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Harley MS 2398

Record Id:

040-002048229

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048229

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x00038a

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2398

Title:

Middle English collection of devotional treatises and sermons

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains an early 15th-century collection of devotional treatises and sermons in Middle English, including writings influenced by the ideas of and (anonymously) citing John Wyclif [Wycliffe] (d. 1384), theologian, philosopher and religious reformer.

Contents:

ff. 1r-69r: Memoriale credencium, beginning: 'Man and womman þat wylneþ to fle synne and lede clene lyf takeþ hede to þys lytel tretyse þat ys y wryte yn englysche tunge for lewede men þat conneþ nouȝt understonde latyn ne frensch'.

ff. 69v-72v: The Fifteen Oes, in Latin, preceded by a Middle English account about a vision in which a female recluse receives an instruction to venerate the number of Christ's wounds with prayers within the space of a year, and teaches it to a hermit who subsequently learns that an old woman in a wood nearby (in other copies identified as Bridget of Sweden) saves many souls from Purgatory with the prayers, beginning: '[A] womman recluse and solitarye coveitynge to knowen þe numbre of þe woundes of oure lord ihesu crist often prayede god of his special grace þat he wolde vouchen sauf to schewen hem to here . And at þe laste to here spak oure lord ihesu crist and seyde . Seyde eche day by an hool ȝeer xv. Pater noster. and xv. Ave maria. and at þe ȝeeres ende þou schalt have eche a wounde y worschepede and fulfilled þe numbre of þe same'; a shortened version of the introduction printed by Louis, Robert Reynes (1980), pp. 263-68, 463-65.

ff. 73r-106r: A Middle English tract on the Ten Commandments, beginning: 'Alle maner men scholde holde godes byddynges . ffor wiþoute holdyng of hem may no man beo saved'.

ff. 106v-127r: A Middle English treatise relating to the five senses in Middle English, beginning: ‘As it is byfore seyd so muche diligence no so gret bysyness dyde oure lord god never for no creature as for mannes soule’; ending: ‘holy Gost techeþ and enspireth / Explicit bonus tractatus de quinque sensibus’.

ff. 128r-140r: A Middle English treatise beginning wit the five requirements for loving God, beginning: 'It byhoveþ specialy to every man þat desyreþ to love our lord ihesu crist inwardly in herte fyve þynges'.

ff. 140r-153r: Thomas Wimbledon, Redde racionem villicacionis tue; a Middle English sermon, here entitled: ‘Sermo magistri Thome Wymyldonene [sic] Apud crucem in cimiterio Sancti Pauli London[ensis]’; and beginning: 'Redde racionem villicacionis tue. luc. 16. My dere frendes ye schulleþ understonde þatcrist jhesu auctor and doctor of treuþe in his boke of gospel lyknynge þe kyndome of hevene to an housholder'.

ff. 153r-155v: A Middle English exposition on the Pater Noster, extracted from the Middle English Mirror of the Holy Church [Speculum Ecclesie] of St Edmund of Abingdon, entitled: 'þe exposicioun of þe Pater noster'; and beginning: 'Ech cristen man oweþ to knowe whiche beth þe seven axynges of þe lordes prayer þat doþ awey alle yveles and procureþ alle goedes'.

ff. 156r-160v: Visitation of the sick in Middle English, opening with the rubric: ‘How men þat beþ in hele scholde vesite syke men’; beginning: ‘My dere sone or douȝter in god it semeþ þat þou hyest þe faste in þe weye’; ending: ‘mercyful hondes .j. putte it. Amen / Explicit visitacio infirmorum’.

ff. 160v-166v: A Middle English treatise, entitled: 'Of wedded men and wyves and here childrene also'; beginning: 'Oure lord ihesu crist god alyȝty spekeþ in his lawe of tweye matrimonyes of wedloke'.

ff. 166v-174r: A Wycfliffite exposition of the Pater Noster in Middle English, beginning: 'Syþþe þe pater noster is þe beste prayer þat is for in it mot alle oþer prayers be closed'.

ff. 174r-175v: A Middle English tract, beginning: 'As witnesseþ holy writ and holy doctours þer beþ two weyes contrarious þat ledeþ to two contrarious endes'.

