MS. Fairfax 2
Summary Catalogue no.: 3882
Contents
Language(s): Middle English with Latin
Fols. i–ii are paper flyleaves, blank apart from modern notes.
New Testament has usual the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible prologues, Old Testament has prologues in the Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible, apart from the prologues to Baruch and Isaiah which are in the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible; lacks prologues to Jeremiah and Wisdom. Running titles in red on both rectos and versos, consisting of the titles of books preceded by blue paraphs. Brief notes summarising the contents of the text in the hand of the original scribe in the upper margin (such notes are largely absent in the part following the calendar-lectionary, see below). Chapter numbers, most consisting of ‘cᵐ’ followed by a Roman numeral. Rubrics in black, underlined in red. Alternative translations and crossreferences to other biblical books in the margins; glosses in the margins, indicating the subject matter, comparing the text to the Hebrew version and explaining individual words. Most text in the margins is in the hand of the main scribe, but some is in other contemporary hands. Added material within the text is occasionally underlined in red. Corrections by the main scribe and in a contemporary hand. Added drawings of pointing hands and ‘nota’ in the margins, as well as notes such as ‘mark wel þis booc’ (fols. 201r, 210r), late 15th century. Erasures of medieval or early modern inscriptions (e.g., fols. 279v, 303r, 388v); margins occasionally cut out presumably to remove the text they contained.
Prayer of Manasseh (fol. 136v) without a rubric.
Gloss: ‘Iob was a verri man in kinde…’.
The psalms are laid out as prose, preceded by English titles and Latin incipits in black underlined in red. Psalm numbers in the margins in the original hand. Verses start with alternating 1-line red or blue initials. Title and other glosses in the margins of some psalms in a contemporary hand different from that of the main scribe. Liturgical divisions marked with larger initials at psalms 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97 and 109; ‘feria’ followed by a number added in the margins at liturgical divisions in a 16th-century hand.
The entries for weekly canticles consist of a note (2- to 4-lines long) describing the contents and the circumstances of composition of each canticle, a Latin incipit and a reference to a biblical book and chapter. The entries for daily canticles consist of a Latin incipit and a reference to a biblical source. At the end ‘Here endeþ þe book of salmes’ and, added in the hand responsible for the Athanasian Creed (see below), ‘blessed be þe holi trynite Amen amen’.
In a different hand and ink, preceded by a Latin incipit
Golden numbers and the dominical letters followed by the names of feasts and saints’ days, followed by the entries for readings consisting of an indexing letter and an abbreviated title and chapter number of a biblical book, without the opening or closing words of a reading. The major feasts are in red, including Augustine of Canterbury (26 May). Does not include David, Chad, John of Beverley, Winifred or Frideswide (promulgated in 1415 under archbishop Chichele; see Pfaff, R. W., The liturgy in medieval England: a history (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 440–1), which suggests that the manuscript pre-dates 1415 (see Provenance). The readings for the dominicals and ferials are listed at the end of each month. Contains all feasts characteristic of the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible (Forshall, J. and Madden, F. (eds), The Holy Bible … in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1850), vol. 4, pp. 683, 690–6). The translation of Edward the Confessor is entered as ‘of edmund’ (13 October). Bertinus is added over an erasure in a contemporary hand (5 September, not in Forshall and Madden’s edition of the table of lections (1850), vol. 4, p. 694). Francis is added without readings (4 October), late 15th century. The feast of Thomas Becket and titles ‘pope’ are erased. Commemorations appear in the lower part of leaves containing October, November and December (fols. 192v–193r), in the following order: the Virgin Mary, Trinity, Holy Ghost, angles, peace, rain, ‘A man for him silf’, cross, ‘For briþern & sistres’, clear weather, ‘In time of batel’, ‘For pestilence of beestis’, pilgrims, weddings, sinners, sick, dead.
More than one-third of the first column is left blank on fol. 194r.
In spite of the rubric only the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible prologue is included.
At the end, all in the hand of the main scribe: ‘Here endeþ þe apocalips’ and ‘Þe eer of þe lord M. CCC[followed by an erasure] & viii þis book was endid’. Also: ‘Turne ouer þis leef & se þere þe Table’.
Fol. 388v is blank apart from an erased early modern inscription.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
ruled in plummet for two columns with single vertical and horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page, 60–1 lines per page; prickings survive; written space: c. 310 × 90–98 mm.
Hand(s)
textura, black and brown ink, probably the work of several contemporary scribes
Decoration
6-line gold initials on blue and pink background and three-quarters borders made of gold, pink and blue bars, decorated with foliage, at the beginning of prefatory epistles (fol. 1r) and Genesis (fol. 3r).
4- to 6-line blue initials decorated with red penwork at the beginnings of Exodus and other books.
