Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Add MS 61823
- Record Id:
- 032-001962059
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001962059
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000055.0x0000b6
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 61823
- Title:
-
The Book of Margery Kempe
- Scope & Content:
-
This is the unique manuscript witness of the spiritual autobiography of the mystic Margery Kempe [née Brunham] (b. c. 1373, d. in or after 1438) of Bishop's Lynn (now King's Lynn), Norfolk, who dictated it to two scribes or amanuenses in the 1430s. This copy of the text is datable to c. 1445-c. 1450, and contains notes by a select number of later annotators in its margins.
Contents:
ff. 1r-123r: The Book of Margery Kempe.
The manuscript contains a few additions:
f. 124v: A faded recipe for confection ('dragges') in English; written in the late 15th or early 16th century.
f. viii recto: Letter in Latin from Peter de Monte (b. c. 1400, d. 1457), papal diplomat and apostolic notary, to William Buggy (d. 1442) of Soham, Cambridgeshire, dated 1440.
Decoration:
1 large (4-line) initial in red (f. 1r). Large (3-line) initials in red throughout, some with decoration in red ink inside their letters: an IHS monogram (ff. 14r, 23v, 52v, 55v, 69r, 77v, 83r, 85r), the Five Wounds (f. 31r), a human face (ff. 49v, 79r, 82v, 96r, 100r, 101v). Marginal drawings in red ink: a heart with an IHS monogram (f. 2r), a pillar representing the Church (f. 15r), a flame representing ‘ignis divini amoris’ (f. 43v), a heart (ff. 44v, 78v, 102v, 106r), a human face in profile (f. 100v), three hosts with the Holy Blood of Wilsnack (f. 112r). Capitals highlighted in red. Rubrics in the text and margins in red (e.g. in the upper margins of f. 1r and f. 51v :’ih[esus]’ and f. 121v: ‘or[aci]o’). Underlining in red. Virgulas suspensivas in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001962059", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 61823: The Book of Margery Kempe" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001962059
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001962059
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_61823 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1440
- End Date:
- 1455
- Date Range:
- c 1445-c 1450
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
-
Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper, featuring watermarks that suggest that an origin in Holland, about 1440-1450 (see Meech and Allen, The Book of Margery Kempe (1940), pp. xxxix, xliv-xlv, 351-352); and parchment (ff. iii, iv, v, vi, vii only).
Dimensions: 205 x 140 mm (text space: 140-150 x 85 mm; single columns of 32-35 lines page page).
Foliation: ff. i-v + 124 + vi-vii ( + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf at the beginning); f. i and f. ii are paper pastedowns with bookplates of Henry Bowdon (b. 1754) on the recto and verso of the first unfoliated parchment leaf at the beginning (f. [i]); ff. iii-iv are two parchment leaves after f. [i] that originally served as flyleaves; f. v is a parchment sewing guard before f. 1 and f. vi is a parchment sewing guard after f. 124; f. vii is a folded parchment document.
Collation: i12-viii12 (ff. 1-12, 13-24, 25-36, 37-48, 49-60,61-72, 73-84, 85-96), ix10-x10 (ff. 97-106, 107-116), xi8 (ff. 117-124); indicated by catchwords and leaf signatures, and parchment sewing guards; 1 unfoliated parchment sewing guard between each quire, and 2 unfoliated parchment sewing guards between the two inner guards.
Script: Gothic cursive (Secretary); copied by the scribe ‘Salthows’, perhaps Richard Salthouse (fl. 443, d. before 1487), a monk at the Benedictine Cathedral Priory of the Holy Trinity at Norwich.
Binding: Original medieval binding of tawed parchment over bevelled wooden boards, with two clasps (only slips for both anchor plates on back cover remaining). The former leather chemise is kept separately as Add MS 68123/1.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Eastern England (Norfolk).
Provenance:
Copied by ‘Salthows’ in a Norfolk dialect: their colophon on f. 123r: ‘ih[es]u m[er]cy q[uo]d Salthows’; perhaps Richard Salthouse (fl. 443, d. before 1487), a monk at the Benedictine cathedral priory of the Holy Trinity at Norwich (see Bale, ‘Richard Salthouse’ (2017), 173-187).
The Carthusian priory of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin and of St Nicholas, known as Mount Grace Priory, East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, founded in 1398 and dissolved in 1539, owned the manuscript: their ownership inscription on f. iv verso, 'liber mo[n]te gr[ac]e. this boke is of mou[n]tegrace', written in a hand of the fifteenth century (see Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, ed. by N. R. Ker (1964), p. 132; and 'Additional 61823' in MLGB3 [online resource]); also annotated, corrected, and rubricated by one of its monks, known as the 'Red Ink Annotator'. The latter compares Kempe's mystical experiences with those of Mount Grace's prior John Norton (d. 1522) and vicar Richard Methley (b. c. 1451, d. 1528).
Henry Bowdon [Bowden] (b. 1754), his bookplates with the Bowdon family crest, symbol, and motto pasted onto ff. i and ii; passed down through the Butler-Bowdon family (on the Bowdon family's ownership see Kelliher, ‘The Rediscovery of Margery Kempe’ (1997), pp. 259-263).
Lieutenant-Colonel William Erdeswick Ignatius Butler-Bowdon (b. 1880, d. 1956), discovered in his collection at Southgate House, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and identified by Emily Hope Allen (b. 1883, d. 1960) in 1934; quoted in an article on the manuscript's discovery in The Times, 47493 (30 September 1936), pp. 13-14; published a modern English translation in 1936 and an edition in 1944 (see Publications).
