Lansdowne MS 762

ff. 1r–99v: Tudor commonplace book, which was probably compiled during the reign of King Henry VIII, perhaps in the 1520s or 1530s. Its author would appear to be a Londoner, interested in civic affairs, religion and prophecies.

f. 1r: Pen trials.

f. 2r: Copy on parchment of the testament of John Shorne, or Sharne, rector of the church at Northemaston. In Latin.

f. 2v: Some old English verses, giving instructions to the purchasers of lands. Begins, ‘Who wolbe ware in purchasing’ (see no. 470); ‘The number of shires, towns, parishes, knights’ fees; the length breadth and circuit of England, and its weights and measures, computed in the fourth year of the reign of Henry V.’

f. 3r: A letter Henry V sent to the King of France, which taunts him with figurative terms chiefly belonging to hunting. Henry concludes by telling the French King ‘ye wot of right I am maister of the game.’

ff. 3r–v: A paraphrastic translation in English verse of these two Latin lines, ‘Terram terra tegat, Demon peccata resumat, Mundus res habeat, spiritus alta petat.’

ff. 3v–5r: ‘Questions bitwene the maister of Oxinforde and his scoler.’

ff. 5r–6v: ‘A processe, or an exortation to tendre the chargis of the true husbondys.’ A poem in stanzas of eight lines, each concluding with ‘I praye to God spede well the plough.’ It enumerates the various charges and oppressions on landed property.

ff. 6v–7r: ‘Prophetia quam reuelavit beata Virgo Maria sancto Thome quondam Cantuar’ Archiepiscopo.’ It begins with an exhortation from Mary the English should amend their ways or suffer the consequences.

ff. 7r–v: Honor de Maundevile. A genealogy.

f. 7v: The twelve Fridays in the year on which it is good to fast.

ff. 7v–8v: A poem in stanzas of eight lines, some of them alliterative, entitled ‘An honour to london.’ Begins, ‘London thow arte of Townes A per se.’ Here follows the penultimate stanza: ‘Stronge be the walls abowte the stondis/ Wise be the people that within the dwelles/ Freshe is thy river with his lusty strands/ Blithe be thy churches, well sownyng are thy belles/ Rich be thy marchauntis in substaunce that execells/ Faire be thy wives, right lovesom white and small/ Clere be thy virgyns lusty under kellys/ London thou art the flowre of cities all.’

ff. 8v–9r: ‘The names of townes lymyted for the sauf custody of weightis and mesures according to the kings estonderd for the shires folowing as particulerly appereth.’

ff. 9r–v: ‘Thise been the ix answeres which God yave to A certeyn creture that desired to wit whate thinge was moost plesure to hym in this worlde.’

f. 9v: A single seven line stanza, beginning ‘Grete marvaile and wonder I haue in my conceite’; Nota de beata dei genitrix virgo maria’, and a note of the different sorts of friars in London.

ff. 10r–12r: Stanzas in seven lines on the reigns of the Kings of England, from William the Conqueror to Henry VII.

f. 12r: A table of Kings of England, their reigns and places of burial, from the Conquest to Henry the Seventh.

ff. 12v–13v: ‘Cronice breviter tractate ab origine mundi.’

f. 13v: ‘Mirabilia mundi.’

ff. 14r–v: ‘De fontibus’, ‘De arboribus.’

f. 14v: ‘De montibus.’

ff. 14v–15r: ‘De mirabilibus Angliae.’

ff. 15r–v: ‘De mirabilibus Hiberniae.’

ff. 15v–16r: ‘De sanctorum locis.’

f. 16r: The properties of a good horse. These can be found in Sir Anthony Fitzherbert's Boke of Husbandry, STC 10994.

f. 16v: Rules for a man’s conduct, with various proverbial saws. Begins, ‘Aryse erly, serve God devowtly’; ‘Isti sunt dies mali et pestiferi secundum antiquos Grecorum.’ Then follow the days in English.

