Harley MS 218

This manuscript is a composite miscellany consisting of eight different parts that were produced at different times. Parts 1 (ff. 2-49), 2 (ff. 50-51), and 5 (ff. 122-146) were all printed in the late 15th century. Part 3 (ff. 52-103) and 6 (ff. 147-158) were written by different 15th-century hands. Part 4 (ff. 104-121) was written in the 13th century. Part 7 was written in the 15th century, and part 8 in the 14th century.

The manuscript features John Lydgate's Testament, together with scientific, historical and theological texts written in Latin and Middle English.

This composite volume includes manuscript as well as printed texts and was possibly assembled at the Dore Abbey, a Cisterican abbey in Herefordshire.

Contents:

Part 1:

ff. 1r-49r: Johann Lichtenberger, Prognosticatio, printed in Strasburg by Kistler after 31 Dec. 1499, with woodcut, known as British Library, IA.2547a, other BL copies at IA.2546 and IA.2547: see ISTC no. il00206000. This part contains various later additions:

16th-century annotations throughout.

f. 19r: ‘Jhesus maria Johannes / hec tria mea Spes’; added in the 16th century.

Part 2:

ff. 50r-51v: Pseudo-Aristotele (attributed), Problemata; fragment (i.e. d3-d4), relating to medicine, printed by Quentell in Cologne circa 1493, another BL copy at IA.4859: see ISTC no. ia01041000.

Part 3:

f. 52r: Prognostications for the year 1466, in Latin, beginning: ‘Pars revelacionis Anni pro Anno Christi M CCCC lx vj’.

f. 52r: ‘ffor pater noster and for my cryde I was ffull ssore I byte bout / wat natt byte I now’.

ff. 52v-72r: John Lydgate, Testament [edited by MacCracken, John Lydgate (1911; repr. 1961), pp. 329-362; see also NIMEV 2464/6 and DIMEV 3937-8].

ff. 73r-79r: Short tracts on chronology, headed: ‘De Annis a creacione mundi De temporibus mundi’; written in Middle English prose dated 1445 [see eVK2 no. 7104.00]

ff. 79v-82v: An English chronicle in Latin verse, including some macaronic verse in Middle English, beginning: ‘Cinxit blandus ad hor gilibertus erat dominator’ [see NIMEV 3113/5].

f. 83r: A macaronic couplet: ‘In age as he growith sua crecat [sic] gratia fructu / fful litel he knowith quanto dolet Anglia luctu' [DIMEV 2466-1].

ff. 83r-102r: Meditations on the Supper, a poem on the life and passion of Jesus Christ sometimes attributed to Robert Mannyng of Brunne [see NIMEV 248/7 and DIMEV 1059-1].

ff. 102v-103r: A fragment an ecclesiastical calendar (January - March), in Latin.

This part contains various additions:

f. 73r (lower margin): A note calculating the lunar cycles since the Creation, beginning: ‘Ab origine mundi usque ad annis domini 1532’; added in the (?) 16th century.

f. 83r: Latin notes on the number of churches, priests, and villages in England; added in the (?) 15th century.

f. 83r: A Latin note, beginning: ‘Duo remedia. Memoria passionis et osprobriorum Christi’; added in the (? ) 15th century.

f. 102r: ‘Ego sum bonus puer que deus amat’; and ‘Ego sum bonus puer’; added in the (?) 15th century.

f. 102r: A note relating to the genealogy of Leonell, duke of Clarence and third son of King Edward III, in Middle English; added in the (?) 15th century.

f. 102v: Household notes relating to Hampshire; referring to the Hundred of Thorngate ['Hundro de thornegate'], Shipton Bellinger ['Shupton'], Snoddington ['Snodyngton'], Tidworth ['Todeworth'], Nether or Middle Wallop ['Wallop Bakelond'], Over Wallop ['Wallopp Priorisse'], Broughton ['Burghton']; added in the (?) 16th century.

Part 4:

ff. 104r-117v: Honorius of Autun (attributed), Imago mundi, in Latin.

ff. 118r-119v: Three short theological tracts, followed by excerpts from Gregory the Great, Augustin, and others, in Latin; including the ‘Brevarium apostolorum’ which is also found in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 177.

