MS. Bodl. 183
Summary Catalogue no.: 2084
Contents
Language(s): Middle English with Latin
Fols. i–v are blank paper and parchment flyleaves.
[item 1 occupies quire II]
Table of lections of Type IIncludes the temporal, commemorations and the sanctoral, both the proper and common according to the rubric, but only the proper is present. The entries consist of the name of a liturgical occasion in red, abbreviated reference to a book and chapter of the Bible, an indexing letter in red, the opening words of a reading, ‘ende’ in red, the closing words of a reading and double strokes. Larger initials with penwork at Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity and Candlemas. The table was apparently produced from an exemplar that had a full set of Old Testament and New Testament readings, but Old Testament readings were removed from the temporal, and only those from books included in MS. Bodl. 183 were retained in the commemorations and the sanctoral. ‘Osee’, erroneously entered at Friday, 17th week after Trinity (fol. x recto), suggests that the exemplar had not only New Testament but also Old Testament readings (see Solopova, E., ‘Manuscript Evidence for the Patronage, Ownership and Use of the Wycliffite Bible’, in Poleg, E. and Light, L. (eds), Form and Function in the Late Medieval Bible (Leiden: Brill, 2013), pp. 333–49, pp. 338–40). Includes all feasts characteristic of the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible apart from Giles (1 September) (Forshall, J. and Madden, F. (eds), The Holy Bible … in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1850), vol. 4, pp. 683, 690–6). Commemorations are in the following order: the Virgin Mary, Trinity, Holy Ghost, Cross, angels, ‘ffor briþeren & sistren & salus populi’, peace, clear weather, reyn, ‘In time of batels’, ‘A man for him silf’, ‘ffor pestilence of bestis’, pilgrims, weddings, sinners, sick, ‘Pistils for dede’, ‘Gospels for dede’.
Old Testament books, except Tobit, have prologues in the Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible (slightly revised) (Dove, M., The first English Bible: the text and context of the Wycliffite versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 298). Chapter numbers in red as words in English or as Roman numerals, usually in the form ‘þe i cº’, preceding each chapter. Running titles on both rectos and versos consisting of an abbreviated title of a biblical book in red preceded by a blue paraph and a chapter number on pages containing the beginnings of chapters. Indexing letters and double strokes in the margins inside the bounding lines framing each page. The indexing letters are entered at the beginnings of lections only rather than consistently; the beginnings and ends of lections are also highlighted with yellow wash. Added material within the text is underlined in red in the Old Testament only. Contains corrections throughout presumably made in the original workshop. On fols. 82v, 173v, 192v and 212v the artist, who added the border, worked around corrections and glosses in the margins. Notes ‘fro þis’ and ‘hidirto’ in a medieval hand in the margins, marking passages in the Song of Song (fols. 237v–239r) and Ecclesiastes (fol. 260v), apparently added in the original workshop (the sign used to indicate the start and end of passages is also used to link glosses to the text on fol. 212v).
[New Testament occupies quires III–XXIII]
Chapters 11–16 are imperfect because the lower part of fols. 89–92 is cut off.
The beginning of the rubric and parts of the text of the prologue and chapters 1–3 are missing because the lower part of fols. 92–93 is cut off.
The text of chapters 4–5 is slightly imperfect because the lower part of fol. 164 is cut off.
Slightly imperfect because the lower part of fols. 164–166 is cut off.
Fol. 184 is ruled but blank.
[Old Testament occupies quires XXIV–XXXVI]
Usual notes on the differences between the Hebrew and Latin texts in red in chapters X–XV.
Glosses in the original hand on fols. 212v–213r.
Fol. 284v is ruled but blank.
Fol. 285r–v is blank.
Fol. 286r contains an added list of contents of the manuscript in Latin, in a late 15th-century hand, including the table of lections, New Testament (omitting Philemon) and Old Testament books. At the beginning: ‘In isto libro continentur omnia subscripta’.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled in ink for two columns with single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page, and a further set of double bounding lines in all margins; prickings survive; 31–5 lines per page; written space: c. 125 × 185 mm. ; nearly identical to MS Fairfax 11
Hand(s)
textura, the same hand as in MS. Fairfax 11; black ink
Decoration
Possibly decorated by the same artist as MS. Fairfax 11 (de Hamel, C., The book: a history of the Bible (London: Phaidon, 2001), p. 178).