3- to 4-line similar initials at the beginnings of prologues.
2-line blue initials decorated with red penwork at the beginnings of chapters.
2-line plain red or blue initials in the capitula -list.
Blue KL monograms, decorated with red penwork, and decorative penwork strips separating months in the calendar-lectionary.
Penwork initials are by two artists, the second more professional than the first. The first is responsible for fols. 1–72v (quires I–IX), 129r–168v (quires XVI–XXI), 187v–193v (calendar-lectionary, part of quire XXIV) and 371r–385r (quires XLIX–L); the second is responsible for fols. 73r–128v (quires X–XV), 169r–187r (quires XXII–XXIII and part of quire XXIV) and 194r–370v (part of quire XXIV and quires XXV–XLVIII) (see Collation and Provenance). The quire containing the calendar-lectionary and Athanasian Creed is the only quire that contains the work of both artists. One artist was responsible for the calendar-lectionary and Quicumque vult , and the other for the preceding and following texts.
Post-medieval drawings of a human figure pointing to the text (fol. 53v) and hands (fols. 75v, 77v).
Rubrics underlined in red; blue paraphs.
Binding
Brown leather over thick pasteboard, 17th century. Gilt fillet-line border with floral corner-pieces round the outer edge of both covers. Gild decoration at the centre of both covers. Re-backed in the Bodleian (note on the lower pastedown) with the original spine re-laid. Six raised bands on spine, framed by gilt fillet lines. Gilt floral strips at the top and bottom of the spine, and on the raised bands (mostly lost). ‘Fairfax | 2’ written in white paint on spine. Two decorated metal clasps. Laid paper pastedowns and flyleaves, and additional 19th-century paper flyleaves. Fol. 388 was probably a pastedown of a medieval binding; there is an erased note in an early modern hand on fol. 338v.
History
Produced by a team that had access to the texts of the Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible and the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible, or copied from an exemplar that already combined the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible text with the Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible prologues. The capitula -list was added after the rest of the book was completed: it follows the colophon with the date and the initials lack flourishing unlike elsewhere in the manuscript. Marginal glosses and summaries of content which accompany the running titles are partly in the hand of the main scribe, and were probably all added in the original workshop as an afterthought. The margins are not ruled for glosses, the position of the summaries varies and they are largely absent in the part of the book following the calendar-lectionary. Some marginal notes may suggest an interest in Lollardy, for example ‘Of imagis in þe eende of þis chapitre & þe nexte swynge’ in the hand of the main scribe, fol. 208r, and another similar note on fol. 241v; ‘Loke at þe hond for prestes’ on fol. 274v which also has a drawing of a hand pointing to a passage on priesthood in Ezekiel, 44.
Dialect survey:
- anye(2)any(6)/ony(2), ech(7)/eche(3), fijr(10), ȝofen(10), lijf(10), lijk(10), miche(10), siȝ(3)/saw(6)/sawȝ(1) (sg.), siȝen(3)/sawen(4) (pl.), silf(3)/self(7), sich(3)/siche(7), þouȝ(8), þorouȝ(7)/þruȝ(2)/þru(1)
- -eþ(3)/-iþ(7) (pres.ind.3sg.), -en(10) (pres.ind.pl.), -ynge(3)/-inge(4)/-ing(3) (pres.part.), she(9)/sheo(1) (3sg.fem. pronoun, nom.), þei(10) (3pl.pronoun, nom.), hem(10) (3pl.pronoun, oblique), her(10) (3pl.pronoun, possessive)
Provenance and Acquisition
The date on fol. 385r may have been altered to avoid censorship, but, according to Watson (1984), examination under UV light suggests that the scribe first wrote ‘M.ccc’ and the ‘and’ symbol, erased the later, wrote it in the right place, and then forgot to insert the fourth ‘c’.
Contains late 15th-century marginal additions, such as ‘nota’ and other comments, including ‘Of ymages in þis c’ [chapter] at Isaiah, 44, fol. 233v. The note may be in the hand that added ‘gerard’ in the lower margin of the psalter, fol. 169r.
Possibly in use in a secular church in the 15th and 16th centuries. St Francis is added to the calendar-lectionary, late 15th century. According to Pfaff (2009, p. 327), Frances is a unique example of a major friar-saint who became ‘widely present in English secular liturgy’. Notes ‘feria’, added in a 16th-century hand in the psalter, appear next to liturgical divisions according to secular use. Possibly still in use at Reformation when titles ‘pope’ were erased in the calendar-lectionary.
‘the 29th of Aprill 15(?)58’, 16th century (fol. 377v).
Thomas Fairfax (1612–1671); see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Thomas Fairfax in 1671.
Record Sources
Bibliography
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2023-03-24: Add Solopova description.