MS. Ashmole 189

Summary Catalogue no.: 6666

Summary Catalogue no.: 6777

Summary Catalogue no.: 6778

Summary Catalogue no.: 6779

Summary Catalogue no.: 6780

Physical Description

Composite: four parts

MS. Ashmole 189 – I (fols. 1-69)

1. (fols. 1-67)

The Wise Book of Philosophy and Astronomy

Incipit: Here begynnythe the boke of Astronomy and of phylosophy contrivyd and made by þe wysest phylozophers and astronomyars þ^t euer were sy the þe world was be gonne þ^t ys for to sey in þ^e lond of greke. Inglysche menne fulle wys and wele vnderstandyng of phylozophy and astronomy þ^t studyed and compyled þys boke owt off greke in to Englysche gracyously. And ffyrst þys boke tellyth how many hevennys þer be and afterward he pronouncythe and declaryþe of þ^e course of þ^e gouernaunces of the pl.

Explicit: she shalle neuer forsake þ^t foly. Explicit

IPMEP 201

Language(s): Middle English

2. (fols. 67^v—68^v)

Prognostication

Rubric: To knowe what tyme is good for any body to go fro home to spede his nede or nat.

Incipit: Fyrst take hede

Language(s): Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

History

Origin: 15th century ; English

Provenance

“Iste liber constat Roberto Daniell”

“John a Parke dwellynge in mylke strete [London]”

“y Gylbart Banystur.”

MS. Ashmole 189 – II (fols. 70-109)

Language(s): Middle English with some Latin

Astrological treatises

(fol. 72)

Incipit: Here is thechynge ande the informacion of the golden table begynnes þ^t Pictagoras the noble philosepher that labored alle the worlde a boute to seke and wynne wytte wysedome wounders and merwayles. And he cam to a kynges house þ^t hyght Apolonus

IMEP p. 5 no. 8; followed by other texts on prognostication, English items listed IMEP p. 5 nos. 9-12.

(fol. 84)

Rubric: To know þ^e rysinge and þe goynge downe of þ^e Son euery moneth in the yere as it folowyth

Incipit: In Januario hora octava

(fol. 84^v)

Prognostication: Lunary

Rubric: The experimentys of the lunesons

Incipit: The furst mone is good to begyn alle thynges

(fols. 86^v-101^v)

Astrology: days of the week and planets

Rubric: Nowe wyll I shewe þ^e vij. days of þ^e weke and declare þ^e vij planettes. And as þey doþ^e reygne. For euery planett raynet in þ^e furst houre of hys owne daye in þ^e mornyng tyll þ^e sonne ryse or a lytle after

Incipit: As one sonday

IMEP, p. 5, no. 14, including two lunary texts at fols. 91r-93, IMEP nos. 15-16.

(fol. 102)

Prognostication by thunder

Rubric: Off the thonderes

Incipit: If it thondere in January

IPMEP 334

This article, which filled up 2 vacant leaves, seems to be in the handwriting of the Prior of Muchelney (see below, Provenance).

Religious poems.

The refrains and first lines are—

1. (fol. 104)

Rubric: Quid ultra debuit facere, þ^t lorde þ^t dyed for þ^e and me

Incipit: Cryste made manne yn þ^s maner of wyse

(9 st. of 4.) DIMEV 999

2. (fol. 104^v)

Incipit: Regem regum a mayde hath borne

(7 st. of 3, with short Latin refrains.) DIMEV 4451

3. (fol. 105)

Rubric: Salvum me fac Domine

Incipit: Fadyr and sone and holy gost

(6 st. of 3.) DIMEV 1279

4. (fol. 105^v)

Rubric: Parce mihi Domine

(Same beginning and same length.) DIMEV 1278

5. (fol. 105^v)

Rubric: Alma redem⟨p⟩toris mater

Incipit: Swete lady nou ȝe wys

(12 st. of 3.)

DIMEV 5082

6. (fol. 106^v)

Rubric: Lullaye

Incipit: Thys yonder nyȝth y sawe a syȝte

(5 st. of 6.) DIMEV 5729.5

7. (fol. 107)

Rubric: Alleuya alleluya Deo patri sit gloria

Incipit: Salvator mundi Domine, Fader of hevene yblessyd þ^u be

(4 st. of 3.) DIMEV 4474

8. (fol. 101^v)

Incipit: Omnipotentem semper adorant, Operacyons hevenly and yerthly all

(18 st. of 4.) DIMEV 4254

9. (fol. 109)

The virgin Mary’s doleful exhortation.

Incipit: Thou synfulle man of resone, þ^t walkest here up and downe

(3 st. of 7.) DIMEV 5851

10. (fol. 109)

Short charter of Christ

Incipit: Wette ye alle that bene here

(41 l.) With indulgence of 26030 years and 11 days.

DIMEV 6769

11.

Incipit: God þ^t þ^t ys myghtfulle, Spede all ryghtfull, Helpe alle nedefulle, Have mercy one alle synfulle

DIMEV 1604

12. (fol. 110)

The Fifteen O's of Christ

Incipit: O Jh’u cryste of everlastynge swetines

(8 st.) After each follows “Amen, pater noster, Ave maria.”

DIMEV 3941

The last begins and ends thus—

Incipit: O Jh’u þu verey vyne and fecundiall y foundene—Amonge thy seyntes to prayse þe w^t þ^e priese palernalle

Followed by four verses

Incipit: Plango meum

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

History

Origin: 15th century ; English

Provenance

Richard Wraxall (?): on the upper corner of the second page is a distich, written in a cypher of Arabic numerals for the vowels; which may be read thus— ‘Qui scripsit certe Ricardus nominatur aperte | Quod si queratur recte Wraxall cognominatur.’ On the middle of the last page but one is the following inscription, in the same hand (without cypher): “Dominus Ricardus Coscumbe prior de Muchelney est possessor huius libri.”