f. 17r: Latin verses on the Judgment of Paris.

f. 17v: ‘Epitaphium Nennii poetae.’

ff. 17v–18r: ‘Epitaphium Eugenii Papae quarti.’

f. 18r: ‘Epitaphium Nicholai Papae quinti’

ff. 18r–v: ‘Epitaphium Andreolae, genit[o]ris eiusdem.’

ff. 18v–19r: Epitaphia Jugurthae, Virgilii, Ciceronis, Catonis, Didonis, Pallantis, et Julii Caesaris.

ff. 19r–v: Epitaphia Octaviani, Herculis, pictoris cuiusdam egregii, Domini Petri de Allyaco Cardinalis Cameracensis, et Petri Comestoris.

f. 19v: Epitaphium Ovidii Nasonis, Llewelii principis Wallorum.

f. 19v: An anonymous epitaph in English verse.

f. 20r: Epitaphium Scogani; Epitaphium Terentii.

ff. 21r–v: Festa duplicia Sarum principalia.

ff. 21v–22v: ‘Here foloweth vii speciall interrogacions the which a curate ought to aske euery cristen person that lieth in the extremytie of deth.’

ff. 22v–23v: Notes of land measures.

ff. 23v–24r: A method of taking the altitude of a church steeple.

f. 24r: Verses on how wine, milk and beans can be used to cleanse moles, spots of oil, and ink stains.

ff. 24r–31r: An unfinished metrical romance, containing some strange adventures that befell the celebrated Thomas of Ercildon, or Thomas the rhymer, ‘in Huntly Banks, at Elden tree’," with a fair lady, who prophesied to him many battles that should be fought between the English and Scots, and particularly those of Halidown, Spincarelow and Sawdingford. Begins, ‘As I me went this thender day/ So styll makyng my mone, In a mery mornyng of May/ In huntly banks my self alone.’f. 31v: ‘De cautela liberandi aliquem a morte juste condemnatum, si quando ducitur ad patibulum procuratur ut ducatur per viam ubi transitum facit aliquis Cardinalis.’

f. 32r: Tabula quaedam astronomica, cyphris Arabicis concinnata.

f. 34r: Deleted page.

ff. 34v–36v: ‘The articles the which the wardemote quest shall enquire.’

f. 37r: ‘The oath of every freman.’

f. 37v: The oath of those admitted in frank pledge.

f. 38r: The oath of a constable.

ff. 38r–v: The oath of a scavenger.

ff. 38v–39r: The oath of a beadle.

f. 40r: ‘This is conteyned in the bulls of pope Nicholas purchased by the Curattes of the citie of London for offeryngs of all the mensions within the said citie of London or suburbes of the same.’

ff. 41r–v: Tractatus de Wardemoto.

ff. 42r–v: Tractatus de Franciplegio.

f. 42v: The othe of the inquest of wardemote; Articuli pro pace (in English).

ff. 43r–44v: Articuli pro bono regimine civitatis. In English.

ff. 44v–45r: Articuli contra periculum ignis. In English.

f. 46v: Pen trials.

f. 47r: ‘Les nons des princes estans presentement avec lempereur.’

f. 48r: Vaticinia quaedam de Scotis, versibus Leoninis. Begins, ‘Ecce dies venient Scoti sine principe fient.’ A prophecy about the Scots.Prophetia de futuris, 1520, in hexameter verse. Begins, ‘Gallorum levitas Germanos justificabit.’ A prophecy about the future.

ff. 48v–52r: ‘Thes be the namys of the saynts and doctors that spoke of hym that shall wynne the holy crosse.’ This article contains various prophecies of Merlin, Thomas of Ercildon, etc.

f. 52r: ‘Declaracio signorum infra script.’ Begins, ‘The lilie that faire flowre.’

ff. 52r–53r: ‘The prophecy of Merlyon.’ In verse. Begins, ‘When a MCCCCC togyther be knett.’

ff. 53v–54v: Other prophecies in verse.

