MS. Lyell 27

Language(s): Middle English with Latin

Fols. i–iii are paper flyleaves, blank apart from modern notes.

(fols. 1r–150r)

Pauline epistles, Romans to Hebrews, with usual prologues in the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible

Running titles in black on most leaves, most consisting of the titles of biblical books, in Latin or English, usually abbreviated, sometimes split between rectos and versos. Some running titles contain chapter numbers, added perhaps as an afterthought. Spaces left for rubrics and chapter numbers, but most are not filled in, though chapter numbers in Arabic numerals, as instructions to rubricator, appear in the margins. Rubrics and some chapter numbers are in red in the hand of the main scribe on fols. 104r–128v (1 Thessalonians–Philemon). These rubrics have usual wording, e.g., ‘Here endiþ þe firste pistle to tessalonycensis and here bigynneþ þe prologe on þe secunde pistle to tessalonicensis’; ‘Ierom in his prologe on þis pistle seiþ þis’ (fol. 109r). Blue paraphs are occasionally used at the beginning of sections within the text. No marginal glosses with rare exceptions (e.g., fol. 63r); added material within the text is not underlined; lections are not marked. Corrections in the original or contemporary hands. Fol. 150v contains an added 15th-century note (see Provenance), fols. 151–154 are paper flyleaves, blank apart from modern notes.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment, paper flyleaves

Extent: 158 leaves, c.

Dimensions (leaf): 146 × 114 mm.

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

Foliation: modern in pencil, i–iii + 1–154; modern in pink ink in the upper left corner in the hand that also added borders in pink ink to pages 1–150

Collation

(fols. i–iii) paper flyleaves | (fols. 1–144) I–XVIII (8) | (fols. 145–150) XIX (8–2) 7 and 8 cancelled. Catchwords survive, some accompanied by numbers in Arabic numerals; quire signatures occasionally survive.

Secundo Folio: ‘I nyle’ (fol. 2r)

Layout

Ruled in plummet for two columns, with single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; prickings occasionally survive; 22 lines per page; written space: c. 117 × 75 mm. . Border in pink ink added to each page by a modern owner who also numbered leaves in the upper left corner on the rectos.

Hand(s)

two scribes: (1) fols. 1r–100r, (2) fols. 100v–150r; large uneven textura, black ink

Decoration

2- to 5-line ‘puzzle’ initials in red and blue, and red and blue penwork borders (right margin) at the beginnings of epistles.

2- to 3-line blue initials with red penwork at the beginnings of prologues and chapters.

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Crimson sheepskin treated as morocco, early 18th century. Gilt fillet-line border round the outer edge of both covers. Gilt rectangular figure with floral decoration and corner-pieces on both covers. Rebacked; label on spine ‘M.S.S. | PAUL | EPIST.’. Paper label on spine with handwritten ‘M.S. | Lyell | 27’. Gilt edges of textblock. Gilt decoration on turn-ins. Marbled paper pastedowns and flyleaves.

History

Origin: England ; 15th century, first quarter

Dialect survey:

eny(10), ech(10), fier(2), ȝouen(5)/ȝouun(5), lyf(10), lyke(1)/like(2), mych(8)/ myche(1)/mich(1), say(2) (sg.), siȝen(1) (pl.), silf(10), such(4)/suche(6), þouȝ(10), þoruȝ(4)
-iþ(5)/-eþ(5) (pres.ind.3sg.), -en(10) (pres.ind.pl.), -ing(2)/-yng(8) (pres.part.), sche(10) (3sg.fem.pronoun, nom.), þei(10) (3pl.pronoun, nom.), hem(10) (3pl.pronoun, oblique), her(9)/here(1) (3pl.pronoun, possessive)

Provenance and Acquisition

Added piece on the duties of a woman by Awstyn Fyschmonger, dated 1457, fol. 150v: ‘The xxj ioʳ(?) Septemb’. It syttyt ffwll wele. a womman to be styll. meke serwyseabyl dredfwl chaste deuoute warre sobre softe benynge glade / but nat nyce. newere idyl. but eyþer worchyng prayyng. redyng. spynnynge. sewyng or wepyng. ^or^ mornyng for synne for departyng fro her spowse. þat ys cryste. quod Awstyn ffyschmonger A domini Mˡ CCCC lvij’. ‘worche’ is also a usual spelling in the manuscript (e.g., fol. 13r).

