MS. Rawl. C. 257

Fols. i–ix are paper and parchment flyleaves.

Imperfect at the beginning because of the loss of one leaf, starting at Matthew 2:3. Includes the Epistle to the Laodiceans. Contains two prologues to Romans, ‘Romayns ben in þe cuntre…’ and ‘Romaynes ben þei þat of iewis…’ (Dove, M., The first English Bible: the text and context of the Wycliffite versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 206). Usual rubrics, e.g., ‘Here endiþ þe gospel of matheu and bigynneþ þe prolog on mark’; ‘þis seiþ Ierom in his prolog on mark & her bigynneþ þe gospel of mark’ (fol. 23v). Chapter numbers in red, most as Roman numerals. Starting from fol. 90r the chapter numbers are preceded by blue paraphs. Running titles on both rectos and versos consisting of abbreviated titles of books in red, preceded, starting from fol. 90r, by blue paraphs. No marginal glosses; added material within the text is occasionally underlined in red. Many corrections in the original or contemporary hands. Indexing letters in the margins are entered at the beginnings of readings, rather than consistently; double strokes in the margins at the ends of readings.

The gospels occupy eleven 8-leaf quires, followed by two leaves (fols. 88–89). John ends in the middle of its last verse on fol. 89v and the last four lines of the second column on this leaf are left blank. The verse is completed by the second scribe on a new quire, fol. 90r, before the start of the prologue to Romans.

Notes in English in a 15th-century hand drawing attention to passages on leprosy (fols. 45r, Luke 5; 59r, Luke 17), the poor (fol. 116v, 2 Corinthians 9), ‘But I drede lest as þe serpent disseyuyde eue wiþ his littil fraude so ȝoure wittis ben corrupt & fallen doun fro þe symplenesse þat is in crist’ and ‘false apostlis’ (fol. 117r, 2 Corinthians 11), pentecost and ‘dyuerse langagis’ (fol. 151r, Acts 2), the burning of books by Jews and Greeks who ‘used curious arts’ (fol. 170r, Acts 19), ‘& munistre ȝe in ȝoure feiþ’ (187r, 2 Peter 1), etc.