MS. Lyell 20
Contents
There are a number of marginal glosses, most of which appear to have been written by the scribe.
The leaf missing between fol. 119 and 120 contained the end of the section on Ps. lxxix and the beginning of Ps. lxxx.
(with index)Exposition of the six Old and New Testament Canticles.
The rest of the leaf was originally blank.
The first part of the preface is not found in the other two known MSS., Magdalen College Lat. 115 and Merton College 193, but the Magdalen MS. has additional passages in the exposition which are not in our MS.; see M. M. Harvey, ‘English views of the reforms to be undertaken in the General Councils (1400-1418)', MS. Bodl. D. Phil. d. 3111, 1964, pp. 59–61, nn. 211-12, and pp. 292-5.
An alphabetical index to item 1
Followed by
A note on the use of the index
A note on Credere
For the verses at the beginning see Walther, Initia, no. 3406.
Fol. 225v-226v are blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Frame ruling in crayon, 2 cols., 52-58 lines
Hand(s)
Written in a formal set secretary hand in England, probably at Oxford, in the early 15th cent. The scribe uses a double-compartment 'a' on fol. 1-4, then changes to a single compartment 'a' on fol. 4v
Decoration
Fol. 1, on gold ground, initial in blue filled with sprouting interlacing foliage in blue, red, and orange, all decorated in white, joined to a bar border on three sides with clusters and sprays of foliage in the same colours. There are some touches of pale green. Similar initials and border on fols. 3r, 34v, 53v, 74v, 99r, 142r, 159v.
Borders: see above.
Other initals in blue, skilfully flourished in red.
(Pächt and Alexander iii. 864)
Binding
19th-cent. binding in white parchment with foliage ornament imprinted in black and blue (as MS. Lyell 6), over old boards, with same ticket of E. Parry, Bookseller and Stationer, Bridge Street Row, Chester.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
On fol. 215 is the erased note (15th cent): 'Iste liber constat magistro Roberto Colby'. A notary called Robert Colby executed a document in Balliol College, Oxford, in 1419; see Emden, B.R.U.O., p. 459.
Later in the Mostyn Library: on the front pastedown is the Gloddaeth Library ticket (no. 63) and 'MS. No. 70': the number of the MS. in Hist. MSS. Comm., 4th report, 1874, App. p. 349. Lot 123 in Mostyn sale, Sotheby's 13 July 1920.
James P. R. Lyell, 1871–1948: bought by Lyell in July 1942 from Quaritch; see their Catalogue of Illuminated and other MSS., 1931, no. 79.
Chosen as one of the hundred manuscripts bequeathed to the Bodleian by Lyell in 1948.
Record Sources
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2025-09: Add all information from printed catalogue.
Data
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