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MS. Rawl. B. 178

Summary Catalogue no.: 11545

Contents

(fol. i verso)
Incipit: O myghtfull prynce ful of pyte | This worlde is ful of Iniquite

Seven lines of Middle English verse, added late fifteenth century; not listed in NIMEV or DIMEV. Added, early sixteenth century, short accounts in English; added, sixteenth century (?), drawing of a camel

Language(s): Middle English
(fols. 1r-66r)
Nicholas Trevet, Chronicles
Rubric: Ci comencent les Cronicles qe frere Nichol Triuet escrit a ma dame Marie la fillie mon seignour le Roi Dengleterre Edward le filtz Henri
Incipit: Pur qe nous eumes auisez de ceux
Explicit: come aunciene droit le voleit

Text missing (probably six folios) between fols. 1 and 2; most of one leaf lost between fols. 28 and 29.

Language(s): Anglo-Norman

Added, 15th century, second half to sixteenth century:

(fol. 66r)

Notes on the four rivers of paradise and the mount of Calvary

Language(s): Middle English and Latin
(fol. 66v)

Note on the bishoprics and archbishoprics of England; added, 15th century, second half

Language(s): Middle English
(fol. 66v)

Prayer to St Nichasius

Language(s): Latin
(fol. 67r)

Pen-trials, heraldic drawings and family memoranda: see Provenance.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo folio missing.
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: i (modern paper) + 1 (unfoliated; former pastedown) + 68 (including one fragmentary leaf, unfoliated, between fols. 28 and 29) + i (modern paper)
Dimensions (leaf): 245 × 160 mm.

Collation

1(two leaves, the outer bifolium of a quire, probably six leaves lost in the middle)(fols. 1–2); 2(8)-4(8) (fols. 3–26); 4(10)(one leaf between fols. 28 and 29 is a fragment); 5(12)(fols. 36–47); 6(10)-7(10)(fols. 48–67). Catchwords.

Layout

Ruled in leadpoint, 1 col., 51–3 lines, written space 200 × 130 mm. Running heads, marginal headings.

Hand(s)

Anglicana by one scribe.

Decoration

Historiated initial, fol. 1r: the second day of creation, God, holding globe divided into firmament and water.

Border, fol. 1r

Initials in blue and red, with penwork decoration in red and violet, sometimes extending into drawings of faces.

Other initials in blue and red.

Genealogical diagrams; space for another (?), fols. 53v-54r, not filled in.

Later (sixteenth century?) drawing of a camel, fol. i verso.

Binding

18th century (?) stiff parchment binding. Offset of six supports from an earlier binding on fol. i recto.

Accompanying Material

Slip of 17th century (?) paper pasted to fol. 53v, with a note on 'pyri sylvestris'.

History

Origin: 14th century, second quarter or middle (after 1329) ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

Pen trial (?) in Welsh (?), 15th century (?), 'Etto gobeith(?)' (fol. i verso)

Heraldry, sixteenth century, fol. 67r: three coats of arms, (a) on a chevron between three cinquefoils, five ... ; a chevron engrailed between three mullets; on a bend between two crescents, six ...

Robert Keble, early 16th century: notes of payments by him, fols. i verso, 67r; note of the death of Agnes, wife of Robert Kebell gentleman, on the Sunday after St Matheus, apostle, 1538 (fol. 67r). Perhaps (given mentions in the payments of Bradfeld (Bradfield) and Suffeld (Suffield)) to be identified with Robert Keble of Felmingham (Visitation of Norfolk ... 1563 (1891), p. 303, ) who is possibly in turn to be identified with the Robert Keble who in 1534–5 with his wife Agnes conveyed the manor of Moorhouse in Hoveton (Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, XI (1810), p. 39, and cf. IX (1808) 441).

Henry Spelman (signed, fol. 1r)

Edward Umfreville, d. 1786: the note by him in MS. Douce 119 apparently refers to the present manuscript.

Richard Rawlinson, 1690–1755: apparently a gift to him from Umfreville (B. J. Enright, 'Richard Rawlinson: collector, antiquary, and topographer' D.Phil thesis, Oxford, 1957, B lviii).

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1755

Record Sources

Description by Matthew Holford, November 2019. Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (W. D. Macray, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ...viri munificentissimi Ricardi Rawlinson, J.C.D., codicum...complectens, Quarto Catalogues V, 5 fascicles, 1862–1900).
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 3, p. 197
Quarto Catalogue, Col. 519

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)

Bibliography

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2019-11-26: Description revised for publication on Digital Bodleian.