Royal MS 15 A XX

CICERO, several works, and some theological tracts, together with a collection of ghost-stories inserted, in Latin, viz.:

1. 'Tullius de officiis'; the text is closely allied to 15 A. VIII, art. 4. A few notes in a contemporary hand and at the end a fragment of commentary, beg. 'De liberalitate et officio intendit'. f. 1.

2. Cicero's Paradoxa Stoicorum (without title); the text resembles 15 A. VIII, art. 3. A few notes. f. 59.

3. 'Tullius de amicia' (sic, this title follows half a page of the text on f. 66 b, the scribe beginning afresh on f. 67); the text resembles 15 A. VIII, art. 1. Followed by a fragment of commentary, beg. 'Atticus fuit quidam nobilissimus Romanus'. A note in Theyer's hand refers to 'aliud exemplar MS. proxime post Alfonsum contra ludaeos', but the reference cannot be traced. f. 67.

4. 'Tullius de senectute'; the text is not very closely akin to 15 A. VIII, art. 2, but both are probably of mixed origin. A few notes. f. 84.

Artt. 1-4 consist of eleven gatherings (sig. i-xi) chiefly of 8 leaves (ii¹⁰, iii¹², ix¹⁰, xi¹⁰); art. 5 begins a fresh series (i-iv¹⁰; v⁵), but the two MSS. must have been early united, since the foot of f. 98 b contains a contemporary introduction to art. 5.

5. 'Rethorica Tullii prima' (colophon, 'Explicit liber secundus rethoricorum'): the two books De inventione rhetorica, with a text probably conflate. The introductory note (f. 98 b) beg. 'Scribit ad Brutum eius rogatu'. f. 99.

Art. 6 is an addition at the end of the quire in a hand of circ. 1400 (cf. art. 10).

6. Ghost-stories from the neighbourhood of Byland Abbey, co. York, viz. :-(a) Ghost of a 'mercenarius' of Rievaulx, in the shape of a horse and afterwards of a haycock, helps to carry beans. f. 140 b (b) Ghost of an excommunicate person appears as 'a raven and a dog to a tailor of Ampleforth named Snowball, riding home from Gilling, temp. Rich. II. The tailor obtains for him a written absolution at York, which 'nobilis confessor' Richard de Pickering assures him is sufficient. He meets the ghost again at Byland-bank, where it appears as a goat, a wallet, and lastly like a dead king in the pictures, and tells him of two other ghosts, one a dumb ghost of a murderer in the shape of a bull without mouth, eyes, or ears, the other of a monk in the shape of a huntsman; it also warns the tailor to restore a hood to a soldier whom he will find near Alnwick castle. f. 141;-(c) Ghost of Robertus fil. Roberti de Boltebi of Kilburn is caught by Robert Foxton in the church. yard. f. 142 b;-(d) Jacobus Tankerlay, rector of Kereby [Kirkby Moorside ?], is said (tradunt veteres) to have been buried 'coram capitulo Bellelande', and, as he afterwards walked and blew out the eye of his concubine at Kirby, the abbot had him exhumed and carted by Richard Waynemann to Gormyre [a lake in Sutton-under-Whitestone]. f. 142b;-(e) A ghost carried by a woman on her back is seen to have no solid fiesh. f. 142 b;-(f) Ghost of a canon of Newburgh who stole the prior's silver spoons appears to a 'magister aratorum'. f. 143;-(g) Ghost of a 'mercenarius' who fattened his oxen at his master's expense. f. 143;-(h) Ghost follows William de Bradeforth of Ampleforth shouting 'How, how, how'. f. 143;-(i) Ghost at Atoun [Ayton?] in Cleveland follows a man 24 miles and tosses him over a hedge. f. 143.

Artt. 7-9 are in a late 12th cent. hand. The first gathering is marked 'primus quatrrnio de secundo volumine'.

7. 'Incipit elucidarium' (a late 13th cent. hand adds 'Lanfranci Cantuariensis archiepiscopi'): the well-known dialogue, of uncertain authorship (cf. 7 D. 1, art. 1, &c.). The text resembles 7 D. 1. A note by John Theyer is prefixed, 'Anselmus author est secundum alios et librum impressum, vide catalogum Iamesii, lib. MS. [Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis by Thomas James, 1600, lib. iit p. 7 ?] forte tamen Gulielmi Couentriensis, qui claruit 1360, vide Pitseum'. Preface beg. 'Sepius rogatus a discipulis'; dialogue, 'Gloriose magister, rogo ad inquisita'. Ends 'diebus uite tug in secula seculorum. Amen. Amen. Amen'. f. 144.

8. Letter of Ivo of Chartres to Walter, provost of Lesterps: ep. lxix, Migne, Patr. Lat. clxii. 88. Beg. 'Ivo dei gracia . . . Quantum intellexi ex litteris'. f. 162.

9. Theological commonplaces. Beg. 'De confessione, xv. Hinc lacobus ait confitemini alterutrum'. f. 162.

Art. 10 is a continuation of art. 6.

10. (a) 'De triplici genere confessionis'. f. 163 b;-

(b) Tale from a book: a servant guilty of adultery with his mistress and suspected by his master is taken to a tivates qui habet spiritum phitonis', but on the way he repents and lashes himself, whereby the spirit loses his memory;-(c) A 'fossor' of Exeter who stole meat cannot be tracked by a magician's boy after he enters a church for confession, f. 164.-(d) Richard Rountre, of Cleveland, goes on a pilgrimage to S. James. His wife, whom he left pregnant, buries the child in one of his boots. The child appears to the father, who baptizes it and convicts his wife with the boot and divorces her, 'sed credo quod hoc diuorcium displicuit valde deo'. f. 164;-(e) Ghost of the sister of Adam de Lond. (?) the elder, caught by Will. Trower the elder in Ampleforth churchyard, confesses to wrongfully giving to her brother the charters of her husband's lands in Ampleforth and Heslerton. f. 164 b.

Vellum; ff. 164. 8¹/₂ in. x 5¹/₂ in. Late XII (artt. 7-9) and early XIII centt. Sec. fol. '-pline igitur'. Initials in colours. Belonged to Byland Abbey, 'Liber sanite Marie de Bellalanda'; afterwards to John Theyer. Theyer sale-cat. no. 185; CMA.. 6538.

includes:

• f. 144 Petrus Abailardus: Elucidarium atrrib. to: late 12th cent.