–462; a brief contents table between the heading and the text. In the blank page foot, a similar hand of s. xiii med. adds definitions and distinctiones , most concerning ‘amor’, followed by ‘accidia’, ‘avaritia’, and then shorter definitions.
A dictionary in alphabetical order, a concluding definition of ‘Voluntas’ added in a hand of s. xiii ex.
Verse (not in Walther) introducing a discussion of the cardinal and theological virtues (the definition of fortitude is Macrobian). Further notes on similar subjects added s. xiii ex to fill the final column.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Item 3 in long lines, 49 lines to the page. Prickings; bounded and ruled in black ink.
Items 4 and 5, perhaps added on blank leaves, are in double columns.
Hand(s)
Written in gothic textura semiquadrata, s. xiii med. Items 4 and 5, perhaps added on blank leaves, are in a different hand. Punctuation by point.
Decoration
Headings in red.
Two-line red initials to open chapters of item 3; the text broken by 1-line red initials.
The note about ‘amor’ has a 3-line green initial, and from that point, red-slashed capitals normally introduce entries, with 1-line red initials for the letters of the dictionary.
History
Manuscript 4, Booklet 1 = Fols. 70–120
Contents
Language(s): Latin
ed. Augustine Sepinski, Opera theologica selecta 5 (Quaracchi, 1964), 3–175. Faint writing in the upper margin, only partially recoverable under ultraviolet ‘Totum adhuc est ⟨ta⟩ngendum ⟨ ⟩ usque ⟨.....⟩ obser⟨.⟩d⟨..⟩us ⟨ ⟩ sequenti’, and guides for rubrics appear at the page foot. After the explicit, fol. 120va, a brief note added at the page foot; and a further added text.
In textura quadrata, s. xv. Stegmüller, RB 10476 (7:109); cf. the version ed. Max Foerster, ‘Die Legende vom Trinubium der hl. Anna’, in Wolfgang Keller (ed.), Probleme der englischen Sprache und Kultur (Heidelberg, 1925), 105–30 at 115. Other copies appear at BodL, MSS Bodley 177, fol. 1; and Laud misc. 343, fol. 106v.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In double columns, each column 120 × 40 mm. 7 mm between columns, in 32 lines to the column. No prickings; bounded and ruled in black and brownish ink.
Hand(s)
Written in anglicana formata, s. xiii/xiv or xiv1/4. Punctuation by point.
Decoration
Headings in red.
Two-line red lombards at the heads of chapters.
The text broken by occasional red paraphs.
Red running titles with the book number (to fol. 86 only).
Similar decoration occurs in the following booklet, although the capitals there are unfilled.
History
Manuscript 4, Booklet 2 = Fols. 121–8
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Ed. Sepinski, 179–214., Fol. 128rv was originally blank, but the verso now has an index to the following sermons, s. xv, in mixed anglicana/secretary
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In double columns, each column 122 × 41 mm. , with 5 mm between columns, in 40 lines to the page. A few prickings; bounded in brown crayon and lead, no rules.
Hand(s)
A hand similar to the preceding. Punctuation by point.
Manuscript 5, Booklet 1 = Fols. 129–50
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Includes a drawing of the ‘shield of faith’ from Eph. 6 (fol. 147rb).
Fol. 150 is written in long lines, and the text is closely written on the (double-column) verso, so as to finish on the leaf.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In double columns, each column 133 × 40 mm. , with 7 mm between columns, in 39 lines to the column. Prickings on the opening leaves, thereafter cut away; bounded and ruled in pencil and brown ink.
Hand(s)
Written in anglicana, s. xiv in. Punctuation by occasional medial point.
Decoration
Headings and 2-line capitals at heads of the texts in red.
Occasional red paraphs to break texts.
History
Manuscript 5, Booklet 2 = Fols. 151–82
Contents
Language(s): Latin
More a tract than a sermon; an indication of topics treated added in rubric in the lower margins, s. xv.
? Cf. Bloomfield, no. 0450, also a decalogue tract, cited from CUL MS Ii.iii.8, fols. 31–6, ; not identical with Guido Faba, Summa de virtutibus (no. 0321), with the same biblical verse at the incipit. Following the conclusion, a signe de renvoi with instructions ‘redi ad aliam partem precedentis folii supra’, where a blank has been left.
THOMAS DE FRAKAHAM, canon of Lessness (Sharpe, no. 1749 [657]), ed. Anselm Hoste, ‘Le Speculum spiritualis amicitiae... par Thomas de Frakaham’, Studia Monastica 3 (1961), 297–323, where our copy is collated. Fols. 176rb and the verso blank but bounded and ruled.
The rubric appears in the upper margin (only a guide ‘sermo de beato martino’ in the text column), since inadequate space was left between the texts.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In double columns, each column 122 × 38–42 mm. , with 7 mm between columns, in 34 lines to the column. Intermittent prickings survive; bounded and ruled in brown ink.
