Add MS 40854-40855

See Hist. MSS. Comm., 3rd Rep., App., p. 244, nos. xxxiv, xxxv. The first volume is preceded by a dedication to Edward VI (f. 2) and a preface (f. 3 b). The commentary, which is compiled from "divers authors" (cf. f. 2 b), cites SS. Jerome, John Chrysostom and Augustine. Occasional evidences of sympathy with Reformation doctrines are in harmony with Cope's supposed authorship; cf. Sir A. Cope, Meditations on twenty select Psalms, ed. W. H. Cope, 1848, pp. vii-xix. Paper; ff. iii + 205, iii + 99. Folio. xvi cent. Both volumes are in 16th cent. leather bindings, in 40854 with gilt floral stamps, in 40855 with blind roll stamps. Fragments of mediaeval MSS. have been used in the binding, viz.:-(a) in Add. 40854, parts of leaves from a MS. of Decretals of Gregory IX, lib. i, tit. xl, cap. i, etc. ; ii, tit. vi, capp. iii-v. English, 14th cent. ff. ii, iii;-(b) in Add. 40855, parts of leaves from a Latin glossary based on the Catholicon of Jobannes Balbus de Janua. English, 14th cent. ff. ii, iii. On f. i of each MS. is the bookplate of Sir John Cope, 6th Bart. of Hanwell 1673-1721; cf. British Museum, Catalogue of the Franks collection of British and American Bookplates, 1903, i, no. 6819. Belonged in 1872 to the Rev. Sir W. H. Cope, 12th Bart.; cf. Hist. MSS. Comm., loc. cit. Sotheby's sale-cat., 23 July 1923, lot 38.