Christ Church MS. 91
Religious miscellany; England, s. xvmed and s. xv3/4 (I-III), and s. xiiimed or s. xiii2 (IV)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Fol. i: blank
Table of contents for the whole book, s. xv3/4, in the hand of John Lyndon (see provenance).
Physical Description
Binding
Brown leather over chamfered bevelled wooden boards, s. xv. Sewn on seven thongs, taken straight into the board, as depicted by Pollard, fig. 5. Seatings with stubs of leather straps in the upper board, two and three nails; metal clasps at the edge of the lower board. A single nailhole from a chain staple in Watson’s position 4; and two nailholes from another, in position 5 (this latter a ChCh chain: see Appendix I). Pastedowns heavy waste parchment, a ChCh bookplate on the front pastedown. At the front, one heavy parchment flyleaf, conjoint with the pastedown (fol. i).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The initials in the colophon to item 2, ‘C P R Y S’ (fol. 83ra), are possibly scribal signature, though an abbreviation of a motto is equally plausible. MLGB3 assigns the book, along with MS 90, to Crediton (Devon), the collegiate church of the Holy Cross; in 1947, Neil Ker read under ultraviolet light the inscriptions ‘Decano Crediton’ and ‘liber J. Lyndon’ on fol. iv. Lyndon, fellow of Exeter College, Oxford in 1434, rector in 1441–42, was Dean of the church in Crediton from 24th February 1442, until his death in or before early 1487. On him and his books, see BRUO, 1191, and James M. W. Willoughby, The Libraries of Collegiate Churches, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues 15, 2 vols (London, 2013), 1:100–101. It is Lyndon who writes the table of contents (fol. iv) and provides the running headers, chapter divisions (eg item 22) and annotations throughout the volume. It was presumably him who had the fascicules brought together and bound as one codex; he also provided pieces of string attached to the outer margin of certain pages to provide tabs to the openings of works (fol. 90, 113, 195).
Ker also read on fol. 1 (the upper margin) ‘Guilihelmi Muggi liber ex dono Magistri Georgii Mason’ and spotted another illegible inscription at the top of fol. 195. For the route of descent from Mason to Mugge to Ballow, see MS 90, provenance.
Like the preceding book, a gift of William Ballow: ‘Hunc codicem manuscriptum Ædi Christi in gratiam studiosorum ibidem Guilielmus Ballowe in artibus Magister testificandi amoris sui ergo dono dedit 5º. Octobris anno Domini 1601’ (fol. iv). There is a cancelled ChCh shelfmark at the front pastedown, ‘B.⟨.⟩’, which must relate to the 1676 Catalogue, though this manuscript receives no entry there (see Appendix I). Immediately below that note, and below the donation note at fol. iv, Edward Smallwell added the New Library shelfmark of ‘F.14’ (see Appendix IV); this also appears stamped on a tiny tab on the spine.
Manuscript I = fols 1–134
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Sharpe no. 1076 [383], the sermons enumerated Schneyer, 4:189–95, ed. Jean Quentin (Paris, c. 1505) (BodL, Douce QQ 5), but lacks the epilogue, in the print, sig. z viirv. Followed, as in the print, by an alphabetical index.
Excerpts, with further bits added in the lower margins. Our manuscript presents excerpts from (in order):
(a) fols 90vb-92rb: the saints’ lives which comprise Vitas patrum 1: Paul the first hermit (Jerome, ed. PL 23:20–28 passim), Antony, Hillarion, and Thais (PL 73:127–67?, 29–54, 661–62 passim).
(b) fols 92rb-98va: Rufinus of Aquileia, Historia monachorum 1–2, 5–11, 14–17, 19, 29–32 (PL 21:391–407, 408–32, 441–42, 455–60 passim). One set of excerpts, concerning Amo (fol. 96ra-va), resembles Rufinus’s source, Palladius, Historia lausiaca 53 (Vitas patrum 8, PL 73:1163–64) more closely than it does Rufinus 8 (PL 21:420–22). At the foot of fol. 98vab, a later s. xv hand, probably that responsible for informal marginal rubrics and running titles, has added an account of ‘Emerenciana’: ‘Venit ad abbatem arsenium vna materna virgo de Roma diues valde et timens dominum . . .’, from Vitas patrum 3.65 or 5, libellus 2.7 (PL 73:771 and 858–59, respectively).