Fols. 70-115: Muchelney, Somerset, Benedictine abbey of St Peter and St Paul: "Dominus Ricardus Coscumbe de Muchelney est possessor huius libri" on fol. 115r, s. xv/xvi. (MLGB3: evidence from an inscription of ownership by an individual member of a religious house (which may not, however, be evidence for institutional ownership)). Coscombe occurs as prior in 1522: Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 3, 1519-1523, ed. J S Brewer (London, 1867), no. 2610.

MS. Ashmole 189 – III (fols. 116-200)

(fol. 116)

Astrological-medical compilation

Language(s): Middle Dutch (Flemish dialect) and Latin

For a full inventory see L. S. Chardonnens and J. G. M. Kienhorst, ‘Newly Discovered Notebooks of a Sixteenth-Century Flemish Astrologer Physician’, Queeste: Journal of Medieval Literature in the Low Countries, 25.1 (2018), 1–31. Includes:

(fol. 137)

Petrus Hispanus, Thesaurus Pauperum (recipes extracted from)

Incipit: Pro dolore capitis

Final rubric: Explicit tractatus qui intitulatur Thesaurus Pauperum magistri Petri Hispani quondam Pape

Chardonnens and Kienhorst, no. 24.

Language(s): Latin with some glosses in Middle Dutch (Flemish dialect)

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

History

Origin: 16th century, first half ; Flanders (see Chardonnens and Kienhorst)

MS. Ashmole 189 – IV (fols. 201-215)

1. (fols. 201-202)

Astrology: horoscopes by Richard Trewythian

See Sophie Page, 'Richard Trewythian and the Uses of Astrology in Late Medieval England', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 64 (2001), 193-228, who identifies the hand as Trewythian's.

(fol. 201)

Rubric: Questio pro furto 26 die mensis februarii anno 1427 imperfecto, hora 9. 10. minuto et bora Jovis; quis habet? ubi est res?

(fol. 201v)

Rubric: Questio utrum res est in villa illa vel non. hora 10^a. et hora Jovis 14 die mensis marcij anno Christi 1427 imperfecto

(fol. 202)

Rubric: Figuræ quatuor super eclipsibus et conjunctionibus anno 1427 occurrentibus

(fol. 202v)

Rubric: Nativitas filii [blank] die martis et hora veneris videlicet hora prima post mediam noctem tempore eclipsis lune 11 die septemb

Rubric: Figura nativitatis Agnetis Crulle filia[e] Johanne Crulle post mediam noctem [30 Apr. 1432]

Rubric: Figura nativitatis Lucie filie Johanne [blank] hora fere 8 ante prandium 19 die Aprilis anno Christi 1432

Language(s): Latin

2. (fols. 203-209)

Calendar

Ecclesiastical and astrological. Continuation of the tables of Nicholas of Lynne for three cycles: 1463-1482-1501 (van Dijk).

Language(s): Latin

(fol. 209v)

Ps.-Robert Grosseteste, Practica astrolabii (fragmentary)

Incipit: Astrolabii circulos et membra

eTK 0154C

Thomson, Grosseteste, 243

Language(s): Latin

3. (fol. 210r-v)

Verse prognostication from the day on which Christmas falls

Rubric: Thursday

Incipit: And crystmas day one thursday be

Explicit: Sum whatte may falle in every londe. Explicit.

DIMEV 3245

Language(s): Middle English

(fol. 211)

Terms of association

Incipit: An hare in his forme

Explicit: a Bittore vntached

Full text given IMEP p. 6, no. 18. Fol. 211v blank.

Language(s): Middle English

4. (fols. 216-213)

Secreta Secretorum (?)

Incipit: That age ys hote and moyst

Fols. 212-218 misbound: the order should be 216 —7—9—3—8—2—4—5

Cf. EETS 276 pp. 10-17, as noted IMEP p. 6 no. 19.

Language(s): Middle English

5. (fols. 213v, 218r-v, 212r-v, 214r-215v)

Storia Lune

Rubric: The xxx^ti daies of the mone

Incipit: Lordynges lasse and more: Lystnethe alle to my lore | And I shallow tell byfore: What tyme so a childe be bore | of that children what skal hym byfalle: to his endyng and happys alle. | And what bytokenethe your dremyng: that ye metyn yn your slepyng. | Good or yvelle or vanyte: Alto gyder hyre shal ye. | And also what tyme ys good: A man or womman to be lete blood. | Al thyng that ys to done than: As saithe the Jew to the xp’ en man. | To teche yow I haue ythoughte: What tyme ys good and what ys noughte

The ninth page ends thus, in the judgements on the 23^d day of the moon’s age:

Explicit: Stele no thyng y counseil the; yf thow do ahonged shalt thow be

Fols. 212-218 misbound: the order should be 216 —7—9—3—8—2—4—5

DIMEV 3247

Preceded by 13 lines of verse (DIMEV 5154, beg. 'That man ys best yn mynde, and wel ymade yn kynde') forming a link with the preceding text.

Language(s): Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: paper

History

Origin: 15th century ; English

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description adapted (Oct. 2022) from the Quarto Catalogue (W. H. Black, A descriptive, analytical, and critical catalogue of the manuscripts bequeathed unto the University of Oxford by Elias Ashmole Esq...., Quarto Catalogues X, 1845), with additional reference to published literature as cited.

Quarto Catalogue, col. 150

Quarto Catalogue, cols. 151–2

Quarto Catalogue, col. 153

Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 2, p. 1117

Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 2, p. 1119