MS. Rawl. C. 752

Summary Catalogue no.: 12595

Language(s): Middle English with Latin

New Testament, later Wycliffite version (part: Gospels, Jude, Apocalypse)

Language(s): Middle English

1. (fols. 1r–119v)

[items 1–2 occupy quires I–XVI]

Four gospels in the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible with usual prologues

Usual rubrics in red. Running titles on both rectos and versos consisting of abbreviated titles of biblical books and chapter numbers on fols. 1v–3v; elsewhere the chapter numbers are added to running titles in a post-medieval hand. Chapter numbers in red as Roman numerals. Red and blue paraphs within the text, often at the beginnings of lections. Indexing letters in the margins entered at the beginnings of lections rather than consistently; double strokes at the ends of lections. Corrections in a contemporary hand. Gloss within the text is written in red on fol. 28r. Ends halfway through the second column on fol. 119v with a rubric ‘Here eendiþ þe gospel of Ioon’.

2. (fols. 119v–120r)

The gospels are immediately followed by two added devotional pieces transcribed below, probably in the same contemporary hand. A space is left at the beginning for a 2-line initial, not filled in, though there is a small ‘d’ in red as an instruction to the rubricator.

(fol. 119v)

"[D]ere cristen soulis. I praie ȝou wiþ al mekenesse & charite. lifteþ up þe iȝen of ȝoure vndirstondynge and openeþ þe eris of ȝour soulis: þat ȝe may lerne and vndirstonde þe charge & couenaunt þat ȝe maden wiþ god. in takynge of ȝoure cristendom / ffor alle cristen peple. ben bounden to knowe & kepe þis charge & couenaunt: but speciali prestis / wherfore bi goddis mercy: I schal schewe ȝou þe sacrament of baptym[sic] schortly declared"

(fol. 120r)

"and at þe laste he suffride þe moost shameful deeþ. þat synners cowden ymagene to hym / O þis was a greet loue / for gretter loue may no man haue: þan to suffre bodili deeþ for his frendis / wherfore crist seide in his passioun to hise disciplis / wiþ desire I haue desired: to ete þis soupere wiþ ȝou / and aftir þis he seide I þirste / þat is þe sauacioun and helþe of alle chosen soulis / þe whiche soulis houynge aboue þe bodi. in þe our of her departyng: shullen be resseyued wiþ þe aungels of god. and be born in to heuene. þere to be fedde wiþ breed of liyf. þat is iesu crist hym silf / as he seiþ in þe gospel"

Most of fol. 120r–v is blank.

3. (fols. 121r–139r)

[items 3–4 occupy quires XVII–XVIII]

Apocalypse without a prologue, followed by Jude, both in the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible

Written by a different scribe and with a penwork border in a different style than the borders in the gospels. Running titles on both rectos and versos in black ink preceded by blue paraphs. Chapter numbers as red Roman numerals.

4. (fol. 139v)

Extracts from epistles: 2 Peter 2:21–22 and James 5:1–6 in the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible

Rubric: Iamys v. 5.

Badly faded.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: thin parchment, paper flyleaves

Extent: 143 leaves, c.

Dimensions (leaf): 145 × 95 mm.

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

Foliation: two unnumbered paper leaves at the beginning and end; modern in pencil, 1–29 + 29(a) + 30–139

Collation

paper flyleaves | (fols. 1–118) I–XV (8) | (fols. 119–120) XVI (2) | (fols. 121–132) XVII (12) | (fols. 133–139) XVIII (8–1(?)) missing 8 (?) Catchwords survive.

Layout

ruled in plummet for two columns with single vertical and horizontal bounding lines extending the full height and width of page; 33 lines per page; written space: c. 105 × 68 mm.

Hand(s)

textura; gospels and the Apocalypse are probably copied by different scribes; another change of scribe on fol. 139r

Decoration

5- to 6-line initials in pigment and gold, and 1-sided borders, decorated with foliage and gold disks at the beginnings of gospels.

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

Floral or occasionally zoomorphic (fol. 17r) designs in penwork, some with red and yellow wash, decorating catchwords, running titles, indexing letters, etc.

4-line red and blue ‘puzzle’ initial and a penwork border at the beginning of the Apocalypse.

Decoration in the gospels is in a different style than elsewhere in the manuscript.

Binding

Black leather over pasteboard, 18th century. Rebacked with the original spine relaid. Rectangular gilt roll floral decoration with floral corner-pieces on both covers. Double gilt fillet-line border around the outer edge of the covers. Four raised bands on spine. Gilt decoration on the panels between the bands. Red leather label on spine with gilt lettering ‘EUANGELISTS’. Marbled paper pastedowns and flyleaves; further laid paper flyleaves.

History

Origin: England ; 15th century, end of the first quarter (?)

Dialect survey (gospels):

ony(10), eche(9)/ech(1), fier(7)/fire(2)/fir(1), ȝouun(10), lijf(10), like(9)/lic(1), myche(8)/mych(2), siȝ(7)/syȝe(1) (sg.), saien(3)/sayen(1)/siȝen(1)/sien(1) (pl.), silf(10), suche(7)/siche(1), þouȝ(6), þoruȝ(9)
-iþ(9)/-eþ(1) (pres.ind.3sg.), -en(6)/-n(4) (pres.ind.pl.), -ynge(4)/-inge(6) (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

‘Constat iste liber domino Rogero Waltun clerico et presbetero anno domini mº qgisim … et Regis Henrici octavi’ (fol. 139v).

‘Ric Stauntonj liber 1603’ (fol. 139v).

Bookplate of Robert Nash (1691/2–1752), fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and, from 1731, Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich on the upper pastedown (see Blomefield (1806)).

Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755); see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: bookplate on the first flyleaf.

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. 43. Previously described:

Quarto Catalogue, col. 389

Summary Catalogue, vol. 3, p. 220

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Blomefield, F., ‘The city of Norwich, chapter 40: Deans, Vicars-General, or Chancellors, Archdeacons, Commissaries, Officials, and Prebends’, in An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk, vol. 3, The History of the city and county of Norwich, part I (London, 1806), pp. 617–71 (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol3/pp617-671) [accessed 27 July 2015].

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. 389.

Scott, K. L. (gen. ed.), An index of images in English manuscripts from the time of Chaucer to Henry VIII, c.1380–c.1509: the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 3 vols (Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2000–02), vol. 3, p. 56, no. 918.

Dove, M., The first English Bible: the text and context of the Wycliffite versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 299.

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