University College MS. 96

Language(s): Middle English with Latin

Five originally blank unnumbered leaves at the beginning (see Provenance).

1. (fols. 1r–94r)

[items 1–3 occupy quires I–VIII]

General Prologue to the Wycliffite Bible

Collated in Dove’s edition (2010). Chapter numbers in black by the scribe in the form ‘cᵐ iijᵐ’, preceded by black paraphs.

Approximately a half of fol. 94r is blank.

2. (fols. 94v–95r)

A list of books in the Wycliffite Bible in English in the usual order of the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible, with the number of chapters in each book in Roman numerals

The list starts with ‘The prolog’, containing fifteen chapters, and includes Lamentations of Jeremiah, and 1 and 2 Ezra, but not 3 Ezra. The list of the New Testament books is subdivided into ‘The iiij Euangelistes’ and ‘Epistoles of Poule’.

Final rubric: The summe of bookes with þe prolog conteyneþ lxx[…] (cropped off)

3. (fols. 95v–96r)

Old Testament genealogies

Language(s): Latin

Fol. 96v is blank.

4. (fols. 97r–109v)

[items 4–5 occupy quires IX–X]

Chapters from the gospels in the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible containing the accounts of Passion and Resurrection

John 18–20:18

Final rubric: Explicit pascio in die Parasceu & hic incipit in festo ramis Palmarum (fol. 101v)

Matthew 25:31–28

Gloss on Matthew 26:53 in the lower margin of fol. 104v explaining the number of items in ‘xij legions’.

4. (fol. 109v)

Ten commandments in verse

Twelve lines (IMEV 3684, NIMEV 3684, DIMEV 5844; see also Morey, J. H., Book and verse: a guide to Middle English biblical literature (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000), p. 165; ed. Brown (1932)).

Fols. 10r–113r are ruled (bounding lines only), but blank.

5. (fol. 113v)

Additions in a hand of the second half of the 15th century

verses 1–3 of psalm 109, ‘Dixit dominus domino meo … ante luciferum’

Followed by the words ‘dede me’ on a separate line, followed by John 1:6 and a name: ‘Fuit homo missus a deo cui nomen erat Iohannes stephano(n) larkyn’.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: 119 leaves, c.

Dimensions (leaf): 175 × 140 mm.

, leaves were trimmed, occasionally causing the loss of text in the margins

Foliation: modern in pencil, 5 unnumbered leaves + 1–114

Collation

unnumbered parchment leaves: 6-leaf quire with a missing second leaf (stub survives) | (fols. 1–108) I–IX (12) | (fols. 109–114) X (6). Quires are numbered by the scribe in Roman numerals on the first leaf of each quire, [I]–X, see fols. 37r, 61r, 73r, 85r, 97r, 109; no catchwords.

Secundo Folio: ‘make o book’ (fol. 2r)

Layout

ruled for a single column with single vertical and horizontal bounding lines; 18–20 lines per page; written space: c. 125 × 150 mm.

Hand(s)

Anglicana with Secretary influence, similar to the hand of the General Prologue in Trinity College Dublin MS. 75, fols. 218r–251r

Decoration

3-line spaces left for initials, but not filled in, apart from plain red initials on fols. 5r–7r.

Binding

Quires sown on three cords without a spine or a cover, but the outside leaves of the first and last booklets were probably always intended to serve as cover. Evidence of a paper label in the lower left corner of the outside leaf of the first quire.

History

Origin: England ; 15th century, second quarter

The compilation was probably put together by the scribe: the quires are numbered consecutively in a medieval hand, the ruling and presentation of texts (including unfilled spaces left for initials) are consistent throughout; there are 6-leaf quires at the beginning and end, and 12-leaf quires in the middle. Perhaps copied from a manuscript that contained the full Bible preceded by the General Prologue, as suggested by a list of biblical books (fols. 94v–95r) that starts with ‘The prolog’, containing fifteen chapters.