(c) fols 98va-109ra: ‘adortaciones translate de greco per Pelagium diaconem’ (the index to the text), i.e. the ‘Verba seniorum’, Vitæ patrum 5, selections from libelli 1–10, 13, 15–18 (PL 73:855–933, 943–47, 953–88 passim).
(d) fols 109ra-10va: ‘Ab hinc transtulit Iohannis subdiaconus’ (the index), Vitas patrum 6, selections from 1. l8–4.11 (PL 73:994–1017 passim).
(e) fols 110va-11rb: ‘vita sancte marine virginis’, from Vitas patrum 1 (PL 73:691–94).
Two indexes follow the text, an alphabetical one of topics treated ‘Agnos deus scit-Zenio’ (keyed to numbering of the selections, with letters for the parts, all provided marginally) and a list of the selections (fols 111rb-12va).
For a useful survey of such collections, see Columba M. Batlle, Die “Adhortationes sanctorum patrum” (“Verba seniorum”) im lateinischen Mittelalter, Beiträge zur Geschichte des altes Mönchtums und des Benediktinerordens 31 (Münster i. W., 1971), which overlooks our manuscript. Running titles and headings added, s. xvex.
Here attributed to ‘Augustinus’ (also the table, fol. iv); PL 40:1147–58.
Sharpe no. 808 [284], selections ed. Percival H. Hartley and Harold R. Aldredge, Johannes de Mirfield of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Smithfield: His Life and Works (Cambridge, 1936), 114–64. The selection here paraphrases part of ch. 172, ‘de vita perfecta’, in the full copy, BL, MS Royal 7 F.xi, fols 254va/6–55ra/20.
Section 193 ed. R. W. Southern and F. S. Schmitt, Memorials of St. Anselm, Auctores Britannici Medii Ævi 1 (Oxford, 1969), 97–102. Followed without break by an extra paragraph:
At the end, the note ‘uel hic finis’ and eight lines left blank.
See Siegfried Wenzel, Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England (Cambridge, 2005), 130. Fol. 121va has only fifteen lines, and the remainder of the leaf is blank.
Unpublished, but, according to Siegfried Wenzel, Macaronic Sermons: Bilingualism and Preaching in Late-Medieval England (Ann Arbor MI, 1994), 43–44 and passim, other copies appear at Oxford: Balliol College, MS 149, fols 1–15v; BL: MS Harley 331, fols 80–99; Arras: Bibliothèque municipale, MS 184 (254), fols 51vb-61va; Worcester Cathedral, MS F.10, fols 18–26v. Following the explicit is an added note referring to Chrysostom and Holcot. Originally fol. 132rb-vb was left blank.
At the top of fol. 122 is an added contemporary note: ‘Chambernowne quondam socius in Collegio Exon’ et postea frater de ordine Minorum composuit et dixit hunc sermonem Oxon’ et iacet apud Wtton’ vnder hegge [i.e. Wotton-under-Edge, Glocs.] et fuit ibi Oxon’ in tempore Wodeford olim prioris sancti Iohannis Exon’’, information not included in the accounts of Henry Chambernown (or Chambron) at BRUO, 2:xiii and Sharpe no. 442 (165). ‘Wodeford’ is not the great adversary of Wycliffe, but Richard Wodeford, a Devon man who was a Fellow of Exeter College 1378 × 1383; from 1384 (probably until his death in 1428), he was prior of St John the Baptist, a hospital in Exeter (BRUO, 2071).
Chamber(n)own is known through a Middle English ‘nine points’ text, ascribed to him in Hereford Cathedral, MS P.i.9, fols 150v-51v, a book from the Oxford Franciscan convent; for copies, see P. S. Jolliffe, A Check-List of Middle English Prose Writings of Spiritual Guidance (Toronto, 1974), 111 (I.26). In addition, he is ascribed two sermons, at Oxford: Balliol, MS 149, fols 84–86v (for Easter on the passion) and 90–92v (for the third Sunday in Lent). The first sermon also appears in Arras: Bibliothèque municipale, MS 184 (254), fols 1ra-4rb (its delivery there dated 1382, which accords with Wodeford’s dates in Oxford). But as Wenzel notes (Macaronic Sermons, 44), the sermon here cannot be Chambernown’s, since it actually quotes him: ‘Hic secundum ymaginacionem illius deuoti doctoris Chamberoun potest respondere pater’ (fol. 126rb; cf. Balliol 149, fol. 6v); the ascription appears a confusion between two similar sermons.