ff. 54v–57v: Vaticinia queedam contra ecelesiam Romanam. Begins, ‘Tacui semper et silui.’

f. 58r: Prophetia Sanctae Mariae dicta Sancto Thomae de eventu Angliae.

ff. 58r–v: Prophetia Johannis de Rupella.

f. 58v: ‘Versus qui sequuntur inventi fuerunt literis æneis script' sub pavimento aulae Majoris Constantini ex parte Australi.’

ff. 59r–61r: Prophetical verses. Begins, ‘The hedgehoge will the cookcok fede.’

f. 61v: ‘The writing of Valeraunce upon the xxi quiccions of planetts in the moneth of February the yere of our Lorde 1524.’

ff. 62r–63r: A metrical prophecy entitled ‘Brydlyngton.’ Begins, ‘Whan the cok in the North hath buylded his nest.’

f. 63r: ‘Prophetia antiqua.’ Begins, ‘Arca in qua liberatus est Noe.’

ff. 63v–65r: A prophecy, in English verse. Begins, ‘The yere of our Lorde mcccclxxxiiii.’

ff. 65v–66r: A prophecy, in English prose, entitled ‘Hogon.’ Begins, ‘A crapoud shall come...’

ff. 66v–67v: Blank.

ff. 68r–70v: A prophecy in English prose. Begins, ‘A serpent shall rise ungraciously.’ With a key at the end.

ff. 74r–v: Prophetia de Regibus quibusdam Europae.

f. 71r: ‘The profecy of Skylton, 1529’; the first seventeen lines of John Skelton’s Collyn Cloute. In verse. Begins, ‘Som men thynk that ye.’

ff. 72r–73r: ‘Here folowith xxiiii articles the which the people of Almen will have refourmed according as here folowith for which reformacion to obteyne and have there is risen of the said nacion clxxx m1. men and dayly the nombre doth encreas.’ These articles relate to civil as well as ecclesiastical matters.

ff. 73v–74r: Heads of a treaty between the Emperor and the French King.

ff. 75r–88r: A prophetical vision of a crowned Queen attended by angels, including various prophecies of Venerable Bede, Merlin, and Thomas of Ercildon. In verse. Begins, ‘Well on my way as I forth wente.’

f. 88r: The following verses, "Out of thre mares and eke a well/ Shall spryng forth the gosspell When the dun cowe rydeth the bull Then prest beware thy Scull’; a stanza beginning ‘Let fickle fortune run her blindest rase.’

f. 88v: A bill for mason's work, 1569 and 1570.

f. 90v: Three lines in Latin, written in two different hands.

ff. 91r–94r: A collection of Latin and English verses on very miscellaneous subjects, some proverbial, others calculated to help the memory on various occasions, as in history, music, etc. An example: ‘Si doceas stultum letum non dat tibi vultum/ Odit te multum, vellet te scire sepultum’; ‘Who that drynketh well, mych is he the gladder/ Who that drynketh to moch, more is he the madder/ Whan he goth to his bed, his slepe is the sadder/ At morowe, whan he waketh, his brayne is the bradder/ When he loketh in his purce, his sorrowe is the sadder.’

f. 94r: Some historical extracts concerning Nero, etc. In a modern hand.

f. 95r: A recipe to cure the ‘mygreyme.’

f. 95v: A recipe to cure the botts in horses.

ff. 96r–v: Prophetical verses, beginning ‘Syse is ever the best chaunce of the dyes.’ With a deleted passage in a different hand at the end.

f. 97r: A duplicate of the last-mentioned verses.

f. 97v: Notes, partly deleted.

f. 98v: List of characters in ‘The Assembly of Gods’, attributed to John Lydgate.

f. 99r: ‘Taxationes beneficiorum Papae regno Angliae.’

f. 99v: ‘The compovnde Manuell’, which consists of nonsensical, but technical, Latin verses, to assist in the memorisation of the names of the saint days in every month.