Harley MS 172

This devotional manuscript was written by the 'Winchester scribe', the principal scribe of the so-called 'Winchester Anthology' (Add MS 60577), a large compilation of religious prose and verse in Latin and English in which the scribe identifies himself as an anonymous Benedictine monk at St Swithun’s Priory in Winchester. Like the Winchester Anthology, this manuscript contains religious poems written or translated by the Benedictine monk and poet John Lydgate (b. c.1370, d. 1449/50) and the clerk and poet Benedict Burgh (d. in or before 1483), instructions for prayers, didactic religious treatises, catechetical teachings and a few prayers in Middle English that are the subject of indulgences. The manuscript's physical composition is unusual: it is largely made from sets of 4 paper leaves that alternate with sets of 2 slightly smaller parchment leaves.

Contents:

ff. 1*recto-1*verso, 2r-3r: John Lydgate, Fall of Princes (extracts).

ff. 3v-10v: The Fifteen Oes (English), preceded by a long introduction (ff. 3v-5v) that tells of how an instruction for the prayers was revealed by Christ to a woman recluse, and then taught to a hermit, an abbess, and her community, ‘[H]ere beginnythe a tretyse of a solytarye and a recluse woman she covetynge to knowe the noumbre of the wondys of oure lord Jhesu cryste’.

ff. 11r-17v: A confessional formula, opening with a Latin citation from the Confiteor, followed by an English prayer petitioning St Benedict, St Birinus and St Swithun, that touches upon essential catechetical teachings: the seven deadly sins, the ten commandments, the seven works of mercy, the twelve articles of faith in the Apostle’s Creed, the seven sacraments, the five bodily and spiritual senses, and the seven cardinal virtues, ‘[C]onfiteor deo celi et beate marie beato benedicto et omnibus sanctis eius et vobis etcaetera’.

ff. 18r-19r: The fourteen articles of faith in English, ending with a Latin citation from the Confiteor (suggesting that the scribe considered this item and the previous item to be part of the same confession), ‘[T]here bethe xiiij artycles of the feythe in holy chyrche’.

ff. 21r-51v: Peter Idley (d. 1473/4), poet and administrator, Instructions to His Son, Book I, 'Inicium mei tractatus sit in nomine mei domini Jhesu cristi a quo bona cuncta procedunt'.

ff. 52r-71r: Benedict Burgh, English translation of Cato Major, '[F]or whi þat god ys Inwardlye the wytt / off man and yevithe hym understandynge'.

ff. 71v-72v: John Lydgate, Ryght as a Rammes Horne, 'Alle ryghtwysnes . now dothe procede / Sytte crownede . lyke an emperesse'.

ff. 73r-88v: Thomas Hoccleve (b. c.1367, d. 1426), poet and clerk, Ars Sciendi Mori, ‘[S]ythen al men naturally desire to konne and knowe O eterne sapience’.

The manuscript contains various 15th-, 16th- and 17th-century additions, some potentially made by the Winchester scribe himself:

f. 1r: f. 1 is composed of 3 pieces of parchment (numbered 1-3) sewn together; on their recto each parchment piece features texts written by 15th- or 16th-century scribes: (1) An imperfect Latin note ('laudent habere confortes in penis'), a quotation from a political poem on the year 1388 ('[O] rex si rex es . rege te sine te nisi re re[x] nomen habes sine re, nisi te rege regat’); 1 John 3:18 ('non diligamus verbo nec lingua sed opere et veritate'), Romans 1:32 ('digni sunt morte: et non solum qui ea faciunt, sed etiam qui consentiunt facientibus') and the Decretum Gratiani ('miserum est, eum fieri magistrum, qui necdum didicit esse discipulus'); (2) a list of liturgical days: Sunday and feasts dedicated to the Trinity, Holy Spirit, All Souls, Corpus Christi, Christ and the Virgin Mary; (3) an English aphorism, ‘who seyth the beste shal neuer repent', perhaps an excerpt from John Lydgate's When the silver dews swote [a potential hitherto unidentified fragment, for the full text see New Index of Middle English Verse, no. 4042].

f. 72v: Latin aphorisms written by different scribes: an excerpt from the Decretum Gratiani ('miserum est, eum fieri magistrum, qui necdum didicit esse discipulus'), written by a 15th- or 16th-century scribe; excerpt from the French court poet Nicholas Bourbon (b. c. 1505, d. c. 1550), Nugae (printed in 1533), ‘Marcus auarus quin se se [sic] suspendere vellet', written by a 16th-century scribe (who copied a more complete version of the same excerpt on f. 91v); 'noster deus est semper', 'Proximus egomet mihi' (above, partially erased, 'Ego mihi sum proximus'), written by a 17th-century scribe.

f. 20v: Liturgical texts for the feast of St Maurice and the Theban Legion ('Sancta legio Agaunensium martyrum dum resisterent adversariis sacro duce Mauritio interveniente immortalitatis compendium acquisierunt'), written by a 15th- or 16th-century scribe; a prayer in Greek (trans. in Watson, The Manuscripts of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 1960, p. 200).

f. 88v: A poem on St Anthony of Padua (b. 1195, d. 1231), 'De santo Antonio padue ordinis fratrum minorum', followed by a prayer ('Ecclesiam tuam deus beati antonij'), written by a 15th- or 16th-century scribe.

f. 89r: Two items written by 15th- or 16th-century scribes: An indulgence (Latin) for a prayer recited before an image of St Anne, the Virgin Mary and Christ ('Alexander papa sextus concessit decem milia annorum pro mortalibus et vigenti pro venialibus dicendo hanc oracionem . tria vice coram ymagine Sanctae Anne . ac beate virginis . et filio eius : quas et proprio ore.'): the prayer is not copied, but followed by two lines from the Middle English verse text A Song of the Passion, 'To se a mayden wepe her sones passion / It entreth to my hart with gret contrycyon bought and solde full traytoursly' [a hitherto unidentified fragment, for the full text see Digital Index of Middle English Verse, no. 889].

f. 90v: An aphorism, The Golden Mean, 'better ytt ys smalle howsolde to holde / them [sic] to lye yn prysoun wyth fetters', written by the same scribe who copied the song on the Passion on f. 89r [previously identified, see New Index of Middle English Verse, no. 512.5].

f. 91v: An excerpt from the French court poet Nicholas Bourbon (b. c. 1505, d. c. 1550), Nugae (printed in 1533), ‘Marcus auarus quin se se [sic] suspendere vellet Sexque obolis restis emenda foret / Territus hoc pretio inquis', written by a 16th-century scribe.

f. 92r: An indulgence, partially erased but probably attributed to Pope Julius II (beginning, '[Iulius] pape secundus pro testamento spirituali') for three Marian prayers, (beginning 'Gloriosissima Regina Misericordiae') perhaps a later addition by the Winchester scribe or a contemporary.

f. 92v: The Paternoster, Ave, and Creed in Latin, copied by the same scribe who copied the poem and prayer for St Anthony of Padua on f. 88v.

[ff. 1v, 19v-20r, 89v-90r, 91r are blank].

Decoration:

The manuscript features a few small brown initials, but mostly blank spaces where initials planned.