Harley MS 2399

The composite contains nine parts with fragments of other manuscripts, including classical, historical, liturgical, theological and medical texts that were written at different time periods in England. The first part (ff. 1r-8v) was copied in the late 12th century. The second part (ff. 9r-12r) was copied in the 15th century. The third part (ff. 13r-39v) was copied in the early 17th century. The fourth part (ff. 40v-46r) was copied in the 14th century. The fifth part (ff. 47r-64v) was copied in the second half of the 15th century. The sixt part (ff. 65r-68v) was copied in the late 14th or early 15th century. The seventh part (ff. 69r-69v, 72r-72v) was copied in the 2nd quarter of the 13th century. The eight part (ff. 70r-71r) was copied in the first half of the 13th century. The ninth part (ff. 73r-102v) was copied in the 13th century. Several of these parts contain medieval and early modern additions.

Contents:

Part 1:

ff. 1r-8v: Plato, Timaeus, Latin translation by Chalcidius; fragment; copied in the late 12th century.

This part contains a later addition:

f. 1r: An erroneous title ‘Macrobij Comment in Somnium Scipionis’; added in the 17th century].

Part 2:

ff. 9r-124: Ambrose, De Bono mortis; written in the 15th century.

Part 3:

ff. 13r-39v: Simon Islip (b. c. 1300, d. 1366), Archbishop of Canterbury [here attributed], Speculum regis Edwardi tertij, in Latin; copied in the early 17th century.

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. 13r: A note: ‘Ext.a [...] in publ.o bibl[iotheca] servari not Th. James [? perhaps Thomas James (b. 1573, d. 1629), first librarian of the Bodleian Library]; added in the 17th century.

Part 4:

ff. 40v-46r: Calendar, use of Sarum, in Latin, with obliterations of the name 'pope' and that of Thomas Becket, possibly a fragment from a Book of Hours; copied in the 14th century, but with 15th-century additions, including feasts for the Translation of King Edmund, St Botolph, St Seaxburh of Ely, St Mildred, and St Francis.

This part contains several later additions:

f. 40r: A prayer to St Katherine of Alexandria, St Margaret of Antioch, and St Mary Magdalen, beginning imperfectly: 'Katarina margareta virgines sanctissime magdalena' [also in Syon Abbey MS 2, ff. 207r-207v]; written in the 15th or 16th century.

f. 40r: The Eucharistic prayer Ave verum corpus natum, ending with a Middle English indulgence: ‘Who so evyr at sacryng tyme sayth this prayour hatht [sic] .CCC dayes of pardon’; written in the 15th or 16th century.

f. 40r: The prayer Anima Christi; written in the 15th or 16th century.

f. 46v: Three medical recipes for gynaecology and obstetrics in Middle English, the first one begins: 'Tho make a salve to rote and draw R[ecipe] þe juse of merche and hony and boyle hit a lytell togedir' [with a title added into the margin by Samuel Knott: 'Ad mensium immoderatum profluvium, et sanguinem inde vite fluentem sistandum']; the second one begins: 'Recipe of mylfoyle Bursa pastoris. planteyne with þe sede of eche'; the third one begins: 'Recipe ii uncis of comyn i unce of anes sede'. The latter instructs one to put the ingredients into ‘A bagge and as hote as she may sufyr hyt applye hit to her bely’; written in the late 15th or early 16th century.

Part 5:

f. 47r: A fragmentary Middle English prayer to Christ (Eke to the souls thy mercy), beginning: '[...] wyth rych [...] / ffrom hynnys þu [...]'; and with the rubricated colophon: ‘Explicit contemplacionem bonam / Quod dominus Johannes Arcuarius Canonicus Bodmine . deo gracias’; partially illegible due to damage (see IMEV 711.5; NIMEV 711.5; DIMEV 1182); written in the 2nd half of the 15th century.

ff. 47v-61r: A poem with the Apocryphal history of the Infancy of Christ; beginning: ‘Alle myȝty god yn trynyte þat bowth man on rode dere’; with the rubricated colophon: ‘Q[u]od dominus Johannes architenens canonicus bodmine et natus in illa . deo gracias’; the text is partially illegible due to damage (see Horstmann, Sammlung altenglisher Legenden (1878), pp. 111-23 and pp. 101-10; IMEV 250; NIMEV 250; DIMEV 429); written in the 2nd half of the 15th century.

ff. 61r-63v: How the Wise Man Taught His Son, beginning: 'Lordynges all & ȝe will here / How a wys man tawgh hys sone'; incomplete (see Fischer, How the wyse man taught hys sone (1889), pp. 42-49; IMEV 1985; NIMEV 1985; DIMEV 3241); written in the 2nd half of the 15th century.

f. 64v: A letter in verse, beginning: 'Worschefull brother and ever yn mynde / Beyth noth dysplesyd that y woll say' (see Wright and Halliwell-Phillipps, Reliquiae Antiquae (1845), II, pp. 73-174; IMEV 4232; NIMEV 4323; DIMEV 6800); written in the 2nd half of the 15th century.

f. 64v: A 5-line poem on Christ, beginning: ‘Now god þat dayd apon a tree / And a rose after days þree’; written in the 2nd half of the 15th century.