Added ‘nota’ and short notes in the margins, probably in the same hand as the piece on the duties of a woman, drawing attention to passages on lechery (e.g., ‘it is good to a man to touche not a woman’, fol. 38r, 1 Corinthians 7; and fols. 37r, 1 Corinthians 6; 88v, Ephesians 5; 101v, Colossians 3), drunkenness (fol. 36v, 1 Corinthians 5), temptation (fol. 44r, 1 Corinthians 10), flesh and spirit (fol. 81r–v, Galatians 5); women and marriage (fols. 3r, Romans 1; 40v, 1 Corinthians 7; 90r, Ephesians 5; 114r, 1 Timothy 2), including ‘nota wymmen’ at ‘for he is þe ymage & þe glorie of god but a woman is þe glorie of man for a man is not of þe woman but þe woman of þe man & þe man is not maad for þe woman but þe woman for þe man’ (fol. 46r, 1 Corinthians 11) and ‘men loue ȝe ȝoure wyues as christ loued þe chirch’ (fol. 89v, Ephesians 5). Notes also mark passages of possibly Lollard interest on persecutions (fols. 35r, 1 Corinthians 4; 71r, 1 Corinthians 11), Eucharist (fol. 44v, 1 Corinthians 10) and ministry (‘þe more schulde serue þe lasse’, fol. 16v, Romans 9; ‘I schal distrie þe wisdom of wise men’, fol. 31r, 1 Corinthians 1; ‘but in alle þinges ȝeue we vs silf as þe mynystris of god in mych pacience’, fol. 63v, 2 Corinthians 6), and Christ as the head of the church (marked ‘nota þe chyrch’, fol. 84r, Ephesians 1). The owner may have been interested in the debate about the translation of the Bible, e.g., 1 Corinthians 14, dealing with teaching faith in different languages, has two notes: ‘voycys’ at verse 7 and ‘nota’ at verse 16 (fols. 50v–51r); and there is ‘nota’ at 2 Corinthians 3:6 (‘…god which also maad vs able mynistris of þe new testament not bi lettre but be spirit’, fol. 60r).

Bookplate with the crest of Thomas Falconer of Chester (1736/7–1792); classical scholar, see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, on the upper pastedown.

Armorial bookplate of Charles W. G. Howard with the motto ‘Volo non valeo’ on the flyleaf conjoint with the upper pastedown: ‘The Gift of the Rᵗ. Hon. Sir David Dundas Kⁿᵗ of Ochtertyre M.D.CCC.LXXVII.’.

Lot 754 in Sotheby’s catalogue 13 April 1927; bought by Maggs.

James P. R. Lyell (1871–1948), book collector; see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: bought in August 1940 from Maggs, see their Catalogue 542 (1930) no. 100A, and 687 (1940) no. 166. Lyell’s bookplate on the flyleaf conjoint with 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. 37. Previously described:

Catalogue, p. 58

Bibliography

Lindberg, C., ‘The manuscripts and versions of the Wycliffite Bible: a preliminary survey’, Studia Neophilologica 42 (1970), pp. 337–47.

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), p. 58.

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

Meale, C. M. and Boffey, J., ‘Gentlewomen’s reading’, in Hellinga, L. and Trapp, J. B. (eds), The Cambridge history of the book in Britain, vol. 3, 1400–1557 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 526 and n. 1.

Dove, M., The first English Bible: the text and context of the Wycliffite versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 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