MS. Rawl. C. 258

Summary Catalogue no.: 12119

Language(s): Middle English with Latin

Fol. i is a paper flyleaf, blank apart from modern notes.

(fols. 1r–182v)

New Testament in the Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible without prologues. The books are in the following order: four gospels, Acts, Catholic epistles, Romans– Hebrews, Apocalypse

Rubric: Heer bigynneþ þe gospel of our lord iesu crist (fol. 1r)

Running titles in red on both rectos and versos consisting of abbreviated titles of biblical books. Chapter numbers as red Roman numerals (instructions to rubricator in the form of small Arabic numerals in black ink are often visible in the margins). Short rubrics in red (e.g., ‘Heer bigynneþ mark’, fol. 26v). No marginal glosses; lections are not marked, apart from two red indexing letters on fol. 18r at the beginning of Matthew 21. Added material within the text is consistently underlined in red; points in black ink usually occur in the margins against lines containing such underlined text. ‘Hedera’ signs and pointing hands in the margins. Corrected in the original or contemporary hands. The gospels end on fol. 86r at the end of a shorter than normal quire of 6 leaves, and much of 86r and all of 86v are left blank. At the end of the gospels: ‘Heer eenden þe gospels of our lord ihu crist aftir Matheu. Mark. luke. & ioon’, followed by an added ownership inscription of John Lacy in a different red ink (see Provenance). Deeds start on a new quire (fol. 78r). At the end ‘Heer eendiþ þe apocalips. Blessid be þe holy trinite amen’ (fol. 182v).

Fol. 183 is a blank paper flyleaf.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment, paper flyleaves

Extent: 184 leaves, c.

Dimensions (leaf): 227 × 150 mm.

Foliation: modern in pencil, i + 1–183

Collation

(fols. i) paper flyleaf | (fols. 1–80) I–X (8) | (fols. 81–86) XI (6) | (fols. 87–182) XII–XXIII (8) | fol. 183 is a paper flyleaf. First and last leaves of quire IV (fols. 25–32) are reversed. Catchwords survive. Fragmentary quire signatures run consecutively in two different series: Arabic numerals in the gospels and an alphabetic sequence in the rest of New Testament.

Secundo Folio: ‘lord appeeride…’ (fol. 2r)

Layout

ruled in plummet for two columns, with single vertical and horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; 40 lines per page; written space: c. 117 × 75 mm.

Hand(s)

textura, black and brown ink

Decoration

2- to 3-line blue initials with red penwork at the beginning of books; 2-line similar initials at the beginning of chapters.

Rubrics in red ink; red paraphs at the start of sections within the text.

Binding

Brown leather, 18th century. Five raised bands on spine framed by gilt fillet lines. Gilt lettering on spine ‘NEW TESTAMENT | WYCLIF’S | TRANSLATION | M.S.’. Edges of textblock dyed red.

History

Origin: England ; 15th century, first quarter

Dialect survey:

ony(10), ech(8)/eche(2), fijr(10), ȝouun(10), lijf(10), lijk(7)/lyche(1)/liche(1)/ licly(1), muche(1)/miche(9), siȝe(6) (sg.), siȝen(5) (pl.), silf(10), sich(2)/ siche(5)/syche(1), ȝif(5)/þouȝ(3), þoruȝ(10)
-iþ(7)/-eþ(3) (pres.ind.3sg.), -en(10) (pres.ind.pl.), -ing(3)/-inge(2)/-ynge(4)/yng(2) (pres.part.), she(10) (3sg.fem.pronoun, nom.), þei(10) (3pl.pronoun, nom.), hem(10) (3pl.pronoun, oblique), her(10) (3pl.pronoun, possessive)

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned by John Lacy, Dominican recluse of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, associated with Newcastle from 1407 to 1434 (see Ker, N. R., Medieval libraries of Great Britain, a list of surviving books, 2nd edn (London, 1964), pp. 134, 284; Doyle (1948); Doyle (1990), pp. 22–3; Pepler (1951); Clay (1953); Warren (1985), pp. 24, 69, 252, 259; Hanna (2002), p. 129). An ownership inscription added in red ink after the colophon at the end of gospels: ‘Iste liber constat fr(atr)i Ioh(ann)i lacy ordinis predicatorum reclus’ nom’ castri sup(er) tynam’ (fol. 86r). ‘⟨Orate⟩ pro anima fratris […] ordinis predicatorum Noui Castri super Tynam | qui dedit … ecclesie sancti Iohannis | Noui Castri super Tynam’; in three erased lines, at foot of fol. 1r (legible in part by UV light). Lacy is described as of the Shrewsbury convent in 1398 (Emden (1967), p. 76). See also MS. Bodl. 771 owned in the Franciscan convent in Shrewsbury.

Thomas Rawlinson (1681–1725); see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: lot 702 in his sale, March 1733/4.

Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755); see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: bought at Thomas Rawlinson sale. On an inserted slip after fol. 1 in Rawlinson’s hand: ‘Purveys New Testament, numb. 2. quarto ninth days sale’.

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Rawlinson and accessioned in 1756.

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. 41. Previously described:

Quarto Catalogue, col. 113

Summary Catalogue, vol. 3, p. 209

Bibliography

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. xlix.

William D. Macray, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ partis quintæ fasciculus secundus, viri munificentissimi Ricardi Rawlinson, J.C.D., codicum classem tertiam, in qua libri theologici atque miscellanei, complectens; accedit in uniuscujusque classis codicum contenta index locupletissimus (Oxford, 1878), col. 113.

Deanesly, M., The Lollard Bible and other medieval biblical versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1920), p. 333.

Doyle, A. I., ‘A prayer attributed to St Thomas Aquinas’, Dominican Studies 1 (1948), pp. 229–38.

Pepler, C., ‘John Lacy: a Dominican contemplative’, The Life of the Spirit 5 (1951), pp. 397–400.

Clay, R. M., ‘Further studies on medieval recluses’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association 16 (1953), pp. 74–86.

Fristedt, S. L., The Wycliffe Bible, 3 vols (Stockholm: Almquvist & Wiksells, 1953–73), vol. 1, p. 16.

Ker, N. R., Medieval libraries of Great Britain, a list of surviving books, 2nd edn (London, 1964).

Emden, A. B., A survey of Dominicans in England: based on the ordination lists in episcopal registers (Rome: Santa Sabina, 1967).

Warren, A. K., Anchorites and their patrons in medieval England (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).

Friedman, J. B., ‘Books, owners and makers in fifteenth-century Yorkshire: the evidence from some wills and extant manuscripts’, in Minnis, A. J. (ed.), Latin and vernacular: studies in late-medieval texts and manuscripts (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1989), pp. 11–127 at p. 117.

Doyle, A. I., ‘The English provincial book trade before printing’, in Isaac, P. (ed.), Six centuries of the provincial book trade in Britain (Winchester: St Paul’s Bibliographies, 1990), pp. 13–29 at p. 22.

Lindberg (1994), p. 23.

Friedman, J. B., Northern English books, owners, and makers in the late Middle Ages (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995), p. 52.

Hanna, R., A descriptive catalogue of the western medieval manuscripts of St John’s College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Hanna, R., ‘English biblical texts before Lollardy and their fate’, in Somerset, F., Havens, J. C. and Pitard, D. G., Lollards and their influence in late medieval England (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2003), pp. 141–53 at p. 153 and n. 38.

Hanna, R., London literature, 1300–1380 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 312

Dove, M., The first English Bible: the text and context of the Wycliffite versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 54, 301.

Online resources:

MLGB3: Medieval Libraries of Great Britain

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