Part 5:

ff. 122r-146r: Sextus Aurelius Victor (attributed), De viris illustribus, printed in Venice by Jacopus Andreas de Paltasichis, 5 June 1477, with attribution to Pliny the Younger, known as British Library, IA.20607, another BL copy at IA.20606: see ISTC no. ia01386000.

This part contains a later addition:

f. 146v: Words starting with ‘p’: ‘Parne pane puer poteris parisse petitum parcendo pane perdere plura potes’; added in the 15th century.

Part 6:

f. 147: Short astrological tracts in Latin.

f. 147v. Three Middle English recipes, the first relating to herbal medicine, the second to parchment making and the third to alchemy, beginning: 'Go to verveyn þe xiiij day of þe mone er þe sounryse not Sonday / take an hasell yerd of on yere old' [see Singer and Anderson, Catalogue (1930), p. 550, no. 1112.xxxi; Thompson, 'Trial Index' (1935), pp. 410-431; eVK2, no. 2030.00].

ff. 148r-151v: Short tracts astrological and astronomical tracts in Latin.

ff. 152r-152v: Middle English tract with predictions based on a comet, perhaps the one that appeared in 1471-2, Comet 1471 Y1, with reference to the astrologer Abu Ma'shar [‘Albymasar’].

ff. 152v-153r: Astrological tract in Latin

f. 153r: Jerome of Hereford's predictions for 1472 in Middle English [see eVK2, nos. 2030.00, 3533.00, 6955.00].

ff. 153v-154r: Glossary for the astrolabe, beginning: ‘Nomina instrumentarum partialium astrolabij sunt hec’.

ff. 154v-155v: A short Middle English tract relating to urine [Incomplete variant version of the first to sections of the Doom of Urine compendium] beginning: 'In the begynnyng we schall take hede to .iiij. thinges þe which / longyn to deme vryn'; added in the late 15th or early 16th century [see eVK2, no. 2883.00].

ff. 156v-157v: Three Middle English alchemical recipes headed: ‘Donstanee’ [see eVK2, no. 4928.00].

f. 157v: A short tract: ‘Ad de argumentandum omnia metalla’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 158v: Prophecy for the year 1572: ‘anno milleno sexcento duodeno / Tunc antechristus regnabit demone pleno’; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

This part contains a few additions:

f. 158v. A Middle English recipe against the plague, entitled: 'A medycyn for þe pestelensse'; beginning: ‘In the name of god Amen. Thus ys þe medycyne þat þe / kyng usys'; added in the late 15th or early 16th century [see Singer and Anderson, Catalogue (1950), p. 150, no. 26; and eVK2. no. 7568].

Part 7:

ff. 159r-167r: John Wyclif (attributed), Commentary on the Ten Commandments.

f. 167r: Latin notes with calculations of the number of years that have past since biblical events, and Latin verses, e.g.: 'Versus bis mille bis centum sex canit ille'.

ff. 167v-168v: Short theological tracts.

Part 8:

ff. 169r-173r: Treatise on the Computus [‘Tractatus de compotu ecclesiastico’], imperfect at the beginning, in Latin.

f. 173v: Roman and Latin numerals.

f. 174r: Fragment of an (?) O-T map.

This part contains a later addition:

f. 174r: Memorial verses for Golden Number and Sunday Letter, beginning: 'Centum quinta tenet eadem duo milia probet'; added in the 15th century.

Decoration:

An O-T map in brown and red ink on f. 104v. Added pen drawings of human figures holding bows and arrows in brown ink (ff. 102v-103v, 158r); and of a human figure in (?) plummet (f. 158r).

Initials touched in red [ff. 51r-72r]; major (1-2 line) initials in red with contrasting penwork in brown-grey ink, smaller (1-line) initials in red, capitals touched in red, and rubrics in red [ff. 73r-103v]; large (2-line) initials in red and rubrics in red [ff. 104r-121r]; major (3-line) initials in red, rubrics and paragraph marks in red [ff. 159r-168r].