MS. Ashmole 39
Summary Catalogue no.: 6919
Summary Catalogue no.: 7486
Single-text codex of Lydgate's Life of our Lady. 15th century, second half.
Contents
The text opens with a table of contents (fols. 1r - 3r) listing the titles of the 88 chapters, in the scribe's hand. The prologue, consisting 9 stanzas, occupies folios 3v - 4v. The poem, consisting 833 stanzas, begins at the top of folio 5r and ends on 109r, accompanied by the usual Latin glosses. Lines II.987, III.141-168, VI.210-216 omitted. Lines I.354-355, II.1246-1247, III.1514-1515, and V.586-587 transposed.
The Life of Our Lady is extant in 42 manuscripts. The Ashmole copy belongs to Group d of the textual tradition, and shares an exemplar with British Library, Harley MS 4011 - see Joseph A. Lauritis (1961), pp. 12-17.IMEV 2574.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
Frame ruled in brown ink for 4 stanzas of 7 lines per page with spacing between stanzas, sometimes with a rubric or running title within the frame. Ruled space: 204-210 × 115-119 mm.
Hand(s)
Anglicana with Secretary influence, in one consistent and competent hand of the late fifteenth century. Typical double-compartment ‘a’, long ‘r’, looped ascenders on ‘d’, ‘l’, ‘b’, and ‘h’, and sigma-shaped ‘s’. Late Medieval English Scribes proposes that the scribe can be identified as John Brode, whose hand also appears in Bodleian Library, MS Digby 181, part 1 (copied second half xv) and John Rylands Library, MS English 113 (copied c.1475–1500). However, though the hands are certainly contemporary there are inconsistent graphs between the Ashmole hand and Brode's hand, for instance: the Ashmole tight anglicana ‘g’ vs Brode's hour-glass secretary ‘g’, the Ashmole long ‘r’ that opens at the baseline vs Brode's long ‘r’ that is open from the bottom, the Ashmole sigma ‘s’ with long horizontal extension in final position vs Brode's narrow sigma ‘s’, the Ashmole downwards flourish to the ‘of’ crossbar vs Brode's short crossbar, and the Ashmole single-stroke ampersand vs Brode's ampersand with suspended crossbar. Instead, it is likely that the two scribes are contemporary and trained in a similar milleiu, but are not the same individuals.
For the identification of Brode's hand in MS Digby 181 and MS English 113, see Daniel W. Mosser, ‘The Scribe of Chaucer Manuscripts Rylands English 113 and Bodleian Digby 181’, Manuscripta, 34 (1990), 129-47; and Simon Horobin, ‘Manuscripts and Scribes’, Chaucer: Contemporary Approaches, eds. Susanna Fein and David Raybin (Pennsylvania, 2009), pp. 67-82 (72-6).
Decoration
All chapters begin with space for a flourished lombardic capitol of between 2 and 4 lines - folios 1-56 are complete with large strapwork initials in black with occasional red flourishes and decorative elements extending into the margins, and smaller initials highlgihted in red, folios 57-109 lack rubrication, and folios 84-109 lack initials alltogether.
Folios 1-56 rubricated: running titles, decorated initials that open chapters, and boxing around marginal glosses. The first page of the table of contents, folio 1r, contains a rubricated incipit, line fillers, and flourishes on every line. On folios 3v - 55v, the first letter of every line is embellished with red ink. Paraphs rubricated inconsistently in the first half of the manuscript.
- The first two lines of a poem by Thomas Wyatt: ‘What shuld I say sithe faith is ded | And truth is exiled in whomanhed’. This poem is preserved in the ‘Devonshire manuscript’, British Library, Add. MS 17492 (fol. 77r) - not the source, and edited in Collected Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt, eds Kenneth Muir and Patricia Thomson (Liverpool, 1969), number 143. IMEV 3914.5.
- Two lines: ‘My harte ys yours ye may be sure | And so shall it be while lyff shall indure’. This is the only witness. IMEV 2245.4.
- The final stanza (13) of Lydgate's Beware of Doublenesse, ‘O ye women whyche be enclyned | be the enflewens off yo(u)r nature | To be as pure as gold refyned | In yowr trowth tendure | Arme yo(u)r sselffe in strong armvre | lest men assaye …yowr sselffe to assure | A myghtty scheld off dowbelnesse’; IMEV 2602, IMEV 5793. This isolated stanza is also recorded in Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples XIII.B.29, but variant readings suggest this was not the exemplar for the Ashmole scribe.
