Royal MS 7 C XV

1. 'SPECULUM LAICORUM' (so colophon): the anonymous collection of Exempla compiled at the beginning of Edward I's reign, attributed by Bale to John Hoveden. There are a few stories in this copy which do not occur in the older MSS. For full description see Ward and Herbert, Cat. of Romances, iii, p. 408. Preceded by a table of capitula (89, but one is missing in the text). Prologue beg. 'In Christo sibi dilecto quondam conscolari'; text, 'Abstinencie triplex est species'. f. 2.

2. 'Incipit prologus in librum Synonime beati Ysidori Hispanensis archiepiscopi': the two books of Synonyma or Soliloquia of S. Isidore (cf. 5 E. I, art. 2, &c.). A note in John Theyer's hand 'lib. impres. pa. 216' refers to the Cologne edition of 1617. First preface beg. 'In subsequeriti hoc libro qui nuncupatur Synonima'; second preface, 'Venit nuper ad manus meas'; and text, 'Anima mea in angustia posita est'. f. 164. On the fly-leaves is some late 15th or early 16th cent. scribbling, including (a) 'Memorandum. Delyueryd to John Turpyn an obligacion wherin Sir Robert Chestur is bownden in the sum of iic. li.' f. 1 b ;-(b) Legal scribbling referring to lands in Estchepe Wethersfeld [Wethersfield, co. Essex?] and the names Thomas Broke, Roger Maddie, James Jurden, and Richard Tarte. f. 181 b;-

(c) Couplet, 'Qui bene vult fari bene debet premeditari / nam semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum, and the names of Henry Jones and John Dutton. f. 182. Vellum; ff. 182. 13 in x 83/4 in. XV cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves (the first is lettered and numbered), with catchwords and 'co[rrectus]'. Sec. fol. 'Quoniam ut dicit'. Initials in red and blue. The name of an carly 16th cent. owner, Henry Bowne, occurs on ff. 2, 181 b, 182. Afterwards belonged to John Theyer. Theyer sale-cat. no. 29; apparently CMA. 6561, though an article there mentioned has no place in the volume.