Fol. 132rb-vb: originally blank, now with added texts (a) and (b).
See Wenzel, Latin Sermon Collections, 130.
a series of theological notes on the Virgin, used to fill partially the blank final column.
Added texts, written on blank leaves in anglicana, s. xv2:
WIC 7576, who cites copies in Cambridge: St John’s College, MSS 83, fol. 174v and 127, fol. 22 (though, by lapsus calami, he states Oxford). Next to the title, a note in the hand which supplies headings, and typical of a variety of supplied marginalia: ‘Sentencia huius carte secundum quod prerecitatur habetur in fasciculus morum partis 2ᵉ. capitulo 7b.’, i.e. Fasciculus Morum: A Fourteenth-Century Preacher’s Handbook, ed. and tr. Siegfried Wenzel (University Park PA, 1989), 147/80–98.
Not in Walther; another copy appears at Dublin: Trinity College, MS 44, fols viiiv-ix.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
fols 1ra-116vb (items 1–5), scribe A: in double columns, each column 227 × 70 mm. (some variation), with 15mm between columns, in about 62 lines to the column. Very faintly bounded but not ruled, with some signs of prick-holes in top and outer margin in line with borders.
fols 117ra-34vb (items 6–10), scribe B: in double columns, each column 215 × 63–65 mm. , with 14mm between columns, in between 44 and 52 lines to the column. Bounded in black ink, no rules, with only signs of prick-holes being in the outer margin in line with top and bottom borders.
Hand(s)
Two scribes in differing formats:
A = fols 1ra-116vb (items 1–5). Written in anglicana with secretary a, s. xv med. Punctuation by point and virgula.
B = fols 117ra-34vb (items 6–10). Written in anglicana with double-bowled a, s. xv3/4. Punctuation by occasional point.
History
Manuscript II = fols 135–65
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Kaeppeli no. 2157 [2:348, 364–67], in order Schneyer nos 203, 217, 230, 244, 258, 272, 286 (3:239–44 passim), ed. Sermones quadragesimales (Brescia, 14[9]3) (Proctor 6975, ISTC ij00186000), sigs. b iiirb-iiiirb, d vira-vb, g [ii]rb-iiivb (the first leaf misnumbered ‘g iii’), i viirb-k ira, m iiiiva-vira, p iiiiva-viva, s iiiiva-vira, respectively.
Fol. 142v is blank but bounded.
Sharpe no. 97 [49]; pr. Cologne, 1485 (Hain 650*, BMC 1:266, ISTC ia00392000), 4.37, sigs. o vivb-p iivb (corresponding to Oxford: Balliol College, MS. 81, fols 130va/10–33ra/23). Bloomfield cites the text as no. 8171 and as if a unique work. There are only ten written lines on fol. 146ra.
‘Declaracio bona Salutacionis angelice’ (the table, fol. iv), in fact Carpenter, Destructorium 4.38, ed. sigs. p iivb-vivb (in Balliol, MS. 81, fols 133ra/24–38ra/12). Half of fol. 151va blank.
More clearly identified in an added note at the foot of fol. 164ra: ‘Hec extracta sunt de Destructorio viciorum partis 6 capitulis 32 33 34 35 36 37 et 38’
, Destructorium vitiorum (extract)6.32–37, ed. sigs. D iiira-E iiirb (in Balliol, MS. 81, fols 268ra/46–79vb/50, preceded by a few sentences based upon 4.39). The remainder of the quire was originally blank.
Added text, written in anglicana, s. xvex; in 41 lines to the column:
Two theological notes from William Peraldus, ed. as Summa aurea de virtutibus et vitijs (Venice, 1497) (Hain 12391*, BMC 5:459, ISTC ip00087000), the first from ‘de virtutibus’ 8.5, sig. p virb, the second ‘De Corpore cristi’ unidentified. Fol. 165 has been cut down to the single written column; the verso is blank but bounded.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In double columns, each column 222 × 63–65 mm. , with 14 mm between columns, in 46 lines to the column.
