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Add MS 89790

Record Id:: 032-004593027
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:: 032-004593027
MDARK:
LARK:: ark:/81055/man_10000029.0x000001
SLARK:
Format:: ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):: Add MS 89790
Title:: Richard Rolle’s ‘The Form of Living’ and related works
Scope & Content:: A collection of devotional texts in Hiberno-English, made for a noblewoman living in the region of Dublin. This manuscript is important for containing the works of Richard Rolle of Hampole (d. 1349), in a version dedicated uniquely to his disciple Margaret of Kirkby (d. 1391x1394). It also contains perhaps the oldest and most complete copy of A Revelation of Purgatory, describing a series of visions by an anchoress in Winchester in 1422. This is a highly unusual example of a literary manuscript written in the Hiberno-English dialect. The scribe has been identified as Nicholas Bellewe, known to have been active in Dublin between 1428 and 1475. According to Theresa O’Byrne, the manuscript may have been made when Bellewe was working for the Fitzwilliam family between 1433 and 1445. Table of contents (f. 2r). f. 1r–v is blank. Patristic quotations in Latin (ff. 2v–3r). A confession in Middle English (f. 3r). f. 3v is blank. The Ladder of Heaven (ff. 4v–11r). A text beginning ‘O thou soul myn whi art thou sorowful’ (ff. 11r–16v). Nine virtues which Our Lord Jesus showed to a holy man (f. 17r). A dialogue between a teacher and pupil in Latin, headed ‘Cur mali bonis habundant’ (ff. 17r–18v). An anonymous treatise on the Lord’s Prayer (ff. 19r–24v). A form of confession (ff. 24v–29v, 31r–v, 30r). f. 30 has been bound out of sequence. Richard Rolle of Hampole, On the contemplative life (ff. 30r–58v), addressed uniquely to Margaret of Kirkby. This compilation includes Rolle’s The Form of Living (ff. 30r–v, 32r–43v), Ego Dormio (ff. 43v–47v), and The Commandment (ff. 47v–50v). Walter Hilton, Medled Life (ff. 58v–69r). William Fleet, Remedies against Temptations in an English translation (ff. 69r–73v). The Lamentation of Our Lady (ff. 74r–78r). A Bonaventuran meditation (ff. 78v–80v). Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘A Parson’s Tale’ from The Canterbury Tales (ff. 81r–128v). ff. 129r–130v are blank. An instructional treatise in prose and verse beginning ‘Love of kynde and car me byndeth’ (ff. 131r–142v), followed by ‘The monk who wished the least joy in Paradise’ (ff. 141r–143r). In the lower margins is a text on the proverbs of Solomon (ff. 131r–146v). A prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, added in another hand (ff. 143v–144r, 145r). A poem on ‘Timor mortis’ (ff. 145v–146v). A verse meditation on the Passion (ff. 147r–148r). A meditation on the Five Wounds of Christ (ff. 148v–149r). The Fifteen O’s of St Brigit (ff. 149r–154r). f. 154v is blank. A Revelation of Purgatory (ff. 155r–165v), describing a series of visions experienced by an anchoress in Winchester in 1422. ff. 166–169 are blank save for pen-trials.
Collection Area:: Western Manuscripts
Project / Collection:: Additional Manuscripts
Longleat House MSS
Hierarchy Tree:: [ { "id" : "032-004593027", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 89790: Richard Rolle’s ‘The Form of Living’ and related works" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
Hierarchy Record Ids:: 032-004593027
Is part of:: not applicable
Hierarchy:: 032-004593027
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/man_10000029.0x000001
Thumbnail:
Languages:: English, Middle
Latin
Scripts:: Latin
Start Date:: 1425
End Date:: 1450
Date Range:: 2nd quarter of the 15th century
Era:: CE
Access:: Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff

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Physical Characteristics:: Material: Parchment. Foliation: ff. iii (modern paper endleaves) + 169. Dimensions: c. 205 x 150 mm. Script: Hiberno-English vernacular bookscript, by Nicholas Bellewe. Binding: Longleat House, 19th century, gold-tooled brown calf with marbled endpapers.
Custodial History:: Origin: Ireland. Written by Nicholas Bellewe (active 1428–1475), a scribe working in Dublin. Bellewe’s hand has been identified in three manuscripts (the present manuscript; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS e Musaeo 232; Dublin, City Archives, Chain Book of Dublin), as well as over 70 surviving legal documents. The manuscript’s Irish origin is also suggested by dialectical features, and the inclusion of Irish saints (Patrick, Finnian, Columba, Canice, Brendan, Moling, Synok, Kevin, Laserian, Machot, Abban/Aban, Evin/Eimhin, and Colman) in the treatise on the Lord’s Prayer (f. 20v). Provenance: ‘John Goldewelle’, 15th century (f. 168r). Possibly to be identified as John Goldwell (d. 1466), member of a family of London merchants the Goldwell family, merchants of London, as suggested Ogilvie-Thomson, Richard Rolle: Prose and Verse from MS Longleat 29, p. xx. Sir John Thynne (b. 1513, d. 1580), builder of Longleat House: his signatures (ff. 2r, 166r). Formed part of his collection by 1577 when listed in his catalogue as nos. 73 and 74, and its contents described as ‘A ladder to heauen in inglishe. An expositioun of the pater noster in lattin and inglishe. The forme of a confessioun in inglishe and ‘Tractatus’. The two entries are bracketed within the catalogue and a marginal note in the same states ‘albounde together in written hande’. Thomas Thynne (b. 1640, d. 1714), Viscount of Weymouth of Longleat House: his added bookplate, inscribed, ‘The Right Honble Thomas Lord Viscount Weymouth Baron Thynne of Warminster 1704’. The former shelfmark ‘IX.D.78’; passed by descent within the family at Longleat House and subsequently given the shelfmark ‘Longleat House, MS 29’. Recorded in the collection of Longleat House in the Third Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, p. 181. Purchased by the British Library from The Trustees of the Longleat House and Chattels Settlement, April 2025.
Publications:: Theresa O’Byrne, ‘Manuscript Creation in Dublin: The Scribe of Bodleian e. Museo MS 232 and Longleat MS 29’, in New Directions in Medieval Manuscript Studies and Reading Practices: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall, eds. Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, John J. Thompson and Sarah Baechle (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014), pp. 285–86 Theresa O'Byrne, ‘Bilingual, Bitextual Bellewe: A Case Study of Paleographical Code-Switching in Late Medieval English-Controlled Ireland', Speculum, 99:3 (2024), 744–61. S.J. Ogilvie-Thomson, ed., Richard Rolle: Prose and Verse from MS Longleat 29 and Related Manuscripts, Early English Text Society, 293 (Oxford: The Early English Text Society, 1988). Third Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (London: Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, printers to the Queen's most excellent Majesty for H.M.S.O, 1872), p. 181.
Material Type:: Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:: Not Public Record(s)