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MS. Laud Misc. 609

Summary Catalogue no.: 754

Language(s): Middle English with Latin

(fols. 1r–170r)

John Gower, Confessio amantis (A text) Prol. 1–3114*

Prologue

Incipit: Torpor hebes sensus scola parua minimusque

Explicit: Absit et interpres stet procul ora malus

Incipit: Off hem þat writen us tofore | þe bookes dwelle & we þer fore

Explicit: Wher resteþ loue and all pes | Oure ioye may ben endeles Amen

DIMEV 4226

(fol. 170r)

John Gower

Incipit: Explicit iste liber

Explicit: pagina grata britannis

Earlier four-line version.

(fol. 170r)

John Gower

Rubric: Epistola super huius operis sui complementum Iohanni Gower a quodam philosopho transmissa.

Incipit: Quam cinxere freta

Explicit: stat sine meta

(fol. 170r–v)

John Gower

Incipit: Quia unusquisque

Explicit: specialiter intitulatur

Earlier version.

(fol. 170v)

A Bele Aeliz poem

Incipit: In aprell and in May | when hartys be all mery

Explicit: She was nothyng dysmayd | Hyr cowntenance was ffull lygth

Probably incomplete.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: i + 170 + ii leaves

Dimensions (leaf): 410 × 270 mm.

Foliation: Modern foliation.

Collation

1–13⁸, 14^8–1 (fols. 105–111; 6th wanting), 15^8–1 (fols. 112–118; 1st wanting), [missing quire of 8 leaves], 16–21⁸, 22⁴. Bordered catchwords in the scribal hand. No signatures.

Layout

Ruled in 000. 2 columns of 000 lines, ruled space 280 × 180 mm.

Hand(s)

Gothic textualis, written by the ‘Trevisa-Gower Scribe’, which Linne R. Mooney attributes to Princeton, Taylor 5; London, University College, frag. Angl. 1 (olim Phillipps 22914); Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 693; MS. Bodl. 902, fols. 17-184; and Tokyo, Senshu University, MS 1 (olim Schøyen 194). See Linne R. Mooney, ‘The Production of Trinity College, Cambridge MS R.3.2 Revisited’, Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Printing History 24 (2021): 1-25.

Decoration

Fine miniatures, badly rubbed. School of Herman Scherre (Pächt and Alexander iii. 814, pl. LXXIX). Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts, 2:109–110 attributes the miniatures to the Pentecost Master of the Neville Hours.

(fol. 5r) Nebuchadnezzar and the Man of Metal
(fol. 10r) Lover and the confessor Genius

Prologue marked with a four-sided border with floral sprays (fol. 1r). Other books have similar half-borders.

Initials in colours with gold leaf.

Pen-flourished initials in blue and red for major text divisions. At first two-line, three-line from fol. 38v.

Rubricated Latin verse headings and running heads, the latter introduced by blue paraphs.

Binding

Crushed morocco, 19th century.

History

Origin: 1400s × 1420s ; English, London

Provenance and Acquisition

Numerous unidentified inscriptions: ‘Iohan mvrton | god saue syr’ (fol. 39r, late 15th cent.)

‘Elyzabeth Makllelam’ (alternatively Makwellam or Mabwesham), late 15th century (fol. 170v).

Simon Elrington, chief butler to Edward VI. Inscribed, ‘Symon Elrington’ (fol. 89r), 16th century. See Kate Harris, ‘Ownership and Readership: Studies in the Provenance of the Manuscripts of Gowers Confessio Amantis’ (PhD thesis, University of York), 229. Passed to his son:

Thomas Elrington; inscribed, ‘Thomas elrinton’ (fol. 170v), 16th century.

William Laud. Inscribed, ‘Liber Guilielmi Laudi Archiepiscopi Cantuar: et Cancellarii Vniuersitatis Oxon: 1633’ (fol. 1r).

Given to the Bodleian in Laud’s first donation of 1635.

Record Sources

Description by Andrew Dunning (September 2022), largely abbreviated from the Digital Index of Middle English Verse and Derek Pearsall et al., A Descriptive Catalogue of the English Manuscripts of John Gower’s Confessio Amantis (Cambridge, 2021). Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Laudian Manuscripts, Quarto Catalogues II, repr. with corrections, 1969, from the original ed. of 1858–1885). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1973).

Quarto Catalogue, cols. 431–2

Quarto Catalogue, p. 574

Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 33