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Harley MS 3869

Record Id:

040-002049705

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049705

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x00017c

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100173571752.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3869

Title:

John Gower, Confessio amantis, Traitié pour essampler les amantz marietz, pageant verses, and some short Latin verse; Marian hymns in English and Latin

Scope & Content:

Confessio amantis by John Gower (d. 1408), along with his French Traitié pour essampler les amantz marietz, and some of his short Latin verse. Also includes (in the hand of another scribe), pageant verses by John Lydgate and Marian hymns in English and Latin.

Contents:

ff. 2r–4v: John Lydgate, Pageant verses celebrating the entry of Queen Margaret (b. 1430, d. 1482), consort of Henry VI, into London in 1445. Edited by Brown, ‘Lydgate’s Verses’ (1912). ‘Atte the Brigge foot in Suthwerke Pees and plente / Ingredimini et replete terram . / Moost cristen Princesse by influence of grace / Doughter of Jherusalem oure plesaunce … [f. 4v] with fruicioun of the Trynite / By contemplacioun of hys glorie deo gracias Amen'.

ff. 5r–357r: John Gower, Confessio amantis, third recension: 'Torpor ebes sensus scola parva labor minimusque / Causant quo minimus ipse minora canam / Qua tamen Engisti lingua cant insula bruti / Anglica carmente metra iuvante loquar / Ossibus ergo carens que conterit ossa loquelis / Absit et interpres stet procul oro malus. Of hem þat writen us tofore / The bokes dwell and we therfor … [f. 356v] Wher resteþ love and alle pes / Oure ioie mai ben endeles. Explicit iste liber qui transeat obsecro liber / [...] Sit laus completa quo gloria stat sine meta.’ Rubrics in red, as are Gower's marginal glosses, each headed by a blue paraph.

ff. 357v–361v: John Gower, Traitié selonc les auctours pour essampler les amantz marietz: ‘Pusquil ad dit ci devant en Englois par voie dessample la sotie … Le creatour de toute creature / Qui lalme domme ad fait a son ymage … [f. 361v] Omnes quosque status precessit in orbe beatus / Ille deo gratus . splendet ad omne latus'. Rubrics and marginal glosses in red, as for the Confessio.

f. 362r: John Gower, 'Est amor': 'Carmen de varijs in Amore passionibus breviter copilatum. Est Amor in glosa pax bellica lis pietosa / Accio famosa vaga sors vis imperiosa'.

ff. 362r–365v: John Gower, 'Carmen super miltiplici viciorum pestilencia': 'Nota hic precipue carmen super multiplici viciorum pestilencia unde tempore Ricardi Secundi partes nostre specialius inficiebantur. Non excusatur qui verum non fateatur / Ut sic ponatur modus unde fides recolatur'. Rubrics and marginal glosses in red, as for the Confessio.

f. 366r: John Gower, 'Quia unusquisque prout a deo accepit alijs impartiri tenetur Johannes Gower super hijs que deus sibi sensualiter donavit'. The text is in red, with red-pen-flourished large initials in blue.

f. 366v: John Gower (attributed), 'Eneidos bucolis': 'Carmen quod quidam Philosophus in memoriam Johannis Gower super consummacione suorum trium librorum versificatum composuit et eidem gratanter transmisit. Eneidos Bucolis que Georgica metra perhennis / Virgilio laudis serta dedere scolis …'.

ff. 366v–367v: Hymn to the Virgin Mary: '[M]yght wisdom . goodnesse of the Trinite / Mi naked sowle inspire with influence …'.

f. 368r: Hymn to the Virgin Mary, 'Ave virgo virginum que verbo concepisti / Ave lactans filium virgo permansisti …'.

Decoration:

2 miniatures in colours and gold: Nebuchadnezzar asleep in bed, and the image of precious metals from his dream (f. 5r); and the Lover kneeling before a confessor in a landscape, in a border with foliate feathering extending into the margins (f. 18r). It is one of 13 manuscripts containing an image of the Lover's confession (Burrow, ‘Portrayal’, 1983; Garbáty, ‘Description’, 1996). Decorated initial in colours and gold with acanthus leaves and foliate feathering extending into the margin (f. 5r). Initials in blue or red with pen-flourishing in the other colour, including foliate motifs (male face on f. 167r). Some initials in red with brown pen-flourishing (e.g., ff. 99r-v, 171r-v, 188r-192v). Capitals at the start of each line marked in red. Rubrics and glosses in red, with blue paraphs.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049705", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3869: John Gower, Confessio amantis, Traitié pour essampler les amantz marietz, pageant verses, and some short Latin verse; Marian hymns in…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049705