This part contains various additions:

f. 47r: A Norse runic alphabet; with an early modern inscription: ‘Alphabetum Gothicum’ (see Derolez, Runica Manuscripta (1954)); written in the (?) 2nd half of the15th century.

f. 47v: A title: ‘Pueritia vel infantia Christi’; added by Samuel Knott.

ff 48r, 63r: An inscription: ‘Oublier ne doys’ ['Do not forget']; added in the 15th or 16th century.

f. 49r and f. 50r (outer margins): A fragmentary list of astronomical observations in a particular month, the last line reads: ‘xxiij He rysyth viij oures after hit ys nyth / and goyth don at day’; added in the 15th or 16th century.

f. 49v (inner margin): A mathematical problem on buying twelve birds with a solution: ‘þe parsan sayd to hys serviant bye me xij birdes and by war [...] at þe markyt iiij d gose ijd cap[on] ob[ol] perterid j[?s] lerke – now how be warid he þat xijd and to hafe xij birdes for xijd - Sic solvitur questio: j Gose p[ri]c[ed] iiijd / ij caponys p[ri]c[ed] iiijd / ij parteryges p[ri]c[ed] iijd / ij lerkys p[ri]c[ed]; Summa xij byrdes and xijd’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 53r (outer margin): Unidentified fragmentary English poems, including: ‘a pardener stole a [...] and scholte as blacke as a [...]’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

ff. 54r-54v (outer and inner margin): A Dialogue of the Seven Cardinal Virtues and the Seven Deadly Sins, beginning: ‘Mekenys: Thu man consider wat þu ert / and mekenys take on to þy hert’ (see Wheatley, 'Dialogue' (2013), pp. 203-205; DIMEV 5830.5); added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 55r (outer margin): An unidentified Middle English poem, faded or effaced, repeating ‘Be glad’ four times; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 55v (inner and lower margin): A poem on hypocrisy (2x), beginning: 'He is but a lordon he schal never be good / Þat wil bere too faces ond oo hoode' (see Wheatley, 'Dialogue' (2013), p. 208); added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 56r (outer margin): A draft for an indenture: ‘Noverunt universi per praesentes me [...] Edwards dei gracia Rex Anglie et Francie et Dominus’; added in the 16yth century.

f. 57v (inner margin): Unidentified Middle English verses, including: ‘be trwe of worde and [...] of dede / þy lord god lake ever þou drede’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 58r: An inscription in runes; late 15th or early 16th century (with Samuel Knott’s note in red ink: ‘[...] Sclavon’).

ff. 56v (upper margin)-57r (outer margin): Lines of text in a cypher or unidentified script; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

ff. 61v (inner margin), 62r (upper margin): Notes on the Latin and English names of coins and their values, beginning: ‘libra j pond j’; added in the 15th century (with Samuel Knott’s note in red ink: ‘Pondera et mensura’).

f. 63v (lower margin): Verse lines added to the poem on Christ’s Infancy: ‘For deth my sone ys as trewe / ys þe most sertenys þyng þat ys’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 64r: A Latin prognostic for determining one’s fortune based on the letters of one’s name (onomancy), beginning: ‘Si vis sire de negosio tuo si expedies aut non respice nominem [...] hominis’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 64r: A Middle English instruction for obtaining a swallow’s stone by blinding its young, prompting the mother to bring the healing stone to the nest: ‘ffor to make a man to se of hap y come withyn ix days loke were a swolowys nest ys take [a] pyne and hurte but þ[eir] eyen make clene þe neste and set yn þe byrdes aye and stonde .iiij. days yn þe nest and þy schal hafe hyr syȝth and loke þan ye scall fynde yn þe nest a presius stone þer can no man tell þe goodeys þerof’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 64r: A Middle English instruction for obtaining a virtuous herb from a songbird: ‘Loke wer ys a wodwale ys nest and take make a stope a cordyng to þe hole and stope þe hole a fast as ye mayst drefe hym yn and let þe byrdes be withyn þe nest / þane make hit clene abowte þe tre a lawe and sprede hit with schetys all abowte and þe [? hen] schall bryng herbe and lay apon þe stoppyl and þe stop schal falle owt and ye schal fynde þe erbe apon yowr schetys hit ys of gret vertu’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 64r: A Middle English instruction for prognostic dreams by sleeping on extract from a bay tree, begining: ffor to knawe þat þou dremys yf þou shall se hit oder no’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 64r: A Latin recipe entitled ‘Ad ponendum pilos’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 64r: A Middle English recipe for making ‘water lyme’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 64r: A Latin-Middle English recipe, entitled: ‘Ad mutandum rosam rubiam in album’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

Part 6:

ff. 65r-68v: A fragment of the Sentence of Cursing or Great Cursing, a text relating to excommunication, in Middle English, entitled: ‘Isti sunt generales articuli maioris excommunicationis in lingua materna et dicantur hoc modo'; and beginning: ‘[G]ode men and wymmen hit is ordeyned by the counseil of alle holy churche ffurst of oure holy fader the Pope of Rome et his cardinall et alle his sonseile . Suþþ e al oþer archebisshopis and bisshopis of alle the clergie of holy chuche that every man of holi churche that hath saules for to kepe þat þay schuld schewe to here paresshens foure tymes in the ȝere the articulis þat ben write in the general sentence’; written in the late 14th or early 15th century [see Pickering, ‘Sentence of Cursing’ (1981), p. 234].

