MS. Auct. F. 3. 9
Summary Catalogue no.: 3581
Contents
John Brian (Bryan) is not the scribe, as the Summary Catalogue believed, but an alias of John of Cornwall. This is the only extant manuscript of the text; another was attested in library of Syon Abbey (see Oxford DNB).
Composed at Toulouse and Lewes in 1313: preceded by a list of intitulationes of the chapters at p. 181. The colophon supplies a title 'Memoriale iuniorum'. No. 2256 fol. 135 contains another copy.
A Latin poem of about 3,500 hexameters on Latin grammar. The successive chapters begin with successive letters of the alphabet, five times repeated.
Some of the examples are from Oxford documents of the 4th quarter of the 14th cent. A kind of second part begins at p. 421, to which the general title (derived from the colophon) perhaps more particularly refers.
An Ars dictaminis in Latin verse, with commentary
287 extracts from Horace, Ovid, Cicero, etc.
Followed by a few notes
Physical Description
Layout
2 cols.
Decoration
Coloured capitals, etc.
Binding
White parchment on boards, clasps lost, English 15th-cent. work.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Coventry, Warwickshire, Benedictine cathedral priory of St Mary the Virgin: "Liber ecclesie cathedralis beate Marie Coventrie. Qui alienaverit anathema sit. Amen." (p. iv). "Liber ecclesie cathedralis beate marie Couentrie" (fol. 1r, at top). (MLGB3: evidence from an ex-libris inscription or note of gift to an institution).
Given by Peter Whalley in 1655.
Record Sources
Bibliography
Online resources:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2025-01: Description revised to incorporate all information from Summary Catalogue.