Captain Maurice Erdeswick Butler Bowdon (b. 1910, d. 1984): his sale, Sotheby's, London, 24 June 1980, lot 58. Bought by the British Library.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Full facsimile at http://english.selu.edu/humanitiesonline/kempe/team.php [accessed 18 February 2022].
- Publications:
-
'Margery Kempe's Own Story: The First English Autobiography. A Literary Discovery', The Times, 47493 (30 September 1936), pp. 13-14.
The Book of Margery Kempe 1436: A Modern Version, trans. by William Erdeswick Ignatius Butler-Bowdon (London: Cape, 1936).
The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. by Sanford Brown Meech; with prefatory note by Hope Emily Allen, and notes and appendices by Sanford Brown Meech and Hope Emily Allen, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 212 (London: Oxford University Press, 1940).
The Book of Margery Kempe, Fourteen Hundred and Thirty-Six, ed. by William Erdeswick Ignatius Butler-Bowdon (New York: Devlin-Adair, 1944).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 132.
John C. Hirsh, 'Author and Scribe in The Book of Margery Kempe', Medium Ævum, 44 (1975), 145-150.
Sotheby’s Catalogue of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, Comprising [...] The Property of Captain M. E. Butler Bowdon, O.B.E. Royal Navy [...], Day of Sale: Tuesday, 24th June 1980 at Eleven O’Clock Precisely (London: Sotheby’s, 1980), pp. 45-48 (lot 58).
The Book of Margery Kempe, trans. by Barry A. Windeatt (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985).
Angus McIntosh, M. L. Samuels, and Michael Benskin, A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, 4 vols (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1986), I, 103.
Lynn Staley Johnson, 'The Trope of the Scribe and the Question of Literary Authority in the Works of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe', Speculum, 66:4 (1991), 820-838.
The British Library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, New Series 1976-1980, 2 vols (London: The British Library, 1995), I, pp. 285-286.
The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. by Lynn Staley (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1996) [accessed 18 February 2022].
Hilton Kelliher, 'The Rediscovery of Margery Kempe, a Footnote', Electronic British Library Journal, 23:2 (1997), 259-263 [article 19] [accessed 18 February 2022].
The Book of Margery Kempe: A New Translation, trans. by John Skinner (New York: Image Books, 1998).
The Book of Margery Kempe: Annotated Edition, ed. by Barry Windeatt (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2000).
The Book of Margery Kempe, A New Translation, Contexts and Criticism, trans. and ed. by Lynn Staley (New York: Norton, 2001).
Kelly Parsons, 'The Red Ink Annotator of The Book of Margery Kempe and His Lay Audience', in The Medieval Professional Reader at Work: Evidence from Chaucer, Langland, Kempe, and Gower, ed. by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton and Maidie Hilmo, English Literary Studies Monograph Series, 85 (Victoria, B. C.: University of Victoria, 2001), pp. 143-216.
The Book of Margery Kempe: Abridged Translation; Introduction, Notes and Interpretive Essay, trans. by Liz Herbert McAvoy (Cambridge: Brewer, 2003).
The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. by Barry A. Windeatt (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2004).
A Companion to The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. by John H. Arnold and Katherine J. Lewis (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2004).
Jane Roberts, Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005), p. 233.
Felicity Riddy, 'Text and Self in The Book of Margery Kempe', in Vioces in Dialogue: Reading Women in the Middle Ages, ed. by Linda Olson and Kathryn Kerby-Fulton (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), pp. 435-453.
Nicholas Watson, 'The Making of The Book of Margery Kempe', in Vioces in Dialogue: Reading Women in the Middle Ages, ed. by Linda Olson and Kathryn Kerby-Fulton (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), pp. 395-434.
Joel Fredell, 'Design and Authorship in the Book of Margery Kempe', Journal of the Early Book Society, 12 (2009), 1-28.
Pamela Robinson, 'The Manuscript of the Book of Margery Kempe', in Recording Medieval Lives: Proceedings of the 2005 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by Julia Boffey and Virginia Davis, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 17 (Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2009), pp. 130-140.
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, 'Annotations and Corrections in the Book of Margery Kempe: Cruxes, Controversies, and Solutions—Appendix on the Red Ink Annotator and Previous Annotators in BL MS Add. 61823', in Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches, ed. by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, Maidie Hilmo, and Linda Olson (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012), pp. 234-239.
Katie Bugyis, 'Handling the Book of Margery Kempe: The Corrective Touches of the Red Ink Annotator', in New Directions in Medieval Manuscript Studies and Reading Practices: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall, ed. by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, John J. Thompson, and Sarah Baechle (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014), pp. 138-158.
The Book of Margery Kempe, trans. by Anthony Bale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).
Sebastian Sobecki, '“The writyng of this tretys”: Margery Kempe’s Son and the Authorship of Her Book', Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 37:1 (2015), 257-283.
Anthony Bale, 'Richard Salthouse of Norwich and the Scribe of the Book of Margery Kempe', Chaucer Review, 52: 2 (2017), 173-187.
Laura Kalas Williams, 'The 'Swetenesse' of Confection: A Recipe for Spiritual Health in London, British Library, Additional MS 61823, 'The Book of Margery Kempe', Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 40:1 (2018). 155-190.
'Additional 61823' in MLGB3 [accessed 18 February 2022].
'The Book of Margery Kempe', a project website of Southeastern Louisiana University and Humanities Online with a full facsimile and edition [accessed 18 February 2022].
- Exhibitions:
- This is a Voice, Wellcome Collection, London, 14 April 2016 - 31 July 2016
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)