Hand(s)
Written in anglicana, s. xiv in. Punctuation by occasional medial point.
Decoration
Headings in red. Biblical lemmata often underlined in red.
History
Manuscript 5, Booklet 3 = Fols. 183–214
Contents
Language(s): Latin and Anglo-Norman
Ed. from our copy M. Dominica Legge, ‘The Anglo-Norman Sermon of Thomas of Hales’, Modern Language Review 30 (1935), 212–18; on the author, see Sarah M. Horrall, ‘Thomas of Hales, O.F.M.: His Life and Works’, Traditio 42 (1986), 287–98. About one-third of the final column is blank.
Followed (fols. 188vb–9ra) by a ‘summa sermonis’, a diagrammatic breakdown of the argument and its divisions.
A series of three theological notes.
ed. A. D. Wilshere, Anglo-Norman Text Society 40 (1982), where our copy represents the A version (the MS treated briefly at p. vii); the frontispiece of the edition reproduces fol. 190. Preceded (fol. 190rab) by a table of matters treated. An erased Latin theological inscription follows the explicit. Fols. 199v–200 are blank, 200 bounded.
A very rubbed theological note in crayon, fol. 205v, in the lower margin.
Appears to be a series of notes, mainly symbolic referents for the Virgin, rather than strictly a sermon, and becomes increasingly more random on fol. 213. Fol. 214rv is blank, the recto bounded.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In double columns, each column 135 × 45 mm. , with 6 mm between columns, in 40 lines to the column. No prickings; bounded and ruled in brown ink.
From fol. 211, written in long lines within a similar writing area ( 130 × 83 mm. ), in 39 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Written in anglicana, s. xiv in. (another, rather squarish hand); succeeded by a different scribe in anglicana fols. 200va–9ra (through the rubric), and concluded by a third, more cursive hand to the end of the booklet. Punctuation by medial point and occasional punctus elevatus (scribes 1 and 3); by occasional point and infrequent punctus elevatus (scribe 2).
Decoration
Headings in red, red-slashed capitals at the heads of texts, and some underlining (occasionally red, mostly in text ink) of biblical lemmata.
History
Manuscript 5, Booklets 4–9 = Fols. 215–311
Contents
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
At this point, the MS becomes simply a sermon collection. The sermons appear to form a set, including cross-references from the discussion of ‘ignis’ in one sermon to that in another. Those of booklet 6 uniquely include English.
Only one of the fifty-nine main text items in this portion (ignoring a variety of added theological notes in blank spaces), seems to appear elsewhere (item 40).
Only some of the main text items have been described below, including the first five texts.
There are two short Middle English poems in the lower margin of folio 237:
'Þe munde of Cristes passion […] '
DIMEV 5404 (cf. also DIMEV 5122). Siegfried Wenzel, ‘Unrecorded Middle English verses’, Anglia 92 (1974), 55-78, p. 71 (item no. 62). Both DIMEV and Wenzel incorrectly list fol. 232 as the location.
'Wanne fend schal fram fende go […] '
DIMEV 6311, Wenzel p. 75 (item no. 84). Both DIMEV 6311 and Wenzel incorrectly list fol. 232 as the location, though DIMEV 6301 has the correct folio citation.
The incipit resembles the 24th sermon in a ‘festiale’, Angers, BM, MS 255 (Schneyer, 8:24).
Physical Description
Collation
Booklet 4 = fols. 215–34: 2520. The leaves in this portion are smaller than in the remainder, only 170 mm high.
Booklet 5 = fols. 235–44: 268+2 (+1, +10). Fols. 235 + 244 are a wrapper, a leaf which has been pricked for writing on upper and lower edges, put around the quire. Folio 235v is a palimpsest. Very faint text (scraped?) on folios 244r–244v.
Booklet 6 = fols. 245–56: 2712.
Booklet 7 = fols. 257–84: 288 2912 308.
Leaves in this portion often differ from those in the remainder: fols. 257–64 are only 169 mm high; fols. 265–76 are at least 3 mm narrower (in some cases more) than neighbouring leaves.Booklet 8 = fols. 285–306: 3110 3212.
Booklet 9 = fols. 307–11: 338 (–6, –7, –8, stubs, probably blank). No catchwords (one added example, running into the gutter, at the end of quire 28); no signatures.
Layout
The booklets are linked by fairly rough similarity of format. Although booklet 6 is in long lines, a writing area of 147 × 87 mm. , in 51 lines to the page, the remainder are in double columns, all columns roughly 115 mm (after fol. 267, 138 mm) × 40–5 mm. , in about 35–40 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Written in a variety of textura and anglicana hands, s. xiv in. Punctuation by point and punctus elevatus.
Decoration
The booklets are linked by common rubrication (virtually the only presentational feature: in some portions divisions with red paraphs and underlining of biblical lemmata, sometimes in red).
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact St John's College Library.
Bibliography
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