Royal MS 18 B XXI

TRANSLATION of, and commentary on, Ps. i-vii and viii. 1-4, in English: the longer text of the work attributed to Richard Rolle of Hampole, but perhaps of Wycliffite origin (see below, 18 D. I). The prologue is not given and the language is modernized. Some of the verses have also in the margin the paraphrase of Johannes Campensis (printed in English by T. Gybson, 1539). Beg. 'Beatus vir, &c.: In this psalme the prophete speke of Crist and his folowers . . . . Blessed is that man that hath not gone in the counsell of wicked men. . . . He is blissed to whome all thinges come that he coveiteth'; ends 'What is man that thou hadst. . .'. The marginal paraphrase beg. 'That man is blessed in dede whiche hath not folowed the councel of theym that lyue withoute any certayn lawe'.

On the fly-leaf (f. 1) is a note by J[ohn] R[ussell] numbering the MS. E. 1557 and comparing it with E. 1512, sc. 18 D. I. Russell, who was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and a Prebendary of Peterborough Cathedral, issued in 1721 Proposals for Printing the Holy Bible as transl. by John Wiclyf (see Add. MS. 5890, f. 1). Similar notes are in 18 C. XXVI and 18 D. I.

Paper; ff. 32. Folio. 113/4 in. x 73/4 in. Middle of XVI cent. