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MS. Digby 89

Summary Catalogue no.: 1690

Language(s): Latin

John Ergome's commentary on the prophecies of 'John of Bridlington', incorporating the text of the prophecies; printed in T. Wright, Political Poems and Songs I (1859) 123–215.

John Ergome, Commentary on prophecies of 'John of Bridlington'

Rubric: Exposicio prophetie Brydelyngton (fol. 1r, 15th cent.)

Incipit: (prologue) (fol. 1r) Venerabili domino et mira magnitudine excellendo temporali predito potestate

Incipit: (prophecy) (fol. 3v) Febribus infectus requies fuerat michi lectus

Incipit: (commentary) (fol. 3v) Istis igitur preambulis premissis ad expositionem littere est procedendum

Final rubric: (fol. 55r) Explicit expositio super versus prophetiales cuius auctoris nomen in prologo occultatur

(fol. 1r)

Dedicatory letter to Humphrey de Bohun.

(fol. 1r)

Rubric: Incipit tria preambula

(fol. 2r)

Incipit: Circa secundum preambulum

(fol. 3r)

Incipit: Circa tercium preambulum

(fol. 3v)

⟨Dist. i.⟩

(fol. 18r)

Rubric: Incipit secunda distinccio huius prophetie

(fol. 34r)

Rubric: Incipit tercia distinccio huius prophetie

John Thwing of Bridlington, Versus prophetiales

Added texts:

(fol. 55v)

Incipit: Mater virgo pia tauri memor esto maria

A line from John of Bridlington's prophecy (dist. ii, cap. 2), not in Wright's edition, noted as lacking on fol. 20v, with a cross-reference to this folio.

(fol. 55v)

Incipit: Cedent cerdones calones centuriones

Eight lines from John of Bridlington's prophecy (dist. ii, cap. 2), found only in some manuscripts: see M. J. Curley in Medieval Studies (1984), pp. 326–7 n. 20 (giving the text). Noted as lacking on fol. 20v, with a cross-reference to this folio.

(fol. 55v)

Rubric: Prophecia H(er)merici ab origine mundi 6585. annus est h(er)men' in historia Almann' sicud Merlinus in historia Britonum prophetizat

Incipit: Lilium regnans in nobiliori parte mundi

Differs considerably from the version printed in The Last Age of the Church by John Wyclyffe, ed. J. H. Todd (1840), pp. lxxxiv-v.

(fol. 55v)

Incipit: Ter tria lustra tenent cum semi tempore sexti

Explicit: Hinc terrena supernit[sic] sanctus super ethora sandit[sic]

Six lines; differs in many readings from the text printed in L. Coote, Prophecy and Public Affairs in Later Medieval England (2000), p. 32.

(fol. 56r)

Rubric: Visio domini Thome de Wodesstok quo⟨n⟩dam ducis Glocystrie que reuelabatur sibi parum ante mortem

Incipit: In domino confido morte dira nunc pereo

Explicit: non longe dies eius diem venerare memento

(fol. 58v)

Incipit: Grana molenda gerit moyses legem tribuendo

Explicit: Granum lex vetus est et lex moderna farina

Four lines.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Layout

c. 30–34 lines.

Decoration

Spaces for initials left empty.

Additions: Marginalia on fol. 20v indicating missing text.

History

Origin: 14th century, last quarter ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

Wrongly included in Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries, no. 423, as 1361 × 1376: the evidence adduced (that events before 1361 are referred to in the past tense, events after 1376 in the future tense) relates to the date of the text rather than the manuscript. The terminus a quo is c. 1362–4, when the commentary was written (M. Curley, 'The Cloak of Anonymity and the 'Prophecy of John of Bridlington'', Modern Philology 77(4), 361–369).

'Liber ma(gist)ri Tho(m)e Lyseux decani s(an)c(t)i Pauli' (fol. 1r, cf. fol. 58v)

Thomas Allen, no. 58 in the quarto section of his catalogue.

Kenelm Digby.

Donated by him to the Bodleian, 1634.

Record Sources

Description adapted (2017) with corrections from 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. 100

Quarto Catalogue (addenda), p. 50

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