ff. 175v-185r: Easter Day sermon in Middle English, entitled: ‘Sermo in die pasche ad populum’, beginning: 'Jhesum queritis nazarenum crucifixum. Matthei [sic: Mark 16:6] ultimo, et in evangelio hodierno. Cristene children in God as ȝe wyte wel on þis day ȝe beþ at þe feste and þe maungere of þe kyng of hevene lord of alle lordes'.

ff. 186r-199v: A Middle English tract on prayer, beginning: 'Cum autem oraveris etcaetera matthei vjto Whanne þou schapest þe to praye or to have eny devocioun fonde þe to be in privy place fram al maner noyse and tyme of reste wiþoute eny lettyng'.

ff. 188v-190v: Short Rule of Life in Middle English, entitled: 'a schort reule of lyf for everyche man in general and for prestes and lordes and laboreres in special how eche schal be saved in his degre'; beginning: '[F]irst whan þou rysest or fully wakes þenke on þe goedness of þy god how for his gret goednesse and non oþer nede he made alle þynges of nouȝt boþe angeles and men'.

The manuscript contains several additions:

ff. 1*verso-2*recto: Arabic and Roman numerals, from 1 to 69; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

f. 127r: A draft indenture: 'Thys indenture made the xxijth daye of June in the iiij yeare of'; written in the late 16th or early 17th century.

f. 190v: A short Latin note on the Seven Works of Mercy, beginning: 'Septem sunt opera misericordiae quorum vj patent ex evangelio'; added in the 15th century.

f. 191r: An inscription in English: ‘Make much of an old frend’; written in a 17th-century hand.

f. 192v: English notes from the Sarvant family of Gloucestershire: '[...] Rycherd sarvant my cheld deane in the Countie of Glouster [...];' added in the 16th century.

f. 193r: A few words in English: 'Watter dave Rychard'; written in a 16th-century hand.

f. 193v: A few words in English: 'Joh [...] for god'; written in a 16th-century hand.

Decoration:

Large puzzle initials (4-5 lines) in blue and red with contrasting penwork decoration in red extending into the margins; other initials (2-6 lines) in blue with contrasting pen-work decoration in red; paragraph marks in alternating red and blue. Marginalia underlined in red. Underlining and corrections in the manuscript in red ink.

The initial cataloguing of this manuscript was funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048229", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2398: Middle English collection of devotional treatises and sermons" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048229

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2398 : Middle English collection of devotional treatises and sermons

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2399]/040-002048229

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 item

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1424

Date Range:

1st quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Foliation: ff. 1*-2* + 193 ( + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment strip at the beginning + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); ff. 1*-2* are parchment leaves; 1 blank unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 2* (f. [2*a]); and 1 after f. 127; 1 unfoliated parchment stub after f. [2*a]; added stubs of leaves between quires; tears in f. 171 have been sewn with brown thread; modern foliation in pencil throughout but f. 2* features a '4' at the top of the page, and f. 1r a '5' in brown ink by an early modern hand.

Dimensions: approximately 190 x 130mm (text space ruled in metal point and ink for single columns of 31 lines: 130 x 80 mm).

Collation: i-xxiii8, xxiv10; indicated by horizontal catchwords and quire signatures.

Script: Gothic (Anglicana); written by one scribe.

Binding: British Museum in-house; black half leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate gold-stamped on the outside covers. Brown leather covers from the Harleian binding with blind- and gilt-tooled decoration pasted on to pastedowns; attributable to Christopher Chapman (fl 1704-1756): the roll used for the decoration is identical to Chapman’s roll no. 4 published in Nixon, ‘Harleian Bindings’ (1975), pl. 14.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Southwestern England (Gloucestershire).

Provenance:

Probably written in Gloucestershire, as indicated by dialectal variants in the Middle English texts that are locatable to the area of Mitcheldean (see McIntosh et al., A Linguistic Atlas (1986), I, p. 112).