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3869 : John Gower, Confessio amantis, Traitié pour essampler les amantz marietz, pageant verses, and some short Latin verse; Marian hymns…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3861]/040-002049705

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100173571752.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

English, Middle
French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1430

End Date:

1470

Date Range:

Mid 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: paper; the outer and inner bifolia of each quire are parchment. Watermark visible of a unicorn head (e.g. f. 25).

Dimensions: 280 × 200 mm (written area 210 × 70 mm).

Foliation: ff. 368 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end).

Collation: Mostly in quires of 8. Leaf signatures throughout the whole quire. Catchwords written horizontally (some catchwords seem not to correspond to quire divisions).

Script: Gothic. Folios 2v-4v and 366v (bottom)–368r are in a different hand from the Gower material.

Binding: British Museum in-house, rebound 1883. Marbled endpapers; edges inted in brown ink.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England, S. E. (London?).

Provenance:

Added pencil drawing of a female face, post-medieval (f. 167v).

Basil Feilding (1500-82), son of William Feilding (d. 1547): inscribed with his name, 'Basyl ffyldyng' (f. 366v).

Goodith Feilding, daughter of William Willington of Barcheston, Warwickshire, 16th century: inscribed with her name, 'Goodythe ffylding' (ff. 366v, 367r).

Valentin Penson, (1597?): inscription has been written over and partly erased by George Cogiluij 'Liber Valentin penson ex [illegible words partly erased and written over] Peacock an^o 15[9]7' (f. 4v).

George Cogiluij, in 1628 (Wright, Fontes, 1972): inscribed '1628 George Cogiluy' (f. 1r), 'George Cogiluy ex dono [illegible] London 28 Ja^r 1628' (f. 4v), 'George Cogiluy' (f. 357r). Inscribed pressmark 'Nn' (f. 1r).

Inscribed 17th century 'R. C.' (f. 2r). Wright suggests this might be another member of the Cogiluij family.

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: inscribed 'Janu. 22 1729/30 Oxford' (f. 2r), inscribed '1449 28 of May [illegible] the citie of London' (by their librarian Humfrey Wanley?] (f. 2r).

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish Harley, 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: old British Museum pressmark, 121. C. 12 (f. 2r).

Information About Copies:

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Publications:

Thomas Tyrwhitt, 'Essay on the Language and Versification of Chaucer: Part the Third', in Essays on the Art of Chaucer's Verse, ed. by Alan T. Gaylord (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 27-52 (p. 44); reprinted from 'An Essay on His Language and Versification', in The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 2nd edn, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1798).

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), III (1808), p. 89 (no. 3869).

Carleton Brown, 'Lydgate's Verses on Queen Margaret's Entry into London', Modern Language Review, 7 (1912), 226-31 [discussion and edition of ff. 2-4v (the pageant verses)].

Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse (New York: Columbia, 1943), nos. 2168, 2200, 2662.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 91, 107, 158.

J. A. Burrow, 'The Portrayal of Amans in "Confessio Amantis"', Gower’s Confessio Amantis: Responses and Reassessments, ed. by A. J. Minnis (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1983), pp. 5-24 (p. 12 n. 7).

Jeremy Griffiths, 'Confessio Amantis: The Poem and its Pictures', in Gower’s Confessio Amantis, ed. by Minnis, pp. 163-78 (pp. 167-69, 177).

Thomas J. Garbáty, 'A Description of the Confession Miniatures for Gower's Confessio Amantis with Special Reference to the Illustrator's Role as Reader and Critic', Mediaevalia, 19 (1996), 319-43 (pp. 332-33).

Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), II, p. 109.

Derek Pearsall, 'The Manuscripts and Illustrations of Gower's Works', in A Companion to Gower, ed. by Siân Echard (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004), pp. 73-97 (pp. 76, 79).

Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: British Library, 2005), nos. 2168, 2200, 2662.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Related Material:

Entry in A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), III (1808), p. 89 (no. 3869):

'John Gower's Confessio Amantis, in 8 books, with a few smaller poems by the same author. The volume is large, & is written partly on vellum, partly on paper. XV'.