View sample images

MS. Digby 102

Summary Catalogue no.: 1703

Poetic miscellany including Piers Plowman (C text) and the ‘Digby poems’

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: ii (modern parchment) + ii (medieval endleaves) + 142 + ii (modern parchment) leaves

Dimensions (leaf): 220 × 155 mm.

Foliation: Modern foliation: i–iv, 1-96, 97a, 97b, 98–143.

Collation

two, [2 quires lacking], 3–6⁸, 7⁴ (lacks 4), 8–14⁸, 15⁸ (lacks 7), 16–20⁸, 21⁴. Catchwords appear on all quires except the last quire (15) of Piers Plowman and at the end of the volume.

Layout

Ruled in pencil. Written in 30–40 long lines, ruled space 190 × 150 mm.

Hand(s)

Horobin (2010) argues that the manuscript is the work of a single scribe working over several stints, ‘a clerk working for the Brewers’ Guild during the opening decades of the fifteenth century.’

Binding

Standard Digby binding (Delisle type I). Clasps missing.

Decorated with Digby’s arms, surrounded by wreath, with legend ‘INSIGNIA KENELMI DIGBY EQVITIS AVRATI ✠’.

History

Origin: 15th century, second quarter ; English, London

Provenance and Acquisition

Pen trials, early 16th century (fol. iii recto).

Rebus, ‘R A E O’ (?) and ‘I’ (?) (fols. 97v, 139v); ‘R’ (fol. 128r), 16th century?

Thomas Allen; Allen/Digby inventory ‘A·139’ (fol. 1r).

Kenelm Digby (inscribed, fol. 1r).

Donated to the Bodleian, 1634.

MS. Digby 102, fols. 1–97b

Language(s): Middle English with Latin

(fols. 1r–97v)

William Langland, Piers Plowman (C text)

Incipit: ||of notaries/ To fette fauel forth · floreynes ynowe/

Final rubric: Explicit etc.

Begins at Passus II, line 159.

DIMEV 2460

(fol. 97b r–v)

Blank.

Physical Description

Decoration

Initials in blue, flourished with red penwork.

Rubricated; verse divisions marked in red. Stanzas separated with paraphs alternating between blue and red.

MS. Digby 102, fols. 98–141

Language(s): Middle English with Latin

(fols. 98r–127v)

Collection of religious and satirical lyrics, known as the ‘Digby Poems’

Barr, The Digby Poems (Exeter, 2009) and Verheij (2012) argue for a single author of fols. 98r–127v as ‘a Westminster Benedictine monk, not a member of parliament but a royal Chancery clerk’.

1. (fols. 98r–99v)

Rubric: Loue god & drede

Incipit: Eche man be war that bereth astate

DIMEV 1159

2. (fols. 99v–100r)

A dialogue between a soldier and a courtier

Rubric: Mede & muche thank

Incipit: In blossemed buske I bode boote

DIMEV 2483

3. (fols. 100r–101v)

Rubric: Treuth reste and pes

Incipit: For drede ofte my lippes y steke

DIMEV 1344

4. (fols. 101v–103v)

Rubric: Lerne say wele say litel or say noȝt

Incipit: As þe see doþ ebbe and flowe

DIMEV 682

5. (fols. 103v–104r)

Rubric: Wyt & Wylle

Incipit: Man be war of wikkid counsaile

DIMEV 3342

6. (fols. 104r–104v)

Satirical injunctions on the evil life

Rubric: To lyf bodyly is perylous.

Incipit: Lerne bodyly to lyue

DIMEV 3041

7. (fol. 104v)

Rubric: Man know þy self and lerne to dye

Incipit: Mannys soule is sotyl and queynt

DIMEV 3397

8. (fols. 105v–106r)

Rubric: A good makynge of iour delaye

Incipit: Man haue hit in þy þouȝt

DIMEV 3351

9. (fols. 106v–108r)

Rubric: With god of loue & pes ȝe trete

Incipit: This holy tyme make ȝow clene

DIMEV 5699

10. (fol. 108r)

Rubric: A good steryng to heuenwarde

Incipit: Many man is loþ to here

DIMEV 3401

11. (fol. 109v)

Rubric: God & man ben made atte on

Incipit: Glade in God þis solempne fest

DIMEV 1514

12. (fols. 110v–111v)

Rubric: God kepe oure Kyng and saue the Croune

Incipit: Glade in God, calle hom ȝoure herte

DIMEV 1513

13. (fols. 111v–113r)

Exhortation to the rulers of England

Rubric: Dede is worchyng.

