Christ Church MS. 339
Statutes of Cardinal College, Oxford; England (Westminster), 1525
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Fol. ii-iv: blank, with added text (a) at fol. iir.
Contents list, with folio references, for the following Statutes.
Fol. viiiv-ix: blank
Her Majesty’s Commissioners ed., Statutes of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, 3 vols (Oxford, 1853), 2: Cardinal, 11–143, from BL, MS Cotton Titus F.iii, which lacks Wolsey’s subscription at the end, as transcribed above. The title sits alone on its page, occupying the top third, with bottom 16 lines blank.
Added text:
With the text.
Written on the first ruled flyleaf in a script identifiable as that of James Morrell, Chapter Clerk from 1766 to 1807 (on whom see Headnote to Chapter House Manuscripts). The text repeats that of the opening the Statutes, adding the date 20th March 1525 [old style]. Morrell provides an indication of his source: ‘Extracted from the Register of Charles Booth Bishop of Hereford’. Booth was bishop 1516–35.
Text printed from Booth’s register, now Hereford: Herefordshire Records Office, AL19/13, at Arthur Thomas Bannister ed., Registrum Caroli Bothe, Episcopi Herefordensis [Canterbury and York Society, xxviii] (London, 1921), 183. A further copy of the text survives in Christ Church, in the hand of Morrell’s predecessor as Chapter Clerk, James Gilpin: Archives, DP i.a.16, fol. 86v (it does not include the attribution to Booth).
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In long lines, between 26 and 28 lines to the page.
Frequent signs of pricking the length of the written space, often just the inner impression along the leading edge; bounded and ruled in violet ink, with single border on all sides except the bottom horizontal which is double; all border extend to the edge of the page; the lines ruled are slightly ragged, extending beyond the writing area.
Hand(s)
Written in bastard secretary (anglicana d), with frequent display textura to introduce clauses, dated to 1525 (but not in Watson, DMO).
Punctuation by occasional point and punctus elevatus.
Decoration
Headings and openings of clauses in formal textura, often with large swag capitals, but frequently just a large letter at the head of chapters. In the nine-line initial at the opening (fol. ixv), including a depiction in pen and ink of one of Wolsey’s heraldic badges: the Cardinal’s hat with tassels over a leopard’s head above a crown (cf MS 101).
Binding
The original rough brown cloth over pasteboards in a chemise binding, tawny velvet lined with violet silk, fixed to each board by five Tudor rose bosses, s. xvi2/4. Sewn on five thongs. Two blue-grey cloth straps with gold embroidery ending in brass buckles (upper with the initials ‘ihs’, lower with ‘maria’ monogram, both with floral diamond-shaped appendage and eye-loop), with brass seats and pegs to attach to the lower board. Red and gold-coloured cords stabbed through the gutter of all the folios at two points (35mm and 140mm from foot) to attach the plain metal case holding Wolsey’s seal: part of the seal is missing at top left and the rest is rubbed; pointed oval, 135x 85mm; St Peter and St Paul housed within twin arches, below the cardinal’s coat of arms; inscription: ‘SIGILLUM THOMA....EN. MISER·ATIONE DIVINA CARDI¦¦’; an image of the same design of seal is available at Peter Gwyn, The King’s Cardinal (London, 1990), ill. 20. Pages are gilt-edged. There are rewashed marks, inverted at the lower board, showing that the boards were swapped, presumably at the point the watermarked paper was added, that is, during the late seventeenth-century campaign of conservation in which Richard Sedgley was employed (see Headnote).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The internal evidence provided by this manuscript – its expensive original binding with seal still attached, the few signs of wear to the leaves themselves – suggest that the volume has been treasured without interruption by, first, the short-lived college whose governance is described in these Statutes and then by its successor foundations. It is listed in the 1771 catalogue of the volumes held in the Chapter House as number 11: ChCh Archives, D&C iv.a.1, fol. 12; see also the Headnote to the Chapter House Manuscripts. Erasures (by rewashing) at inside of both boards appear to provide superseded shelfmarks (‘H-6–5’?).
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Christ Church Library.
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2017-07-01: First online publication.