Add MS 50856

THEOLOGICAL TREATISES, RELIGIOUS VERSE, MUSIC, INCUNABULA, ETC.; circa 1480-circa 1536. Mostly Latin. Partly imperfect. Partly printed. Possibly owned by John Portar al. Porter al. Smythe, monk of Durham Cathedral Priory, circa 1485-circa 1536 (see f. 23), and by the Lepton family of Kepwick, N. R., co. York, circa 1570-circa 1605. The name of James Lepton (b. circa 1570,

d. 1639), second son of Roger and grandson of Christopher Lepton (d. 1587: see VCH, N.R. Yorks., vol. ii, p. 53) was formerly visible on f. 7b of the Brotherton Epitome. Acquired, probably circa 1605-circa 1608, by Anthony Higgins, Master of Well Hospital, N. R., co. York, and Dean of Ripon, 1608-1624, who bequeathed his library to Ripon, through his cousin William Cleburne, Prebend of Ripon 1616-1660. Higgins's own manuscript inventory lists the items in this composite volume in the following sequence:- (1) Gerson's De consolatione;-

(2) St Ephraem's De compunctione;- (3) Butrio's Speculum;- (4) Traversanus's Epitome; and (5) Nider's Expositio. Rebound circa 1820, when Gerson's tract was placed first and that of De Leewis last. Until 1960 the unique copy of Laurentius Gulielmus Traversanus's Epitome Margaritae Eloquentiae, printed by William Caxton, 21 Jan. 1480, and now in the Brotherton Library of the University of Leeds, formed part of this composite volume. This is an abbreviated version of Traversanus's Nova Rhetorica, beg. '[Q]uom vos homines maxime appetant ut sermones sui acceptabiles sint', consisting of thirty-four leaves, unsigned and unpaginated, collating [A6, B4, C6, D6, E8, F4]. On the blank verso of the final leaf and on the added blank leaf following is copied a manuscript text, with musical setting, of 'A lytyll ballet mayde of ye yong dukes grace', beg. 'In grace honor and prospyrite'. This relates to Henry Fitzroy, son of Henry VIII, who was created Duke of Richmond and Somerset on 18 June 1525 (d. 25 July 1536). Printed in Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, ii, 1871-2, pp. 396-7, and again xi, 1890-1, p. 201. See J. E. Mortimer, 'An unrecorded Caxton at Ripon Cathedral', The Library, 5th Ser., viii, Mar. 1953, pp. 37-42, and 'A Caxton at Ripon Minster', University of Leeds Review, iii, June 1953, pp. 243-7; R. H. Martin, 'The Epitome Margaritae Eloquentiae of Laurentius Guglielmus Traversanus de Saona', Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, xvi, Jan. 1971, pp. 103-25; and Sotheby's sale-cat. 31 May 1960, lot 6. Presented by the Cathedral Chapter of Ripon, Mar. 1962.

Paper; ff. viii+104+49*. 285 x 205mm. Circa 1480-circa 1536. Partly printed. The rest collates: ff. 20-23, a gathering of four, watermark a hand; ff. 24-39, two gatherings of eight, watermark of ff. 24-31 a letter 'P' resembling Briquet 8615, 8624 and 8653, dated 1484-1532, of ff. 32-34 and ff. 37-39 a crowned shield charged with a fleur-de-lys, and of ff. 35, 36 a letter 'Y'; ff. 40-42, formerly perhaps a gathering of four; ff. 43-48, a gathering of six, perhaps formerly of eight (see below, 10d).

1. ff. 1-19. Saint Ephraem the Syrian, Libri . . . de compunctione cordis . . . [et] de die judicii, Freiburg im Breisgau; bef. 1491. Printed. Imperfect, lacking its last (blank) leaf. Now collates A6, B4, C10(-10). See Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, viii, Stuttgart, 1978, no. 9334.

2. ff. 19b-21. 'A ballet of ye deth of ye cardynall', verses on the death of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, beg. 'By a forest as I con passe', set to music for three voices; aft. 29 Nov. 1530. Four quatrains, rhyming ABAB. Each concludes with the couplet 'And euer ye voce complaynd thus [or 'Wherfor my song it may be thus'] / Miserere mei deus'. Begun on f. 19b (sig. [C9] verso), the back of the last leaf of art. 1. Printed in Yorkshire Archaeo-logical Journal, ii, 1871-2, p. 396, and again in xi, 1890-1, pp. 200-1.

3. f. 22. Twelve sufficient reasons for non-attendance at mass; n.d., circa 1485-circa 1536. Latin. In the same hand as art. 5 and 6.

4. f. 22. Eight largely illegible verses, subscribed 'Johannes monsannus [John of Montesono, al. Monzon, Spanish Dominican, fl. 1383-1412?], v[ ] in deipare virg[inis] Implorationem ogdoastichon hoc cecinit', beg. 'Inclita parthenos [ ] partu'; late 15th cent. Latin. Followed by a Latin distich, beg. 'Dura [ ] si[ ]ant patienter'.

5. f. 23. Deed of confraternity of Prior John Aukland admitting John Portar al. Porter to the Benedictine Priory of St Cuthbert at Durham; 2 Feb. 1485. Copy, aft. 1485-circa 1536. Portar appears to have held various monastic offices here before 1535/6 when he was described as 'Dane Johann Porter, alias John Smythe, called Maister Sagersten [i.e. Sacristan]'. See Surtees Society, xv, 1842, pp. 81-2; xviii, 1844, pp. 23, 133; xcix, 1898, pp. 100, 196; and c, 1899, pp. 287, 417. Printed by Canon J. T. Fowler, 'Ripon Minster Library and its founder', Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, ii, 1873, pp. 371-402.

