MS. Selden Supra 51

Fols. 1–3 are parchment flyleaves; fol. 3r–v is ruled for two columns (see Provenance).

[item 1 occupies quire I]

Chapter numbers in red in the margins, sections for each chapter start with blue or red initials. Usual order of the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible, but Philemon is omitted. The table is the same as in MS. e Mus. 110 (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. xlvii). Fol. 13r is ruled for the calendar-lectionary, but blank.

[items 2–3 occupy quires II–III]

Written in black and red, laid out one month per two-page opening, approximately one-third full. Identical to the calendar of MS. Selden Supra 49, apart from the presence of Vincent of Saragossa (22 January) and some vigils absent in MS. Selden Supra 49. Included Botulph (17 June); does not include David, Chad or other saints promulgated after 1415 under Archbishop Chichele (Pfaff, R. W., The liturgy in medieval England: a history (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 438–41). At the bottom of the second page for February are the dominical letters followed by ‘þus lettris failen in leep ȝeris’; at the bottom of the page for April is a note on determining the date of Easter in English, incomplete, possibly cropped off. Easter is called ‘Aȝenrising of oure lord’ in both Selden Supra 49 and 51. The feast of Thomas Becket, his translation and titles ‘pope’ are erased. Entries for readings consist of a reference to a book and chapter of the Bible, an indexing letter in red, the opening words of a reading, ‘ende’ in red, the closing words of a reading and double strokes in red. Entries for Old Testament readings are also accompanied by letters and numbers in the margins in red, used to identify readings in the Old Testament lectionary (see below and MS. Ashmole 1517).

Includes the temporal and commemorations only. The entries consist of a liturgical occasion in red, abbreviated reference to a book and chapter of the Bible, an indexing letter in red, the opening words of a reading, ‘ende’ in red, the closing words of a reading and double strokes in red. Entries for Old Testament readings are also accompanied by letters and numbers in the margins in red, used to identify the readings in the Old Testament lectionary. Commemorations are in the following order: Our Lady, cross, Trinity, Holy Ghost, angels, salus populi , brothers and sisters, peace, clear weather, rain, in time of battles, ‘a man for hym silf’, pestilence of beasts, pilgrims, weddings, sinners, sick and dead. Running titles with names of liturgical seasons.

[item 4 occupies quires IV–XXXIV and fol. 283]

With usual prologues, usual rubrics in red or underlined in red, and chapter numbers in red as words or Roman numerals. Blue paraphs at the start of sections within the text. Running titles in red on both rectos and versos consisting of abbreviated titles of books and chapter numbers. Indexing letters set between double bounding lines in the margins entered at the start of lections rather than consistently; double strokes at the ends of lections. Corrections in the original or contemporary hands, occasionally text crossed out in red. Added material within the text is underlined in red; a few glosses in the margins (particularly on fols. 237r–240v).

The Apocalypse ends half-way through the first column on fol. 283r and fol. 283v is blank.

[item 5 occupies quires XXXV–XL]

The readings are preceded by rubrics in red, introductory statements (e.g., ‘The lord god of oostis seiþ þes þingis’, fol. 284v) underlined in red, and letters and numbers that identify each reading. The letters subdivide the lectionary into five parts, A–E, and in addition each reading is given a number, e.g., a1, a2, a3, etc. The same letters and numbers are used as part of references to Old Testament readings in the calendar-lectionary and the table of lections (a similar system is used to identify readings in the Old Testament lectionary in MS. Ashmole 1517). Added material within the text is occasionally underlined in red. Includes the readings for the temporal, commemorations, the proper and common. The common ends imperfectly because of the loss of leaves, but the final reading is completed in the lower margin of fol. 326v in a different contemporary hand.