Part 7:

ff. 69r-69v, 72r-72v: Two fragments of Digby Commentary on Hippocrates' Aphorisms, beginning: 'Incipiunt glose afforismorum'; the prologue begins: 'Temporibus ypocratis doctissimi viri pro multiplici medicorum varietate multa ac diversa capitula'; the text breaks off on f. 69v: 'debet a medico exiberi contemplatio quia tempus in quo est operandum est'; the second fragment begins on f. 72r: 'Qua manente manet febris quando oritur nisi putredo precedat'; and breaks off at 'membro equo et lubricum id est mobile'; written in the 2nd quarter of the 13th century (see Kristeller, 'Early Commentators of the Articella' (1976), pp. 77, 83; Kibre, Repertorium of Hippocratic Writings (1985), p. 42; Thorndike and Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings (1963), p. 1559f [its electronic version on CD-ROM (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000), no. 1559F]).

Part 8:

ff. 70r-71r: Sermon relating to the treatment of illness in Latin, beginning: ‘Emissiones tue paradisus malorum punicorum cum pomorum fructibus. Utinam mandet’; with a paragraph relating to medicine: 'Videatur igitur quod modus infermus sanatus sex modis precipue. per virtutem ciborum per dietam per sudorem per fleubotomia per emplastrum per cibum et potum sanativum'; copied in the first half of the 13th century.

f. 71v: Sentences attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, beginning: ‘valde gravis est nobis inimici temptacio’; followed by notes from biblical books.

The manuscript contains later additions:

ff. 70r, 71v: Titles ('Sermo primus Cant. 4.13' and '6 modi sanandi') and notes added by Samuel Knott.

Part 9:

ff. 73r-102v: Collection of theological texts, mostly fragments, including a ‘Sermo de solicitudine ministrorum’, ‘Sermo in [...] adventus’, ‘Sermo in die nativitatis domini’; a reference to Hugh of Saint Victor on f. 98r; all originating from the same 13th-century manuscript.

This part contains a later addition:

Notes by Samuel Knott throughout.

f. 102v: ‘Ryght trust and welbeloved (?) brollyer I have my’; added in the 16th century.

Decoration:

Part 1 (ff. 1r-8v):

Red initials, and capitals (1-line) highlighted in red. Two diagrams of Plato's account of the formation of the 'World Soul' in brown ink (ff. 4r, 5r).

Part 2 (ff. 9r-12r):

No decoration.

Part 3 (ff. 13r-39v):

No decoration.

Part 4 (ff. 40v-46r):

Large blue ‘KL’ initials with partial borders in red (oxidized) ink. Roman numerals, feasts, and astronomical information in red. Initials in blue and red.

Part 5 (ff. 47r-64v):

Large red initials with penwork decoration in brown ink, featuring human figures and faces (ff. 47v, 48r, 61r); smaller plain red initials; capitals highlighted in red ink; rubrics in red, one in a banderole (f. 61r); paraphs in red; underlining in red; lines indicating the rhyme scheme in red.

Various marginal drawings added in the late 15th century or early 16th century, including: drawings of a glove and a man with two faces in brown ink, illustrating the poem on hypocrisy (f. 55v); triskeles, or three dexter legs conjoined at the hips and flexed in triagle, the heraldic devise of the the King of Man (f. 56v); two circles in brown ink with the Cardinal directions of East and South, and the Ordinal directions between them, indicated (f. 57r); a triskel of fish, three interlocked fish in a circle, each biting another’s tail, in brown ink (f. 57r); a knot of swords, five locked swords forming a pentangle, drawn in brown and red ink (f. 58r); Heraldic crosses and coats of arms, in black ink; one cross is circumscribed by the words 'crosse fere demolayne', which refers to the Jacques de Molay, the last grand master of the Knights Templar (ff. 58v-60r); one coat of arms on f. 60r (lower margin) features a blazon in English; a coat of arms: sable, griffin rampant gules with a roundel or annulet on its wing (f. 61r).

Part 6 (ff. 65r-68v):

Rubrics in red.

Part 7 (ff. 69r-69v, 72r-72v):

2 large (2-line) initial in red (f. 69r). Display script highlighted in red ink. Rubrics in red.

Part 8 (ff. 70r-71v):

1 large (3-line) initial in yellow ink.

Part 9 (ff. 73r-102v):

Capitals (1 line) highlighted in red throughout. Paraphs highlighted in red. Branching diagrams with red ink.

The cataloguing of this manuscript was partially funded by the Wellcome Trust.