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

MS. Bodl. 9

Summary Catalogue no.: 1851

Contents

1. (fol. 1)
Calendar

A Sarum calendar, with 'Obitus Byll 1561', at July 15, and 'Puerperium. A. H. 1561' at Sept. 16.

Language(s): Latin
2. (fol. 7)
Psalter of St. Jerome
Incipit: Verba mea auribus ... Sire apparcoi mes paroles

This article is in a different hand from what follows.

Language(s): Latin and Middle French
3. (fol. 25)
Prayers and religious pieces, including:

A Latin commemoration of St Etheldreda (fol. 26)

The seven Requestes in French (fol. 41)

'les cynk Ioies' (fol. 53v)

Language(s): Anglo-Norman and Latin
4. (fol. 55v)
⟨Urbain le courtois⟩
Incipit: Une sage homme de graunt valour

Without title or author's name.

Language(s): Anglo-Norman
5. (fol. 58v)
Incipit: Mout est homme fous ke trop safie

A poem on death and the vanity of the world. Dean & Boulton 604.

Language(s): Anglo-Norman
6. (fol. 61v)
‘Lapprise de nurture’
Incipit: Beau dulce elgardes | Dulcement si moy lises

Dean & Boulton 234

Language(s): Anglo-Norman
7. (fol. 67)
Rubric: A notable ... tretis techyng vnto ... man the gouernance and ledyng of his lijf
Incipit: First whan thou arisist or fully wakist
Language(s): Middle English
7a. (fol. 72)
⟨Lettre d'Aristote à Alexandre⟩
Incipit: Ici vous aprent quant les quatre humurs

A French treatise on the four humours, lucky and unlucky days, and the like; Dean & Boulton 421

Language(s): Anglo-Norman
8. (foll. 75v, 86)

The Te Deum, Benedicite omnia opera, a Latin Litany, and Latin and French prayers, partly for a lady.

Language(s): Latin and Anglo-Norman
9. (fol. 81v)
‘Tretis de norture’
Incipit: Ces sont les ensignemens

In verse; Dean & Boulton 235

Language(s): Anglo-Norman
10. (fol. 99)
⟨Proverbs of Wisdom⟩
Incipit: The wysman seyde to hys sones | Thenk on thise prouerbis that after comes

DIMEV 5530 ; NIMEV 2668.44, 3502

Language(s): Middle English
11. (fol. 103)
Prayer
Incipit: Domine Deus meus omnipotens, Pater, Filius

A prayer of st. Brandan, with a long precedent rubric. Some later Latin prayers are on fol. 122v and the inner front cover.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii + 124 leaves
Dimensions (binding): 6.125 × 4.5 in.

Decoration

Good initials. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 921)

Binding

Brown stamped leather on boards, with clasp (English 15th cent. work).

Re-backed and mended.

History

Origin: 15th century, second quarter ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

Expressions on fols. 26, 87v, 121v point to a nun: so the volume may have been written in the only English nunnery dedicated to st. Etheldreda (see art. 3), namely that at Leigh or Canon Leigh in Devon.

'Liber vniuersitatis Oxon. ex dono Joannis Leuger in artibus baccalaurei e Collegio Trinitatis anno Domini 1620.'

Record Sources

Description adapted (March 2020) from the following sources, with additional reference to published literature as cited:
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford , III (1973), no. 921 [decoration, origin, date]
Summary Catalogue (1922) [contents, physical description, provenance and acquisition]

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2020-03-19: Description revised to include all information in SC, updated with reference to published literature as cited.