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Add MS 89791
- Record Id:
- 032-004593028
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-004593028
- MDARK:
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/man_10000033.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 89791
- Title:
- Middle English sermons
- Scope & Content:
- A collection of Sunday gospel sermons in Middle English (ff. 1r–120r). Preceded by a prologue beginning ‘As we findin in the laste end of the gospel of Matheu and of Mark’ (f. 1r–v). The author is unnamed but has been identified as the writer of Dives and Pauper, an influential commentary on the Ten Commandments. The author may have been a Franciscan friar based in East Anglia. This is the unique copy of the Middle English sermons. The dialect has been localised to the area of Cambridge and Newmarket. Following the main sequence are further sermons on the Annunciation (ff. 120r–127v); the Assumption (ff. 127v–131v); the Visitation (ff. 131v–136r); and the Nativity (ff. 136r–141r). f. 141v is blank. Pore Caitif (ff. 142r–164v), written in the same hand as the rest of the manuscript. The Charter of the Abbey of the Holy Ghost (ff. 164v–169v), written in the same hand. The two medieval pastedowns at the beginning (f. i verso) and end of the volume (f. 170) are rejected leaves from the gospel sermons, written in the same hand. Decoration: Foliate initials with partial borders mark the beginning of major feasts (ff. 1v, 8v, 12v, 48r, 61r, 63v). Smaller initials open the prologue (f. 1r), Pore Caitif (f. 142r) and The Charter of the Abbey of the Holy Ghost (f. 164v). Puzzle initials in red and blue at the beginning of the longer sermons (e.g. ff. 120r, 136r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Longleat House MSS - Hierarchy Tree:
- [ { "id" : "032-004593028", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 89791: Middle English sermons" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-004593028
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-004593028
- 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_10000033.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1425
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
- Material: Parchment. Foliation: ff. i (medieval pastedown, lifted) + 170 (f. 170 is a lifted medieval pastedown). Dimensions: c. 430 x 285 mm. Script: English vernacular bookscript, by a single scribe. Binding: Longleat House, 19th century, gold-tooled black leather with marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
- Origin: England (possibly Cambridgeshire). Provenance: ‘Cottan Spilman’ (f. 123r, lower margin), 'Cotten Spilman name' (f. 168v, lower margin), presumably a relative of Sir Henry Spelman (see below). Sir Henry Spelman (b. 1563/4, d. 1641), historian and antiquary: inscribed, 'Henrici Spelmani liber' (f. 1r), and with the Spelman arms (f. i recto). Listed in the sale of Spelman’s manuscripts by John Harding, London, 20–22 December 1709, lot 7 (‘English Liturgy [Vellum]’. In the notes of Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726), Old English scholar and librarian, on his copy of the sale catalogue (Harley MS 7055, ff. 232r–234v), it is listed as ‘Postils on ye Gospels - Poor Caytif - Abbey of ye Holy Gost in Old English’. Thomas Thynne (b. 1640, d. 1714), 1st Viscount Weymouth: purchased at the Spelman sale, 1709, with approximately twenty other lots. Thynne acquired a substantial collection of manuscripts, sometimes at auction, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1664. Passed by descent within the family at Longleat House, with the shelfmark ‘Longleat House, MS 4’. Recorded in the collection of Longleat House in the Third Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, p. 180. Purchased by the British Library from The Trustees of the Longleat House and Chattels Settlement, April 2025.
- Administrative Context:
- Origin: Probably London (England). The manuscript was written by the Dutch scribe T. Werken (alias Theodericus Nicolai Werken), who also produced the manuscript’s sister copy (now San Marino CA, Huntington Library, MS HM 142). On this identification, see Mosser, ‘Longleat House MS 30, T. Werken, and Thomas Betson’. Provenance: Thomas Thynne (b. 1640, d. 1714), 1st Viscount Weymouth, 1704: inscribed, ‘The Right Honble Thomas Lord / Viscount Weymouth Baron Thynne / of Warminster 1704’ (armorial bookplate, front pastedown). 19th-century Longleat House library shelfmark ‘IX.D.85’ in ink (f. iii recto) and ‘No. 172’ in pencil (f. 1r), and 20th-century pencil number ‘No. 30’; passed by descent within the family at Longleat House with the shelfmark ‘Longleat House, MS 30’. 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:
- 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. 180.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)