MS. Lyell 26

Language(s): Middle English with Latin

Fols. i recto–5v are originally blank paper and parchment leaves, containing early modern and modern additions (see Provenance).

1. (fols. 6r–14v)

[item 1 occupies quires I–II]

Table of lections of Type I

Rubric: Here bigynneþ a rule þat telliþ in whiche chapitris of þe bible ȝe mai fynde þe lessouns pistlis & gospels þat ben rad in þe chirche al þe ȝeer aftir þe vss of salisbiri markid wiþ lettris of þe abc at þe bigynnynge of þe chapitris twoward þe myddil or eende aftir þe ordre as þe lettris stonden in þe abc ffirst ben sett sondaies & ferials togidere and aftir þat þe sanctorum boþe comyne and propre togidere of al þe ȝeer / first is writen a clause of þe bigynnyng þerof & a clause of þe endinge þerof also ffor it bigynneþ at þe lettris of þe abc & endiþ at twei strikis in þe margyn

Contains the temporal followed by commemorations and the sanctoral (proper only in spite of the rubric referring to ‘boþe of þe propre and þe comyne’). Parts of the temporal (from Thursday after the first Sunday in Lent to Ascension day) and sanctoral (from John and Paul, martyrs (June), to the eve of St Lawrence (July)) are missing because of the loss of leaves (see Collation). Includes all feasts characteristic of the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible apart from Giles (1 September) (Forshall, J. and Madden, F. (eds), The Holy Bible … in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1850), vol. 4, pp. 683, 690–6). Commemorations are in the following order: the Virgin Mary, Trinity, Holy Ghost, cross, angels, brothers and sisters and ‘helþe of þe peple’, peace, clear weather, rain, ‘in tyme of batel’, ‘a man for him silf’, ‘ffor pestelence of beestis’, pilgrims, weddings, sinners, sick and dead (without a rubric). Blue initials at Andrew, Conception of Our Lady, Conversion of St Paul, Candlemas, Matthew, Annunciation, George the martyr, Mark, the Invention of the Cross, St John before the Latin Gate, Nativity of John the Baptist, Lawrence, Assumption, Bartholomew, Nativity of Our Lady, Michael Archangel, Luke, Jude and Halloween.

2. (fols. 15r–336r)

[item 2 occupies quires III–XLI]

New Testament in the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible with usual prologues

Romans has two prologues: ‘Romayns be þei þat of ieweis…’ in addition to the usual ‘Romayns ben in þe cuntrei…’ (Dove, M., The first English Bible: the text and context of the Wycliffite versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 206). Includes Laodiceans with the prologue ‘Laodicensis ben also colocensis…’ (fol. 227r). Running titles in black on both rectos and versos consisting of abbreviated titles of biblical books. Chapter numbers in red as Roman numerals, or sometimes Arabic numerals or words. Usual rubrics, e.g., ‘Here endiþ þe gospel of Matheu & bigynneþ þe prolog on Mark’, ‘Jerom in his prolog on Mark seiþ þus’ (fol. 60r–v). Sections within the text are marked with blue or red paraphs, the beginnings of periods are highlighted in red. The end of the Prologue to the Apocalypse is missing after ‘makiþ heereris benyg…’ and so is most of the first chapter (verses 1–17) because of the loss of leaves (see Collation). No marginal glosses; added material within the text is occasionally underlined (e.g., fols. 91r, 195r, 249r). The beginnings of readings are marked with indexing letters and the ends with double strokes in the margins. Very occasionally corrections in the original or contemporary hands. Fols. 337r–349v are paper and parchment leaves, originally blank, containing early modern and modern additions (see Provenance).

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment, paper flyleaves

Extent: 354 leaves, c.

Dimensions (leaf): 118 × 85 mm.

; leaves were trimmed in rebinding, occasionally causing the loss of text in the margins

Foliation: modern in pencil, i–vi + 1–348

Collation

(fols. i–vi) paper flyleaves | (fols. 1–14) I–II original structure unclear, missing two (?) leaves after fol. 7 and one (?) leaf after fol. 12 | (fols. 15–166) III–XXI (8) | (fols. 167–202) XXII–XXIV (12) | (fols. 203–314) XXV–XXXVIII (8) | (fols. 315–321) XXXIX (8–1) 3 missing | (fols. 322–328) XL (8–1) 6 cancelled, no loss of text | (fols. 229–336) XLI (8) | (fols. 337–343) XLII (8–1) 2 cancelled | (fols. 344–348) paper flyleaves. Catchwords survive, most quire signatures survive and run consecutively a–z, followed by four non-alphabetic characters (fols. 251–282), followed by a–g.

