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Add MS 10037
- Record Id:
- 032-002107838
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002107838
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000042.0x00011b
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165140801.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 10037
- Title:
-
Jane Segar, The Divine Prophecies of the Ten Sibills
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains The Divine Prophecies of the Ten Sibills, written and illuminated by Jane Segar, sister of the Elizabethan herald and officer of arms Sir William Segar (b. c. 1554, d. 1633) and the courtier and painter Francis Segar (b. 1563, d. 1615). Jane presented the volume to Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603) in 1589, probably as a New Year's gift, and prefaced the work with a prose dedication to the Queen.
Probably derived from Filipo Barbieri's Sibyllaru de Christo Vaticinia, Segar's work consists of a set of 11 poems written in English. Ten of the poems purport to be verse 'translations' of prophecies concerning the birth of Christ, each attributed to a different legendary Sibyl. The final poem is untitled and was composed by Segar herself. The English text of each poem is accompanied by a facing copy written in a system of short-hand known as 'charactery', invented by the physician and clergyman Timothee Bright (b. 1551, d. 1615). Bright had devised the system the previous year in a treatise entitled Characterie, An Art Of Shorte, Swifte, And Secrete Writing by Character, which was also dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.
Contents:
ff. 1r-12r: Jane Segar, The Divine Prophecies of the Ten Sibills, written in English and 'charactery', comprised of a prose dedication and 11 poems, arranged as follows:
f. 1r: A prose dedication to Queen Elizabeth I by Jane Segar, addressed 'To the Queenes most Excellent Ma[jes]ty'.
ff. 1v-2r: 'Agrippa', beginning, 'The highest birth shall be under the fleshe...'; dated, 'Ano Mundi 2720'.
ff. 2v-3r: 'Samia', beginning, 'Behold the cheerfull daye shall shortly come...'; dated, 'Ano Mundi 2720'.
ff. 3v-4r: 'Lybica', beginning, 'Behold, Behold, the day shall come when...'; dated, 'Ano Mundi 2720'.
ff. 4v-5r: 'Cimmeria', beginning, 'In tender yeares a sacred virgine myld...'; dated, 'Ano Mundi 3380'.
ff. 5v-6r: 'Europoea', beginning, 'Th'eternall word shall come from hauen aboue...'; dated, 'Ano Mundi 2720'.
ff. 6v-7r: 'Persica', beginning, 'A joyfull prince borne of a virgine chast...'; dated, 'Ano Mundi 2720'.
ff. 7v-8r: 'Erythraea', beginning, 'Flee the Sonne of God which shall discend...'; dated, 'Ano Mundi 3380'.
ff. 8v-9r: 'Delphica', beginning, 'T'will not be longe, but scilence must be kept...'; dated, 'Ano Mundi 2720'.
ff. 9v-10r: 'Tyburtina', beginning, 'The most true god hath gyuen mee the power...'; dated, Ano Mundi 3890'.
ff. 10v-11r: 'Cumana', beginning, 'Nowe my last words abyde both true, and just...'; dated, 'Ano Mundi 3900'.
ff. 11v-12r: A concluding poem in Segar's voice, beginning, 'Lo thus in breife most sacred Maiestye...'; dated, 'Ano Dominj 1589'.
f. 12v is blank.
Decoration:
Small initials in gold at the beginning of the prose dedication (f. 1r) and each poem written in English (ff. 1v, 2v, 3v, 4v, 5v, 6v, 7v, 8v, 9v, 10v, 11v).
Titles and opening characters in gold at the beginning of each poem written in charactery (ff. 2r, 3r, 4r, 5r, 6r, 7r, 8r, 9r, 10r, 11r, 12r).
Rulings in gold.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002107838", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 10037: Jane Segar, The Divine Prophecies of the Ten Sibills" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002107838
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002107838
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165140801.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1589
- End Date:
- 1589
- Date Range:
- 1589
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 150 x 125 mm (text space: 115 x 70 mm).
Foliation: ff. 12 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning and end).
Script: Italic, written by Jane Segar.
Binding: Pre-1600. Red velvet, embroidered with gold lace, with enamelled and gilt glass panels now broken, enclosing inset illuminated paintings (verre eglomise) in colours and gold, made by Jane Segar. The paintings feature pairs of leopards, a nude woman and a satyr, Roman soldiers wielding swords beneath green pavilions, putti, and dogs. On the upper cover, enclosed within a central cartouche, the mottoes 'God and my right', 'Evil be to him that evil thinks', and the letters 'E.R.' written in charactery, the system of shorthand devised by Timothee Bright. An inscription on the lower cover, also in charactery, now illegible. At the foot, the date of the volume's presentation inscribed, 'Ano Dominj. 1589'.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
Jane Segar (fl. 1589), scribe and illuminator; sister of the portrait painter and officer of arms Sir William Segar (b. c. 1554, d. 1633): see her prose dedication to Elizabeth I, in which she explains how she learned the art of charactery in preparing the volume, and was responsible for writing and illuminating it; her name inscribed at the foot of the dedication, 'Jane Seagar' (f. 1r).
Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603), Queen of England and Ireland, written for her and probably presented to her by Jane Segar as a New Year's gift in London, 1589: the initials 'E.R' (Elizabeth Regina; upper cover) ; a prose dedication from Segar to the Queen (f. 1r).
Purchased by the British Museum from Thomas Rodd, booksellers of London, February 1836.
- Publications:
-
The British Museum Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, 1836-1840 (London: British Museum, 1843), 1836, p. 5.
John Westby-Gibson, 'A Monograph on Timothy Bright, the Father of Modern Shorthand, 1586-88', in Transactions of the First International Shorthand Congress Held in London from September 26th to October 1st, 1887 (London: Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1888), pp. 75-83 (p. 81).
H. R. Woudhuysen, Sir Philip Sidney and the Circulation of Manuscripts, 1558-1640 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), p. 74.
Patricia Brewerton, '"Several Keys to Ope' the Character": The Political and Cultural Significance of Timothy Bright's "characterie"', The Sixteenth Century Journal, 33 (2002), 945-61 (p. 952).
Early Modern Women's Manuscript Poetry, ed. by Jill Seal Millman and Gillian Wright (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005), pp. 15-20.
Jessica L. Malay, 'Jane Seagar's Sibylline Poems: Maidenly Negotiations through Elizabethan Gift Exchange', English Literary Renaissance, 36 (2006), 173-93 [edition].
Jessica L. Malay, 'Performing the Apocalypse: Sibylline Prophecy and Elizabeth I', in Representations of Elizabeth I in Early Modern Culture, ed. by Alessandra Petrina and Laura Tosi (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 175-92.
Susan Frye, Pens and Needles: Women's Textualities in Early Modern England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), pp. 75-115.
Deirdre Serjeantson, 'Translation, Authorship, and Gender: The Case of Jane Seager’s Divine Prophecies of the Ten Sibills', in Elizabethan Translation and Literary Culture, ed. by Gabriela Schmidt (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 227-54.
Kirsten Inglis, '"Delivered at Second Hand": Translation, Gifting, and the Politics of Authorship in Tudor Women's Writing', Unpublished PhD dissertation (University of Calgary, Alberta, 2014), pp. 99-140.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)