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

MS. Lyell 19

Contents

1. (fols. 1r-54v)
Regula S. Benedicti
Rubric: Regula sancti Benedicti

Our MS. has no list of capitula. Fol. 55-56 are blank.

Language(s): Latin
2. (fols. 57r-67r)
Regula S. Augustini ad seruos Dei siue regula tertia
Rubric: Incipit regula beati Augustini episcopi de vita clericorum
Incipit: Ante omnia ... nobis data
Rubric: Quid precipue sit observanda[sic] in monasterio constitutis. Capitulum I
Incipit: Hec igitur sunt
Explicit: non inducatur.
Final rubric: Explicit regula beati Augustini.

Pr. in The Observances in use at the Augustinian Priory of Barnwell, ed. J. W. Clark, Cambridge, 1897, pp. 2-18. This is the late version of the Regula Tertia: see J. C. Dickinson, The origins of the Austin Canons, London, 1950, pp. 271–2.

Language(s): Latin
3. (fols. 67r-91v)
Ps.-Basil, Admonitio ad filium spiritualem siue regula
Rubric: Incipit prologus regule beati Basilii episcopi Capadocie
Incipit: Audi fili ammonicionem patris tui
Explicit: diligentibus se amen.
Final rubric: Explicit Regula beati Basilii.

Pr. P.L. 103 col. 683-700.

Language(s): Latin
4. (fols. 92r-127r)
Ps.-Bernard of Clairvaux, Meditationes piissimae
Rubric: Incipiunt meditaciones beati Bernardi abbatis. Ut ab exterioribus ad interiora nostra cognoscenda convertamur et ad deum contemplandum
Incipit: Multi multa sciunt
Explicit: prospicies. unum eundemque dominum glorie qui vivit et regnat in secula seculorum amen.

Pr. P.L. 184 col. 485-508. The rest of fol. 127 and fol. 127v–128v are blank.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: -hibe linguam
Form: codex
Support: parchment
v + 130 leaves (fol. i-v, 129-30 are flyleaves, etc.)
Dimensions (leaf): 135 × 88 mm.
Dimensions (written): 98 × 56 mm.
Edges cropped

Collation

1(2) (original flyleaves, fol. iv-v), 2(8)-17(8)

Layout

22 long lines ruled in crayon

Hand(s)

Written in textura in England in the first half of the 15th cent.

Decoration

Fol. 1 initial in blue and red on gold ground, infilled with interlacing foliage, and joined to border framing the text formed of panels in the same colours, decorated in white, and divided by foliage or interlace on gold grounds and with sprays of leaves extending into outer margins; fols. 57r, 67r, 92r, similar initals with bar borders, similarly decorated, framing the text; smaller initials gold on decorated red and blue grounds with small sprays of leaves. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 856, pl. LXXXI)

Borders: see above.

Binding

Modern binding in brown morocco with blind-tooled pattern, by Riviere and Son.

History

Origin: 15th century, first half ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

Canterbury, Kent. Benedictine cathedral priory of Holy Trinity or Christ Church: fol. v (original flyleaf): 'Liber fratris Ioh' ......sall(?) ecclesie Christi Cant.', followed by a list of contents (15th cent.).

There are two further erased ex-libris (15th-16th cent.?) In the second the names of 'Sellyng(?)' and 'Robertus L(?)' are legible. On fol. v verso is 'W. (? or N.) P.' (17th cent., partly cut off), and at the top of fol. v is: '18'.

Quaritch, Catalogue of Illuminated and other MSS., 1931, no. 91 with plate of fol. 67.

James P. R. Lyell, 1871–1948: bought by Lyell in October 1936.

Chosen as one of the hundred manuscripts bequeathed to the Bodleian by Lyell in 1948.

Record Sources

A. C. de la Mare, Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts Bequeathed to the Bodleian Library Oxford by James P. R. Lyell (1971)

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (3 images from 35mm slides)

Last Substantive Revision

2025-09: Add all information from printed catalogue.

Data

The TEI-XML file for this record can be viewed in a GitHub repository.

Tabular data derived from the TEI-XML files is available in a GitHub repository.