5- to 8-line initials on gold background and full or three-quarters borders made of pink, blue and gold bars decorated with floral designs, interlace and gold disks at the beginnings of books.
3-line gold initials on pink and blue background at the beginnings of prologues.
2- to 3-line red or blue initials with contrasting blue or red penwork at the beginnings of chapters.
Catchwords are decorated with drawings of animals, grotesques and human heads in black and red ink and yellow wash, including Christ’s head (fols. 8v, 48v), crowned head (fol. 256v) and a head in a triple tiara (fol. 272v). Running titles are also occasionally decorated with similar designs.
Rubrics in red; blue paraphs.
Binding
Brown leather over thick pasteboard, 17th century. Blind fillet-line border with floral corner-pieces round the outer edge of both covers; floral blind-roll rectangular figure with floral corner-pieces at the centre and blind-roll strips with the same designs next to the spine on both covers. Re-backed in the Bodleian with the original spine relaid. Five raised bands framed by blind fillet lines on spine. Floral decoration on the edges of covers. ‘183’ written in white paint on spine. Laid paper pastedowns and flyleaves. Fols. ii–iii and 286 have fragments of glue and red pigment and were pastedowns of an earlier binding.
History
Written by the same scribe as MS. Fairfax 11, and possibly illuminated by the same artist; MS. Bodl. 665 may be also the work of this scribe (de Hamel, C., The book: a history of the Bible (London: Phaidon, 2001)) though this is questioned by Peikola, M., ‘The Wycliffite Bible and “Central Midland Standard”: assessing the manuscript evidence’, Nordic Journal of English Studies 2 (2003), pp. 29–51. Consists of three codicologically separate parts: the table of lections, New Testament and a selection of Old Testament books. The parts were put together by a team that may have had access to several exemplars (New Testament and Old Testament may have been copied from different exemplars; Old Testament books have the Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible prologues). The table of lections, though described as being for the use of Sarum, was modified to reflect the selection of Old Testament texts in this manuscript. The sanctoral contains Old Testament readings only from Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, Proverbs, the Song of Song and Ecclesiasticus. The readings that are omitted (Malachi for Candlemas; Isaiah for Annunciation; Jeremiah and Isaiah for the eve, day and octave of John the Baptist; Ezekiel for Matthew and Luke) are all from books that are not included in MS. Bodl. 183. Commemorations omit most Old Testament readings, apart from the ones from Ecclesiastes and Esther, both included in MS. Bodl. 183. The table of lections, as is consistent with its standard form (Forshall, J. and Madden, F. (eds), The Holy Bible … in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1850), vol. 4, pp. 683–96), does not contain any readings from Tobit or Judith, but both books are included in MS. Bodl. 183.
There may have been originally another text or texts at the beginning of the Old Testament section, as suggested by an offset of decoration on fol. 184v (see Collation). The parts were in their present order in the late 15th century as witnessed by the list of contents on fol. 286r.
Dialect survey:
- ony(10), ech(10), fier(10), ȝouen(10), lijf(10), lijk(10), myche(10), say(6)/ sai(3) (sg.), saien(5)/siȝen(1) (pl.), silf(10), siche(6)/sich(2)/suche(2), þouȝ(8), þoru(9)/þoruȝ(1)
- -iþ(9)/-eþ(1) (pres.ind.3sg.), -en(10) (pres.ind.pl.), -ynge(5)/-inge(5) (pres. part.), sche(10) (3sg.fem.pronoun, nom.), þei(10) (3pl.pronoun, nom.), hem(10) (3pl.pronoun, oblique), her(10) (3pl.pronoun, possessive)
Provenance and Acquisition
Late 15th-century clerical (?) owner who listed the contents in Latin.
Robert Barker ( c. 1568–1646), king’s printer, see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry ‘Authorized Version of the Bible, translators of the’.
Bodleian Library: presented by Robert Barker in 1604. Earlier shelfmarks: ‘Th E 5 5’, ‘NE. C. 4.1.’ (fol. v recto).
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (6 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2023-03-23: Add Solopova description.