Secundo Folio: ‘newe ȝers’ (table of lections, fol. 7r); ‘Salomon bigat’ (New Testament, fol. 16r)

Layout

ruled in plummet for two columns, with single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; 30 lines per page; written space: c. 85–90 × 55–59 mm.

Hand(s)

textura, black and brown ink

Decoration

4-line gold initials (8-line initials ‘I’) on blue and pink background at the beginnings of books; the first (fol. 15v) with a spray of penwork and gold leaves and disks.

2-line blue initials with red penwork at the beginnings of prologues and chapters.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Black morocco over pasteboard, first half of the 17th century. Gilt fillet-line border round the outer edge of both covers. Gilt rectangular figure with stamped gilt decoration and gilt initials ‘I M’ on both covers. Five raised bands on spine. Gilt lettering on spine ‘NEW TESTAMENT | MS. ON VELLUM’. Paper label on spine with handwritten ‘MS. LYELL | 26’. Gilt edges of textblock. Laid paper pastedowns and flyleaves.

History

Origin: England ; 15th century, first quarter

Dialect survey:

ony(10), ech(10), fier(10), ȝeuen(7)/ȝouen(3), lijf(10), lijk(10), myche(10), siȝ(8) (sg.), siȝen(6) (pl.), silf(10), sich(2)/siche(8), þouȝ(8), þoru(1)/þoruȝ(7)
-iþ(5)/-eþ(5) (pres.ind.3sg.), -en(10) (pres.ind.pl.), -ynge(4)/inge(4)/yng(2) (pres.part.), sche(10) (3sg.fem. pronoun, nom.), þei(10) (3pl.pronoun, nom.), hem(10) (3pl.pronoun, oblique), her(10) (3pl.pronoun, possessive)

Provenance and Acquisition

‘Faythe and throth ys nat one thynge’, 15th or 16th century (fol. 340v).

‘Borton ys a knave. John at…’, 15th or 16th century, partly erased (fol. 341v).

‘This is william ~~wood(?)~~ his boke it is a good boke’, 16th century (fol. 337v). [‘wood(?)’] is overwritten with ‘lancaster’; ‘lancaster’ is also written above in a slightly later 16th-century hand, probably responsible for Latin prayers, and Latin and English epitaphs and proverbs (see below). ‘willem wood[e?] of Ste[d…(?)] he(?) is a no…’ (fol. 139v).

‘Thomas Howard His Book’ in capitals (fol. 342v) and in the same (?) hand ‘Anne’ (fol. 3v). Thomas Howard, third duke of Norfolk (1473–1554) (?), married to Anne; see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Latin prayers (fols. 1r–3v) and Latin and English epitaphs and proverbs (fols. 337v–338v, 340v–342r) in a 16th-century hand (see De la Mare (1971)).

Theological notes in English in a 17th-century hand on fols. vi recto and 344r–348r.

‘Richardus Smitheus’ (fol. 6r) and ‘Richardus Smytheus wontoniensis’ (fol. 336v), 17th century. Possibly Richard Smith (bap. 1590, d. 1675), law officer and book collector; see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, who owned another Wycliffite New Testament (see Forshall, J. and Madden, F. (eds), The Holy Bible … in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1850), vol. 1, p. xli).

James P. R. Lyell (1871–1948), book collector; see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: bought in October 1943 from Quaritch; no. 17 in their catalogue of manuscripts (1931); see also pastedowns and fol. i recto. Lyell’s bookplate on the upper pastedown.

Record Sources

Elizabeth Solopova, Manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible in the Bodleian and Oxford College Libraries, Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016), no. 36. Previously described:

Catalogue, p. 56

Catalogue, p. 57

Catalogue, p. 58

Bibliography

A catalogue of illuminated and other manuscripts: together with some books on palaeography (London: Quaritch, 1931).

De la Mare, A. C., Catalogue of the collection of medieval manuscripts bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, Oxford by James P. R. Lyell (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), pp. 56–8.

Hudson, A., ‘Lollard book production’, in Griffiths, J. and Pearsall, D. A. (eds), Book production and publishing in Britain 1375–1475 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 125–42, p. 140 n. 29.

Hanna, R., Index of Middle English prose, 18 vols (Cambridge, 1984– ), Handlist XII (1997), p. 18.

Dove, M., The first English Bible: the text and context of the Wycliffite versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 59 n. 116, 234, 301.

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2023-03-24: Add Solopova description.

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