Incipit: Whanne alle a kyngdom gadrid ysse

DIMEV 6268

14. (fols. 113r–114r)

Rubric: Man bewarre er the be woo

Incipit: The herrere degre þe more wys

DIMEV 5330

15. (fol. 114r)

The State compared to man's body

Rubric: The descryuyng of mannes membres

Incipit: Where of is mad al mankynde

DIMEV 6505

16. (fols. 115r–116r)

The follies of the duke of Burgundy

Rubric: A remembraunce of lij folyes

Incipit: Loke how Flaundres doþ fare wiþ his folyhede

DIMEV 3175

17. (fols. 116r–117v)

Rubric: Loue þat god loueth

Incipit: That ilke man wole lerne wel

DIMEV 5146

18. (fol. 117v)

Rubric: The declaryng of Religioun

Incipit: Who þat wole knowe condicion

DIMEV 6577

19. (fols. 119v–120r)

God's Appeal to Man

Incipit: In my conscience I fynde

DIMEV 2547

20. (fols. 120r–121v)

The Complaint of Man's Flesh against Christ

Incipit: The tixt of holy writ men sayn

DIMEV 5498

21. (fols. 121v–123r)

Rubric: A lernyng to good leuynge

Incipit: Pore of spirit blessed be

DIMEV 4387

22. (fols. 123r–123v)

Rubric: Knowe thy self & thy god

Incipit: Thenke hertely in þy þouȝt

DIMEV 5634

23. (fol. 123v–124v)

Rubric: Of the sacrament of the Altere

Incipit: I wole be mendid ȝif y say mys

DIMEV 2314

24. (fols. 124v–127v)

Rubric: The Lessouns of the Dirige

Incipit: Almyȝty God Lord me spare

DIMEV 431

(fols. 128r–136r)

Richard Maidstone (attrib.), Paraphrase of the penitential psalms

Rubric: Septem psalmi etc.

Incipit: ‘Domine ne in furore tuo arguas me neque in ira tua corripias me/’ Lord in þyn angur vbbraide me nouȝt/ And in þy wratthe þou blame not me

Explicit: Into heuene kyngdom me resseyuen/ This graunte me god in persones þre. Amen.

Final rubric: Expliciunt septem psalmi.

DIMEV 3207

(fols. 136r–139v)

Rubric: Disputacio inter corpus et animam

Incipit: As I lay in a wynter nyȝt/ in a derkyng bifore þe day

Final rubric: Explicit disputacio inter corpus et animam.

DIMEV 605

Later addition, written in different ink and with a separate decoration scheme.

(fol. 139v)

Added note on the afterlife

Incipit: Proditus et in inferno sepultus cum demonibus areptus illis

Language(s): Latin

(fol. 140r)

Pen trials

(fol. 140v)

Added medical notes

Incipit: Species crocii et virtutes sunt hee

Language(s): Latin

(fol. 141r)

Pen trials

Physical Description

Decoration

Initials in blue, flourished with red penwork. From fol. 136r onwards the initials are outlined in black ink.

Rubricated; verse divisions marked in red.

From fol. 136r onwards new psalm verses begin with a red initial.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description by Andrew Dunning (November 2021). Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (W. D. Macray, Bodleian Library Quarto Catalogues IX: Digby Manuscripts, repr. with addenda by R. W. Hunt and A. G. Watson, 1999).

Quarto Catalogue, col. 116

Quarto Catalogue, col. 117

Quarto Catalogue (addenda), p. 56

Quarto Catalogue (addenda), p. 57

Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 73