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

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MS. Bodl. 490

Summary Catalogue no.: 2076

Contents

On foll. 132, 132v are added four hexameters about health, beg. 'Si vis post cenam' (15th cent.): a copy of 'the Answer of the Deanry of Cycestre' (Chichester) in 1535 to a demand for a money contribution granted by Convocation to the king: five sets of humorous verses, one being the story of four Oxford scholars invited to write an epigram on a pair of buckets in a well.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Composite: three parts
Extent: vi + 135 leaves
Dimensions (binding): 8.5 × 6 in.

Decoration

Coloured capitals.

Binding

Old boards and sewing, partly repaired.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Unidentified church or religious house: '⟨Hunc librum donau⟩it frater ...... ecclesie ... ⟨Si quis ...⟩ fraudem fecerit anathema sit', 14th cent.

'W. Robynson est possessor. tanti valet quanti vendi potest', 15th cent.

Acquired not later than 1602.

MS. Bodl. 490 – Part 1

Contents

1. (fol. 1)
Treatise on the Mass
Incipit: Missa dicitur a mitto
Explicit: debuit ab ecclesia recedere
Language(s): Latin
2. (fol. 6v)
Lawrence Somercote, Summa de formis electionum episcoporum faciendarum
Rubric: Incipit Summa magistri Laurencij de Somercote de forma eligendi
Incipit: Omnibus sancte matris ecclesie filiis ... Laurencius de Somercote domini pape subdiaconus canonicus Cicestrensis gratiam

This is a treatise containing primarily copies of precedents in the matter of electing bishops, but it widens out into a collection of ecclesiastical forms useful to a bishop or abbot, valuable as being taken from about 220 actual documents, especially relating to the dioceses of Hereford and Gloucester. A few are in French: two are added on fols. 85v, 86. A full list of the pieces is on fols. i-vi in the original hand: part of this treatise has been printed in Statutes of Lincoln Cathedral, edd. Bradshaw and Wordsworth, part 2 (1897), pp. cxxv-cxlii.

Language(s): Latin with a little Anglo-Norman

On fols. 86v-88a are added in a late 14th cent. hand lists of 'numeri cardinales, ordinales, dispertiti, ponderales, aduerbiales, singulares', in words and Roman and Arabic figures.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

History

Origin: c. 1300 ; English

MS. Bodl. 490 – Part 2

Contents

1.
(fols. 86r-96r)
Ars dictandi
Incipit: Epistola est oracio ex attributis sibi partibus congrue composita
Explicit: subsequentis operis emendetis
Final rubric: Explicit brevis et utilis tractatus de modo dictandi

Polak, Medieval and Renaissance Letter Treatises, 364

(fols. 96r-100r)

Form letters of nobles and prelates.

Polak, Medieval and Renaissance Letter Treatises, 364

(fols. 100v-117ra)
Guido Faba, Exordia (incomplete)

Polak, Medieval and Renaissance Letter Treatises, 364

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

History

Origin: c. 1300 ; English

MS. Bodl. 490 – Part 3

Contents

1. (fol. 118)
Manual of questions to be asked by a priest at confession (Bloomfield 4133)
Incipit: Primo interroget sacerdos discretus

With an added note on fol. 117v.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

History

Origin: c. 1300 ; English

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description adapted (May 2020) from the Summary Catalogue (1922) with additional reference to other published literature as cited.
Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 198

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2020-05-04: Description revised to incorporate all information in SC.