Egerton MS 2006

This manuscript contains one of the two extant copies of The Booke of Gostlye Grace.The work is a Middle English translation of an abridged version of the Liber Specialis Gratiae, a large collection of the revelations of Mechtild of Hackeborn (b. 1240/1, d. 1298). Mechtild was a nun of the Benedictine convent of Helfta near Eisleben, whose revelations were recorded and compiled by two of her sisters. One of these sisters is thought to have been the mystic Gertrude the Great (b. 1256, d. c. 1302).

The other copy of The Booke of Gostlye Grace now survives as Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 220 (B).

Contents:

ff. 1r-212r: The Booke of Gostlye Grace; with a table of chapters (ff. 1r-20v); two prologues (ff. 20v-21v; 21v-22r); followed by the Booke’s five parts (ff. 22r-212r).

The manuscript contains various additions:

Inside upper cover: a title inscription, ‘lying legend al[ia]s Romanse de S[an]cte Matilde’; added in the 15th century.

f. 206r: A note about tax, written in English, ‘If the tax & the pole last but on yoear ar to mo[r/v]e wee neuer need feear the french land on ouer shore for fear of the carg of mantaine [?] the carge of the poore’; added in the 17th century.

f. 212r: A Latin inscription, ‘Fynis huius libri’; added in the late 15th- or early 16th-century.

Inside lower cover: Various Latin inscriptions, including prayer-exhortations, ‘Jh[es]u m[er]cy Jh[es]us maria / Jh[es]us / Jh[es]us est amor meus / Jh[es]us m[er]cy / Jh[es]us mersy Jh[esu] maria’ and ‘O beata et benedicta trinitas’ [repeated twice], pen trials (e.g. ‘R my And’), the pangram, ‘E quore cu[m] gelido zepherus fert / maxima kynbus’, and a practice alphabet (written upside down); added in the 15th and 16th century.

Two or more annotators added about 50 marginal annotations in Latin and English throughout the manuscript during the late 15th century or early 16th century. The annotations highlight divisions or particular subjects in the table of chapters and the Booke or concern notate bene, e.g.: ‘de s[anc]ta katherina’ (f. 7r); ‘3 aves’ (f. 8v); ‘S[e]c[un]da pars’ (f. 8v); ‘de q[ui]nq[ue] solijs rose’ (f. 12v); ‘B[e]n[e]dicite’ (f. 12v); ‘3 p[ar]tes’ (f. 12r); ‘de auditu misse’ (f. 15v); ‘4 pars’ (f. 15v); ‘5 pars’ (f. 18v); ‘p[ro]logus’ (f. 21r); ‘appered hath [?] to shew’ (f. 21r); ‘Gospelle’ (f. 35r) [but this annotation in the upper margin may have been written by the Amherst scribe]; ‘of Saynte Agnes’ (f. 40r); ‘off the v Joys that o[ur] lord hade’ (f. 60r); ‘Nota specialiter’ (ff. 61r, 96r); ‘Nota the shedyng off teris’ (f. 68r); ‘Nota’ (ff. 27r, 52r, 73v, 75v, 92v, 114r, 116v, 118r, 121r, 124r, 131v, 156v, 174v, 183v, 206r); ‘Nota of o[ur] lady’ (f. 77v); ‘Nota þe praysing[es] off Saynt[es]’ (f. 94v); N[ota] (ff. 30r, 31r, 32v, 187r, 188v); ‘off iij Aue Maria’ (f. 103v); ‘Nota off Myserey mey’ (f. 108v); ‘Nota bene’ (ff. 130v, 152v, 184r); ‘this boke ys callid the boke off Spirytuall grace’ (f. 136r); ‘of iij good doctrinis’ (f. 147r); ‘how a man shol[d] com[m]end his feyth to god’ (f. 162r); ‘Nota off co[n]fession’ (f. 168v); ‘Nota Spe’(f. 182r); ‘To say v pat[er] nosters’ (200r).

The annotators also added Arabic numerals to Roman numerals in the table of contents and as headers in the upper margins to indicate different parts. They also highlighted passages by adding a few manicules in brown ink in the table of contents (e.g. f. 12v), and numerous trifoliate leaves in brown ink in the margins throughout the Booke (ff. 32v, 46v [x3], 53r, 67v, 68v, 74v, 84r, 99v, 102v, 108v, 111v, 136v, 139v, 140r [2x], 141v, 144r [2x], 145v, 146r, 150v, 151v, 167v, 168r, 169r, 170v, 175v, 177v, 184v, 190v, 202r, 204r).

Decoration:

Two large (7- and 8-line) puzzle initials in blue and red with red penwork decoration inside the letter and red pen-flourishing at the beginning of the table of contents (f. 1r), and at the beginning of the Booke (f. 20v). The five parts of the text have been marked in different ways: large (6-line) blue initials with red penwork decoration and –flourishing mark the beginnings of part 1 (f. 22r) and part 2 (f. 106r), but small (1-line) blue initials at the beginning of part 3 (f. 136v) and part 4 (f. 169r), and a small (1-line) red initial at the beginning of part 5 (f. 190r).

Medium-sized (2-3 line) initials in blue with red penwork decoration and -flourishing are used in the Table of Chapters to mark the beginning of a list of chapters for a particular part. However, these have only been used at the beginning of the lists of chapters for part 2 (f. 8v) and part 3 (f. 12r), and not for parts 4 and 5 [part 1 opens with the aforementioned 7-line puzzle initial). These medium-sized blue initials also feature throughout the book at the beginning of each new chapter with the exceptions of chapters on f. 122r and f. 153v, which open with, respectively, a small (1-line) blue initial and a medium-sized (2-line) blue initial that feature no penwork decoration or pen-flourishing.

Small (1-line) initials alternating between blue and red have been used at the beginning of each new entry in the Table of Chapters (ff. 1r-20v). Following the two prologues on ff. 20v-22r, a small (1-line) initial in red ink has been used at the beginning of each rubric (although blue initials have been used for the rubrics on f. 127v and f.158v). The concluding chapter of the Booke (f. 207r), opens with a medium-sized blue initial with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing, and features two small (1-line) initials in red ink (f. 207r and f. 211r) to indicate a division of paragraphs.

Red paraphs for Latin headings (ff. 21v, f. 106r).