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MS. Ashmole 59

Summary Catalogue no.: 6943

Summary Catalogue no.: 6944

Summary Catalogue no.: 6945

Physical Description

Composite: two parts

MS. Ashmole 59 – Part 1 (fols. 1–133)

Contents

1.
Ps.-Aristotle, Secreta secretorum (Middle English 'Marmaduke' prose translation )
Language(s): Middle English
2.
John Gower; John Lydgate; Geoffrey Chaucer; Henry Scogan, poems
Language(s): Middle English
3.
Poems
Language(s): Middle English
4.
Religious texts
Language(s): Middle English
5.
Prophecies
Language(s): Middle English
6.
Historical texts
Language(s): Middle English
7.
The Three Kings of Cologne
Language(s): Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper
Extent: ii + 133 + i fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 275 × 197 mm.
Dimensions (written): 200 × 90–130 mm.

Layout

1 column, 29 lines.

Hand(s)

Written by John Shirley (fol. 52 'fiat Amen - per Shirley'; fol. i verso, his motto 'ma ioye. a Shirley').

Decoration

Penwork initials

History

Origin: 1447 × 1456 ; English, London

Provenance and Acquisition

Written before 1456 (Shirley's death), and after the death of Humfrey duke of Gloucester in Feb. 1447 (fol. 57).

Fol. 59v.: 'whane yee þis boke haue overredde and seyne / To Johan shirley restore yee it ageine'.

Fol. ii: 'iste liber datur in vadium domino Dauid ⟨.....⟩ Anno Domini millesimo CCCCmo lxxxvito

John Stowe, 1525?-1605: his hand on fol. 17v and passim.

William Browne, 1590/1–1645?: 'Liber W. Browne', fol. 1; 'W. Browne Inter. Templi, 1614', fol. 133v.

Elias Ashmole, 1617–1692.

Bequeathed by him to the Ashmolean Museum.

Transferred to the Bodleian Library in 1860.

MS. Ashmole 59 – Part 2

Contents

1.
John Lydgate, Life of Our Lady (imperfect)
Language(s): Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper

History

Origin: 16th century, second half ; English

Additional Information

Record Sources

Summary description based on Watson, 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) and supplementary sources.
Quarto Catalogue, cols. 95–6
Quarto Catalogue, cols. 97–8
Quarto Catalogue, cols. 99–100
Quarto Catalogue, cols. 101–2
Quarto Catalogue, cols. 103–4
Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 2, p. 1123

Bibliography

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2017-07-01: First online publication.