No signs of pricking; bounded in brownish black ink, no rules; the bounding lines extend to the edge of each page.
Hand(s)
Written in anglicana with secretary r, s. xvmed.
Punctuation by point and occasional double point; double virgulae, probably instructions for a parapher, have only been red-slashed.
History
Manuscript III = fols 166–94
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Sharpe no. 1475 [553–58]. A series of selections, not in text order, but the ‘lectio’ from which each is excerpted is usually noted in the margin. The incipit corresponds to the printed text (Speier, 1483) (Hain 8757*, BMC 2:493, ISTC ih00289000) of lectio 115, sig. Z viivb; and the explicit at fol. 192v to that of lectio 60, sig. N iiijva. Following the explicit are two further notes, one from Bede, one from a ‘narratio’ identified as taken from Holcot’s ‘sermo 11’. The index follows after an originally blank leaf at fols 194ra-vb, in double columns; at the end, a note in red explains its use.
The scribe left both fol. 190v and all of fol. 193rv blank but he subsequently added a text at the second verso:
Wenzel, Latin Sermon Collections, 130.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In long lines, 53 lines to the page.
Bounded in brown and black ink, no rules; rare signs of two prick-holes at very bottom of folio in line with vertical borders.
Hand(s)
Written in anglicana with frequent secretary a, s. xv3/4.
Punctuation by point and virgula, occasional punctus elevatus and double virgula.
History
Manuscript IV = fols 195–230
Contents
Language(s): Latin
CPL 1106, ed. S. Hellman, TU 34, 1 (1909), 32–60.
Ed. PL 40:1213–14 (and mostly incorporated into ‘De spiritu et anima’ 35, ed. PL 40:805–6), also ps.-Alcuin, ‘Dicta Albini de imagine dei’, ed. John Marenbon, From the Circle of Alcuin to the School of Auxerre (Cambridge, 1981), 158–61. This copy is no. 25 in Marenbon’s list of thirty-one witnesses (149–50).
Ed. PL 40:1005–8. This copy is listed among copies of the work by Johannes Diviak and Franz Romer, Scriptorium 30 (1976), 107; they note Sion College, MS L.23 (now a Lambeth Palace Library deposit) as including the same excerpt. Lower half of fol. 198rb blank.
Fol. 198v: blank.
Ed. Michele Maccarrone (Lucca, 1955) 3–98 (this manuscript noted in the list of witnesses, xvi). Preceded by a table of chapters.
CPL 303, ed. Zycha, 413–66.
CPL 304, ed. Zycha, 469–528.
Last nine lines of fol. 218vb blank (though covered, as is the bottom margin, of the remains of s. xiii notes).
CPL 284, ed. PL 39:1535–49. Later (s. xv) divided by marginal notation into chs 1–23.
CPL284, now ascribed to Geoffrey of Babio, ed. PL 39:1713–15; a later heading now erased and treated as continuous with the previous (numbered ch. 24 in the s. xv notation).
Sharpe no. 1142 [407–8], ed. Paola Busdraghi et al., Osberno Derivazioni, Biblioteca di “medioevo latino” 16, 2 vols (Spoleto, 1996), 1:5–85. The editors misidentify the location (xiii) as Corpus Christi College (whence Sharpe’s reference). See R. W. Hunt, ‘The “Lost” Preface to the Liber derivationum of Osbern of Gloucester’ in G. L. Bursill-Hall ed., Collected Papers on the History of Grammar in the Middle Ages (Amsterdam, 1980), 151–66, who notes our MS among the four English copies (152).
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In double columns, each column 198 × 55–60 mm. , with 8 mm between columns, in 54 lines to the page, below top line.
Bounded and ruled in lead; no signs of pricking.
Hand(s)
Written in gothic textura quadrata, s. xiiimed or xiii2.
Punctuation by point, occasional punctus elevatus, punctus interrogativus, and double point.
Decoration
Most typically two- and three-line blue lombards with red flourishing at the openings of and at divisions within texts (in the last MS, both red and blue lombards, unflourished, with many unfilled spaces). Lemmata and authorities underlined in red. The texts are divided by red-slashed capitals and red paraphs. Added running titles (s. xv ex.), usually only numbers for chapters or sermons, but intermittently text titles.
History
Additional Information
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.