Harley MS 494

Contents:

f. 1r-v: Elevation prayer, beginning ‘I do salute the moste holy body’.

ff. 2r-4r: Latin prayers on the Five Joys, beginning ‘laudo amo adoro’, based on the Liber Specialis Gratiae, I.19.

ff. 4r-4*r: Latin prayers for the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, beginning ‘Veni sancte spiritus’.

f. 4*r: A Latin prayer for Saint Onuphrius, beginning ‘Omnipotens sempiterne deus’.

f. 5v: A Latin prayer to the Virgin, beginning ‘O gloriosa domina’.

ff. 6r-19v: Dyurnall, beginning ‘The gret cause as I do thynke’.

f. 20r: An office of the Virgin, beginning ‘Ave ihesu cui mater’.

ff. 20v-21v: Eight English prayers for the days of the week, beginning ‘O good Jhesu I beseche the’.

ff. 22r-25r: An English treatise on spiritual preparation for communion, beginning ‘Intierly belovyde in god’.

ff. 26r-30r: An English treatise on morning devotions, translated from the Liber Specialis Gratiae, III.17, III.29, IV.23, entitled ‘A short meditacion and informacyon of oure lord Jhesu schewyd to seynt Mawde by reuelacion’; beginning ‘In the nyght or in the mournyng’.

ff. 30r-31r: An instruction for self-examination, entitled ‘And after Complyn after matyns In the mornynge’; beginning ‘Take good heed how þou hast governede the’.

ff. 31r-33v: Richard Whitford, Golden Pystle [an adaptation of the English translation of Pseudo-Bernard of Clairvaux’s Golden Epistle], beginning ‘Because we here have ordured yow to pray’.

ff. 33v-35r: Four intercessory prayers, three adapted from William Bonde, Pilgrymage of perfeccyon, III. 6, Chapter 54, entitled ‘The fourme of prayer after an oþer maner use wheþe ye like best’; beginning ‘O blessid lord have mercy on thy hoole churche wherso ever they be dispersed in þe universall world’.

ff. 35v-61r: An English treatise on preparing for Communion, adapted from Richard Whitford, Due preparacion; also featuring an instruction from the Liber Specialis Gratiae, III.19, entitled ‘for your receiving of þe sacrament’; and a series of English prayers; beginning, ‘when ye purpose to receive our lorde meditacion schall be profitable’.

ff. 61v-62r: Maria van Oisterwijk [Maria van Hout], a Middle English translation of a Latin version of her devotion to the Five Wounds first published in Der rechte Weg zur evangelischen Vollkommenheit, here entitled ‘Certane prayers shewyd unto a devote person callyd Mary Ostrewyk’, beginning ‘Fyrst in remembraunce of the Wounde’.

ff. 62r-63v: Prayers for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, beginning ‘Lorde God ffather allmyghty’.

ff. 63r-75r: Meditations for Mass, adapted from William Bonde, Pilgrymage of perfeccyon, III, 6, Chapter 60; also featuring an extract from Nicolas of Saleto, Anthidotarius animae; entitled ‘Meditacions for tyme of the Masse’, beginning ‘The preste goynge to masse’.

ff. 75r-82v: Seven English Prayers to Christ, entitled ‘A devoute meditacion and a thankefull orison to owre Lorde for his mannyfold giftes and benefettes’, beginning ‘O my lord god Jhesu Christ’.

ff. 82v-84v: An English translation of the O Intemerata, entitled ‘A devoute prayer to our Lady and to Seynt John the Evaungelist tawght by our Lady to Seynt Edmond þe bisshope’, beginning ‘O intemerata et in eternum benedicta’.

ff. 84v-85r: A set of English prayers to the Ten Virtues of the Virgin Mary, beginning ‘Thies be þe x vertues of oure lady’.

ff. 85v-88v: An enumeration of the Virgin’s two sets of Seven Joys with a prayer to the Virgin Mary (‘O glorious lady quene & empresse of heven’), entitled ‘Contemplacion for the ffeste of þe Assumpcion’; beginning ‘The first singler joye’.

ff. 88v-89v: An English translation of St Bridget of Sweden’s Liber Celestis (Revelationes), I.8, beginning ‘Our Lady apperid to Seynt Brigitt’.

ff. 89v-90r: An English devotional instruction to recite a thousand Aves within ten consecutive days, beginning ‘A Thousand tymys Ave Maria ye schall sey’.

ff. 91r-96r: A form of confession with a note on confession, entitled ‘a shorte confessionall for religious persons of every days synnes aftir Bonaventure’, beginning ‘Confiteor deo, beate Marie, omnibus sanctis et vobis’.

ff. 96v-98v: An English prayer, entitled ‘An exclamacion of a penytent synner’, beginning ‘A synfull wreche a miserable synner’.

ff. 98v-100v: A Latin prayer, beginning ‘O intemerata’.

ff. 101r-104r: English prayers on the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary, entitled ‘Here after folowith the vij sorowes of our blessid lady’, beginning ‘O lady Mary temple of the trinite’.

ff. 105r-106v: English and Latin prayers, entitled ‘Here foloth [sic] þe bedis of pardon in englyshe of saynt gregorrys pytye’; featuring a prayer to the Holy Name based on the Syon Pardon and Latin prayer from the Liber Specialis Gratiae, I.11 and 11.47; beginning ‘ O swete blessyd Jhesu, for thy holy name’.

ff. 106v: A Latin morning-prayer, beginning ‘Gracias ago tibi omnipotens deus’.

ff. 107r: Two short English prayers (the first derived from the prayer of Manasses), beginning ‘Cast þi selff downe before oure lorde prostrate’.

f. 107r: A short English note, beginning ‘Sorow for sin’.

ff. 107v-110r: A set of three Latin prayers followed by English paraphrases, beginning ‘Marci peto de te des mihi dormire quiete’.

f. 110v: An English prayer, beginning ‘all hayle moste beningne Jesu’.

The manuscript contains a few later additions:

f. 5r: A paraphrase of John 6:55: ‘The bred which I will give is my fflesh, he that eyteth my fleshe and drynketh my blod’, added in the 16th century.