The Sarvant family of Gloucestershire, owned in the 16th century: John Sarvant inscribed a memorandum concerning the death of Thomas on 25 August 1558 on f. 185r: 'memorandum Thomas sarvant dyed the xxv daye of august in the fowrthe and fyfte yeare of the Raygne of phyllype and mary by the grace of god kynge and queane of yngglond frawnce napulles Jeruseleme and Irlonde etcaetera In the yere of oure lord god 1559 - John Sarvant'; and another reference to the Sarvant family features on f. 192v (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

William Oldisworth (b. 1680, d. 1734), writer and translator, son of William Oldisworth, vicar of Itchen Stoke, Hampshire, and prebendary of Middleton, in Winchester: his name inscribed on f. 2*recto; possibly given by him to Robert Harley or his son, Edward Harley (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 261).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Harley shelfmarks '100.D.1 / 2398' in brown ink and '21/I B' in pencil on f. i recto.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), pp. 684-685.

I. K. Knight, Wimbledon’s Sermon. Redde rationem villicationis tue: A Middle English Sermon of the Fourteenth Century, Duquesne Studies 9 (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1967), pp. 7-9.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 261.

Howard M. Nixon, ‘Harleian Bindings’, in Studies in the Book Trade in Honour of Graham Pollard, ed. by R. W. Hunt, I. G. Philip, and R. J. Roberts, Bibliographical Society Publications, n.s., 18 (Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1975), pp. 153-94 (pl. 14).

J. H. L. Kengen, Memoriale Credencium: A Late Middle English Manual of Theology for Lay People (Nijmegen: Radboud University Nijmegen 1979), pp. 7-8.

The Commonplace book of Robert Reynes of Acle: An Edition of Tanner MS 407, ed. by Cameron Louis (New York: Garland, 1980), pp. 263-68, 463-65 (on the introduction to the Fifteen Oes).

Margaret Aston, Lollards and Reformers: Images and Literacy in Late Medieval Religion (London: Hambledon Press, 1984), pp. 153-155 and ns 64-72.

R. E. Lewis, N. F. Blake, and A. S. G. Edwards, Index of Printed Middle English Prose (New York: Garland, 1985), nos 49, 203 448, 521, 560, 604, 800 [=IPMEP].

Angus McIntosh et al., A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieaeval English, 4 vols (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1986), I, p. 112.

Rolf H. Bremmer Jr., The Fyve Wyttes. A Late Middle English Devotional Treatise Edited from BL MS. 2398 with an Introduction, Commentary and Glossary (Amsterdam: Rodophi, 1987), pp. xi-xviii, cvi [reproduction of f. 106v].

Ann Eljenholm Nichols, ‘Books-for-Laymen: The Demise of a Commonplace’, Church History, 56:4 (1987), pp. 457-473 (esp. p. 459).

Veronica O’Mara, 'A Study of Unedited Late Middle English Sermons that Occur Singly or in Small Groups, with an Edition of Selected Sermons' (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Leeds, 1987), pp. 193-194.

Christina von Nolcken, ‘Notes on Lollard citation of John Wyclif's Writings’, The Journal of Theological Studies, 39 (1988), pp. 411-437 (esp. p. 420).

Judith Jefferson, ‘An Edition of the Ten Commandments in BL Harley 2398 and the Related Version in Trinity College Dublin 245, York Minster XVI.L.12, and Harvard English 738 together with Discussion of Related Commentaries’ (unpublished DPhil thesis, University of Bristol, 1995), pp. xii-xviii.

Rebecca Farnham, 'London, British Library, Harley 2398', in Manuscripts of the West Midlands Catalogue (2004) [accessed 4 May 2021].

Thomas J. Heffernan, Patrick J. Horner, and Susanna Greer Fein, XI: Sermons and Homilies, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1500, 26 (New Haven: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005), nos 42 and 51.

Veronica O’Mara and Suzanne Paul, A Repertorium of Middle English Prose Sermons, 4 vols, Sermo: Studies on Patristric, Medieval, and Reformation Sermons and Preaching, 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), Part 2: London, British Library (Arundel), to London, Westminster Abbey Library, pp. 1353-1356.

Matthew Fisher, Scribal Authorship and the Writing of History in Medieval England (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2012), pp. 50-56.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Chapman, Christopher, bookbinder, fl 1704-1756
Oldisworth, William, writer and translator, d 1734
Wimbledon, Thomas, fl 1388,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000063127202
Wyclif, John, theologian, philosopher, and religious reformer, d 1384,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000116650647

Places:

Southwestern England