Two large decorated letter ‘T’s are drawn on the last blank page folio 109v.
A later hand, sixteenth/seventeenth century, has added Latin running titled to some parts of the text, see eg. folio 81r.
Indented writing on folio 109v, illegible.
Alphabet annotation on folio 58v, in a fifteenth-century hand.
Several library shelfmarks: front pastedown ‘6919 Ash. 39’, folios 1r ‘6919’, 107r ‘A.39’.
Binding
Post-medieval parchment over original boards with bevelled edges, which sit flush with the edge of the text block. The boards display evidence of two former clasps, likely bar clasps, of which only the catchplates with two pins remain on the left board. The outlines of the catchplates are visible through the surface of the parchment. The right board contains two matching indentations for the corresponding catchplates, now lost. The parchment pastedowns also show evidence of prior clasps, with damage that aligns with the placement of the catchplates and vestiges of rust. The outline of metal corner fittings can be seen through the parchment on both boards, and a vertical row of six metal pins can be seen on the outer edge of the right board.
The spine shows four raised double sewing supports with equal spacing. The sewing supports are laced through the boards in four holes, travel through an indented channel in the inner face of the board to two holes (forming a V shape), and exit to be plugged with a dowel or wedge.
The shelfmark ‘ASH: 39’ is embossed into a separate piece of red leather that has been adhered to the centre panel of the spine - possibly taken from a previous binding. The typeface and use of colon is not consistent with the binding style of Elias Ashmole, and was possibly added by the Ashmolean Museum after his donation. The manuscript lacks end bands and the boards sit flush with the edge of the text block.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The parchment pastedowns contain several names in fifteenth and early sixteenth century hands which suggest an early provenance in Hertfordshire. ‘T Bourchier’ and ‘Anne Bourgchier’ are named on both pastedowns, identifiable as Sir Thomas Bourchier of Knebworth (c.1437-26 October 1491) and his wife Dame Anne Bourchier, née Andrews (c.1445-25 July 1520). Thomas Bourchier was the Constable of Leeds Castle. The name ‘Isabell Bourchier’ is also recorded on the rear pastedown - likely Thomas Bourchier's first wife Isabel Bourchier, née Barre (c.1453-1489). Thomas and Isabel married in 1472, making it likely that the Bourchiers acquired the manuscript between 1472 and 1489.
Thomas Bourchier's matching signature also appears in a Latin psalter, now London, British Library, Royal MS 2 B XIV (folio 135r). This manuscript was likely executed for Isabella, sister of Richard Duke of York and wife of Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex in the mid fifteenth century. Thomas Bourchier inherited the manuscript in the 1480's as Henry and Isabella's fifth son. A later hand in the calendar records the obituary of Isabella Bourchier on 1 March 1489, and the dates of birth of two of their children, Isabella (24 April 1474) and Johanna (18 March 1479).
The name ‘Sir William Rous knyght’ is recorded twice on the front pastedown - possibly Sir William of Rous of Dennington, Suffolk (b. by 1471), who was knighted on 9 September 1513. Rous was patronized by the Duke of Norfolk and was a member of Parliament from at least 1523.
The name ‘Richard Blomvyll’ is recorded on the rear pastedown and partially erased - possibly Richard Blomvile, esquire, of Gunton St Peter, Hempnale and Newton Flotman (d.1503).
The provenance until the mid 1600s is uncertain. The manuscript was owned by Elias Ashmole (1617–1692), who signs his name in the top outer corner of folio 1r. Ashmole may have acquired the manuscript because of his interest in the Bourchier family, whose heraldry he records in 1658; see MS. Rawl. D. 682, f. 2v, and C. H. Josten (ed.), Elias Ashmole, vol. 2, p. 740. The unstained parchment binding over original boards and recycled parchment sewing guards are not typical of Ashmole's binding style, and so it is likely that the manuscript was in its present condition when he acquired it.
The manuscript was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum by Elias Ashmole in 1692 as part of his donation of 1,100 printed books and 600 manuscripts.
It was kept in the Ashmolean until 1860, when the collection was transferred to the Bodleian Library.
Record Sources
Print:
Web:
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2024-02-02: Charlotte Ross. Revised with consultation of original.