Chronicle of London, 1550-1563 ('The Chronicle of Henry Machyn')
Scope & Content:
This manuscript contains the only surviving copy of the Chronicle of Henry Machyn (b. 1496/1498, d. 1563), an English clothier and diarist based in London. The Chronicle begins in August 1550 and ends in August 1563, the year of Machyn's death, and provides an eyewitness account to events in the...
Chronicle of English history, AM 1–reign of King Edward IV (1461–1470, 1471–1483) (1r–96v); verse ending ‘Be right indifferent iugement’ (97v–99v); verse beginning ‘Tot uideo gentes que sunt peruersa loquentes’ (99r–v: Walther 19326)
Scope & Content:
Language(s): Latin (1r–97r, 99r–v); Middle English (97v–99r)
Ancrene Riwle; Purgatory, Hell and Heaven; The Utility of Temptations; Le Pasturel Gregoire; prayers and meditations in Anglo-Norman French
Scope & Content:
This manuscript contains an early Anglo-Norman French translation of the Ancrene Riwle (also known as Ancrene Wisse), an anonymous monastic rule (or manual) for anchoresses, originally composed in Middle English for three sisters who chose to enter the contemplative life. 17 surviving medieval...
Gallican Psalter with Canticles (The 'Cotton Psalter')
Scope & Content:
This manuscript contains an illuminated Gallican Psalter, made in Ireland and dated to the first half of the 10th century (see Alexander, Insular Manuscripts (1978), no. 73). The Psalter was badly damaged in the Ashburnham House Fire of 1731 and was initially believed to have been completely l...