6. f. 23b. Anecdotes of a woman possessed by a demon and an encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary, involving one 'Magister Jordanus frater ordinis praedicatorum . . . clericus et doctor ecclesiae'; circa 1485-circa 1536. Imperfect, through decay of the leaf. 'Jordanus' may perhaps be the Dominican friar William Jordan (f1. 1350-66). See A. B. Emden, Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, Oxford, 1958, ii, p. 1022.

7. ff. 24-39b. Johan Nider, 'Expositio Decalogi, sive praeceptorium divinae legis', beg. 'Incipit prologus in expositionem decalogi secundum Fratrem Johannem Nider . . .'; late 15th cent. Latin. Copy, breaking off abruptly in the ninth chapter of the first precept. Imperfect, by the loss of folios at the end and partly illegible through decay.

8. ff. 40-42b. Religious verses, together with prose passages, mostly (ff. 40, 40b, 42) from the works of St Augustine; late 15th cent. Latin. Imperfect, by decay. By the right-hand side of the verses in (a), (b), (e), (f) and (h) below a later hand has added letters or combinations of letters (e.g. 'W', 'B', 'EL', 'GC', etc.). Principal verses:

a. f. 40. Fourteen hexameters on the seven cardinal virtues, beg. 'Me vilem noster iam pulvis vel cinis exto'.

b. f. 40. 'De gaudio celi', thirteen Leonine verses, beg. 'Elator morum vis stande[ ]gna colorum'. Imperfect.

c. f. 40b. 'Religiosus', two rhymed hexameter couplets, beg. 'Non planctu fame macie sic martirizamus'.

d. ff. 40b, 41. 'Nota de contemptu mundi', fifteen rhymed accentual verses, beg. 'Munde cur diligeris qui tam comprobaris', in which the first half of this verse recurs at intervals throughout. Imperfect.

e. f. 41b. 'De vanitate seculi', twenty rhymed hexameter couplets, beg. 'Surge miser quare dormis mortis memor esto'. Imperfect.

f. f. 42. 'Ecce hec est via lata que ducit ad infernum', fourteen hexameters on the seven deadly sins, beg. 'Dum subjici renuo cunctos despicere quero'.

g. f. 42b. Sixteen rhymed accentual verses in the form of a dialogue between death and the ages of man's life, beg. 'Nudus sum natus ade culpis maculatus'. Introduced by a rhymed hexameter couplet, 'Principium medium finemque tui mediteris / Cerne statum proprium speculum quicunque tueris', in red. Imperfect.

9. f. 43. Translation into octosyllabic couplets of the fourteen hexameters in 8a above; late 15th cent. Imperfect, beg. 'Delyte I haue in lusty fare / And in the shynyng of my hare', representing the third couplet of the original and ending with the seventh.

10. ff. 44-47b. Four poems to the Blessed Virgin Mary; late 15th cent. Imperfect, owing to the loss of all but the upper and inner portion of the leaves, by which all poems lack the line-endings of their first three extant stanzas and everything except the line-endings of the rest:

a. ff. 44-44b. 'Jesu mercy', six stanzas of a poem of eight or more stanzas in rhyme royal, beg. 'The flowr of all flowrs most[ ]'.

b. ff. 45-45b. 'Jesu mercy', six stanzas of a poem of eight or more stanzas, each of eight verses, beg. 'Haylle gloryus virgyn and

qu[eene]', and rhyming ABACCDB[D]. Incorporates the refrain 'Salue regina mater misericordie'.

c. ff. 46-46b. Six stanzas of a macaronic poem in rhyme royal of eight or more stanzas, beg. 'O doughter of [ ]', with the refrain 'quia tota

[ ]'. Partly Latin.

d. ff. 47-47b. Six stanzas of a poem, each of eight verses, now beg. 'Fyftely ye schall [ ]', and rhyming ABABBCBC. Imperfect, by the loss of its opening stanzas, implying the loss of a bifolium between

ff. 44b and 45 and between ff. 46b and 47.

11. ff. 49-69. Jean Gerson, De consolatione theologiae, Cologne; 27 Jan. 1488. Printed. Imperfect, now lacking three out of twenty-four folios. Now collates A8-C8(-C4, 5, 7). See Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, iv, Leipzig, 1930, no. 4540, of which the tract represents part. Pen-trials at the bottom of f. 66b, late 15th cent.

12. ff. 70-95. Antonius de Butrio, Speculum de confessione, Louvain; aft. 1483. Printed, with initials added in black ink, late 15th cent. Imperfect, now lacking two out of twenty-eight folios. Now collates A8(-1), B8, C8, D4(-4). See Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, v, Leipzig, 1942, no. 5830, of which this tract represents item 1 and (13) under item 6. Marginal annotations on ff. 76-79, 84b-85, late 15th cent.

13. ff. 96-104. Leuwis de Rickel al. Dionysius Carthusianus, Speculum conversionis peccatorum, Louvain; aft. 1483. Printed. Imperfect, now lacking 5 out of 14 folios. Now collates X8(-1-5), Y6. On f. 102b occur marginal markings in plummet. Marginal annotations on ff. 97, 102, late 15th cent. Jottings on f. 104 include the name 'Johannes Glo[ ]', [early 16th?] cent. At the head of the recto of the first leaf (f. 96: sig. X[6]) is written 'Supposed the first Portion', late 18th cent.