MS. Hatton 111

Summary Catalogue no.: 4050

Language(s): Middle English with Latin

Fols. i–1 are originally blank paper and parchment flyleaves (see Provenance).

1. (fols. 2r–9v)

[item 1 occupies quires I–II]

Jerome’s Abbreviated Psalter Version A (Morey, J. H., Book and verse: a guide to Middle English biblical literature (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000), pp. 186–89; Wells, J. E., A manual of the writings in Middle English, 1050–1400 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916), with nine supplements, 1919–50, vol. 8, p. 18; Severs, J. B., Hartung, A. E., Beidler, P. G., A manual of the writings in Middle English, 1050–1500, 11 vols (New Haven: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1967– ), vol. 2, p. 387, no. 15). English text only, periods start with red initials, no rubric at the beginning.

Fol. 10r–v is blank.

2. (fols. 11r–13v)

[items 2–3 occupy quires III–V]

Old Testament Sentences Version 2 (Morey, J. H., Book and verse: a guide to Middle English biblical literature (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000), pp. 130–2), starting without a rubric. ‘Sentences’ begin with blue initials and are followed by references to books and chapters of the Bible in red. The next item, a table of lections starts without a title or any indication of a textual boundary.

3. (fols. 13v–34r)

Table of lections of Type II

With incipits in the Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible with readings only from those New Testament books that are included in Hatton 111. Written on pages without a special ruling. Consists of a temporal, a short sanctoral, a detailed common and commemorations. The entries for readings include the name of a liturgical occasion, abbreviated reference to a book and chapter of the Bible, an indexing letter, the opening words of a reading, ‘ende’ and the closing words of a reading, all in the same ink. The only non-biblical saints are Lawrence, Denis, Clement, Stephen and Thomas Becket (the last two in the temporal).

Fol. 34v is blank.

4. (fols. 35r–290r)

[items 4–5 occupy quires VI–XXXVIII]

Gospels and James–Apocalypse in the Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible without prologues

Imperfect at the beginning, starting at Matthew 1:22. John 13:2–21 is missing because of the loss of a leaf after fol. 224. The wording of rubrics is variable and differs from that found in most the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible manuscripts, e.g., ‘Here endiþ mathew ewangelist in his gospels’, ‘Marke’ at the beginning of Mark, ‘Here endiþ luke in þe gospels. Here bigynneþ þe gospel aftir þe writyng of Ioon’ at the beginning of John (see Appendix VII). The rubrics are missing at the start of some texts, e.g., 2 John (fol. 260v) and 3 John (fol. 261v) have ‘vi’ and ‘vii’ at the beginning and were apparently mistaken for chapters 6–7 of 1 John. Running titles on both rectos and versos, consisting of abbreviated titles of biblical books (some supplied in an early modern hand). Chapter numbers as Roman numerals, most preceded by ‘c(apitulu)m’. No marginal glosses. Indexing letters in the margins entered consistently throughout each chapter, rather than only at the beginnings of lections (see Solopova, Manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible, introduction, ‘Liturgical materials’). The ends of lections are marked with double strokes. Added material within the text is underlined in brown ink. Corrections in the margins and over erasures in contemporary hands.

5. (fols. 290r–294v)

Capitula -list for Matthew 1–Luke 20

With the section for each gospel preceded by a rubric (e.g., ‘here bigynneþ þe chapitres of matheu of þe newe testament’). Imperfect at the end because of the loss of leaves.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: poor quality parchment with holes

Extent: 300 leaves, c.

Dimensions (leaf): 122 × 90 mm.

Foliation: modern in pencil, i–iii + 1–58 + 58* + 59–296

Collation

Secundo Folio: ‘lord þ(er)fore’ (fol. 3r)

Layout

ruled in plummet for a single column, with single or double (e.g., fol. 111r) vertical bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; prickings survive; 23–8 lines per page; written space: variable, c. 81–89 × 58–65 mm.

Hand(s)

informal textura, brown ink; Jerome’s Abbreviated Psalter and the table of lections are in different contemporary hands

Decoration

3- to 5-line blue initials with red penwork at the beginnings of books.

2- to 3-line plain blue initials at the beginnings of chapters.

Rubrics in the hand of the main scribe, in brown ink, often in a larger script and underlined in red.

Binding

Brown leather over pasteboard, stamped in gilt with the royal arms of Great Britain on both covers, English, 17th century, first quarter. Triple blind fillet lines round the outer edge of both covers, fittings of two clasps, now lost. Four raised bands on spine; ‘111’ painted white on spine. Fol. iii was a pastedown of an earlier binding.

History

Origin: England ; 15th century, first quarter

Less professionally produced than many manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible.

Dialect survey:

ony(10), eche(9)/ech(1), fier(8)/fyer(1)/fyre(1), ȝouun(10), lyif(7)/lijf(3), lik(1)/ like(6)/lichy(3), myche(10), say(10) (sg.), sayen(10) (pl.), silf(10), siche(8)/ suche(2), þouȝ(2)/þou(1), þorou(5)/þorouȝ(1)
-iþ(5)/-eþ(5) (pres.ind.3sg.), -en(10) (pres.ind.pl.), -ynge(8)/-inge(2) (pres. part.) sche(10) (3sg.fem.pronoun, nom.), þei(10) (3pl.pronoun, nom.), hem(10) (3pl.pronoun, oblique), her(10) (3pl pronoun, possessive)

Provenance and Acquisition

‘Jhon Swynson’, early 16th century (?), fols. 200v–201r.

‘Thomas Witting his Booke’, 17th century, fol. iii verso.

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible in the Bodleian and Oxford College Libraries, Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016), no. 25. Previously described:

Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2 Part 2, p. 811

Bibliography

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. 1, pp. xxxii, xlviii.

Madan, F. and Craster, H. H. E., Summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, vol. 2, part I (collections received before 1660 and miscellaneous MSS acquired during the first half of the 17th century), nos. 1–3490 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922), no. 4050.

Hudson, A., ‘Lollard book production’, in Griffiths, J. and Pearsall, D. A. (eds), Book production and publishing in Britain 1375–1475 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 125–42, p. 140.

Ogilvie-Thomson, S. J., Index of Middle English prose, 18 vols (Cambridge, 1984– ), Handlist VIII (1991), p. 135.

Kuczynski, M. P., Prophetic song: the psalms as moral discourse in late Medieval England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), p. 252 n. 51.

Dove, M., The first English Bible: the text and context of the Wycliffite versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 59 n. 114, 65 n. 144, 142 n. 31, 300.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2023-03-24: Add Solopova description.

A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges