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

MS. Hatton 18

Summary Catalogue no.: 4109

Contents

William of Nassington, Speculum vitae (IMEV 423-6)

The text is incomplete through the loss of the first leaf and begins 'That 3e han most of usage | That can euery man undyrstande'

Language(s): Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper
Extent: 211 leaves
Dimensions (binding): 12.375 × 8.5 in.

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander iii. 1131

Miniatures (drawings)

Historiated initials

History

Origin: 15th century, end ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

'Iste liber pertinet ... ad me Bartholomew Swalow', s. xvi in. (MLGB3)

Denny or Denney, Cambridgeshire, Abbey of St James and St Leonard, of Franciscan nuns: 'Iste liber est venerabilis domine dompne Elesabeth Throgkmorton abbatisse de Denney teste Thoma Gylberd in eodem monastio olim manenti' (fol. 210v), s. xvi in. (MLGB3: evidence from an inscription of ownership by an individual member of a religious house (which may not, however, be evidence for institutional ownership)). For Throckmorton (d. 1547) see D. N. Bell, What Nuns Read (1995), ppp. 134-5.

'Hic fuit frater Johannes[sic] Fakun': presumably the vice-warden of the Franciscans, who signed the surrender of Denny (Bell, ibid.)

Christopher, first Baron Hatton (d. 1670)

Bought in 1671 by the Bodleian through the London bookseller Robert Scot (b. in or before 1632, d. 1709/1710); see Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 2, p. 801

Record Sources

Description adapted (May 2024) by Stewart J. Brookes from the Summary Catalogue (1937) with additional reference to published literature as cited. Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1973)

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2024-05-13: Description revised to incorporate all the information in the Summary Catalogue (1937)