Dialect survey:

I. The General Prologue
- any(6)/ony(3), ech(3)/eche(1), ȝouon(1)/ȝouun(1), lyf(5), lyk(1), meche(10), siȝ(1) (sg), self(3)/sylf(3)/silf(1), such(1)/suche(3)
- -eþ(1)/-eth(8)/-uth(1) (pres.ind.3sg.), -en(9)/-un(1)/-e(1) (pres.ind.pl.), -yng(3)/-ynge(1) (pres.part.), she(1) (3sg.fem.pronoun, nom.), þey(9)/ they(1) (3pl.pronoun, nom.), hem(10) (3pl.pronoun, oblique), hurre (used consistently, only rarely alternating with herre(2)) (3pl.pronoun, possessive)
Also:
- weche(13)/wyche(4)/wich(1) ‘which’, weche ‘witch’
- furst(7)/first(3) ‘first’, churche(3) ‘church’, ȝutte(5) ‘yet’, trust(2)/trist(1) ‘trust’, kulled(e)(5)/kulloden(1)/cullode(1)/cullodon(1)/kyllyde(1) ‘killed’, prust(es)(3)/prest(es)(4) ‘priest’, gulty(2) ‘gilty’, hull(1)/hyl(1) ‘hill’
- vedde ‘fed’
- taute ‘taught’, broute ‘brought’, ordeigned ‘ordeyned’, strenghe(1)/strengþe(1) ‘strength’
- be cudde ‘be cut’
II. Chapters from the gospels
- any(2)/ony(2), ech(3), fier(1), ȝouon(1)/ȝouu(2)/ȝeuon(1), lyf(2), lyk(1), meche(2), siȝ(10) (sg.), siȝ(2)/seiȝ(1)/sey(1)/saien(1) (pl.), self(3)/sylf(6), þurȝ(1), þouȝ(2)
- -eþ(5)/-eth(1) (pres.ind.3sg.), -on(7)/-en(2) (pres.ind.pl.), -yng(8)/-ynge(3) (pres.part.), she(10) (3sg.fem.pronoun, nom.), þey(10) (3pl.pronoun, nom.), hem(10) (3pl.pronoun, oblique), her(5)/hir(1) (3pl.pronoun, possessive), hurre(1) ‘her’
Also:
- weche(5)/wych(2), prestes(1)
- busshep(es)(10) ‘bishop(s)’, furst(3)/first(3) ‘first’, suster(1) ‘sister’, birye(1) ‘bury’, byryel(2) ‘sepulchre’, ȝutte(1)/ȝut(5) ‘yet’, cusse(1)/cussede(1) ‘kiss’, hulden ‘held’, gylty(1)/giltles(1) ‘guilty/guiltless’, euel(1)/yuel(2) ‘evil’, hul(1) ‘hill’
- (y)tawte(3) ‘taught’, knew(3) ‘knew’, drow(2) ‘drew’, crew(1)/krew(2) ‘crew’

Provenance and Acquisition

Price: ‘p(re)c(ium) viij s iiij d’, 15th century, fol. 109v.

‘Iohannes stephano(n) larkyn’, 15th century, fol. 113v.

Obadiah Walker (1616–1699) (?), Master of University College; see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. On a flyleaf at the beginning: ‘This book seemeth to have been made by John Wickliffe’ and beneath ‘I take this note to be of Mr Obad. Walker’s handwriting. Teste Guil. Smith, Aug. 26, 1700’.

University College, Oxford. Earlier shelfmark ‘G. 3. XCVI’, ‘G. 3’, upper cover and flyleaves.

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible in the Bodleian and Oxford College Libraries, Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016), no. 63. Previously described:

H. O. Coxe, Catalogus codicum mss. qui in collegiis aulisque Oxoniensibus hodie adservantur (1852), p. 28

S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson (ed.), The Index of Middle English Prose VIII: Manuscripts Containing Middle English Prose in Oxford College Libraries (Cambridge, 1991), p. 109

Availability

For permission to use images of this manuscript, please contact University College Library: library@univ.ox.ac.uk

Bibliography

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. 1, p. liii; siglum β.

Coxe, H. O., Catalogus codicum mss. qui in collegiis aulisque Oxoniensibus hodie adservantur, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1852), vol. 1, p. 28.

Brown, C., English lyrics of the XIIIth century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932), pp. 219–20.

Hudson, A., Selections from English Wycliffite writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), p. 173.

Ogilvie-Thomson, S. J., Index of Middle English prose, 18 vols (Cambridge, 1984– ), Handlist VIII (1991), p. 109.

Dove, M., The first English Bible: the text and context of the Wycliffite versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 120, 243, 303.

Cole, A., Literature and heresy in the age of Chaucer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 223 n. 24.

Dove, M., The earliest advocates of the English Bible: the texts of the medieval debate (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2010), p. xxvii.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2023-03-24: Add Solopova description.

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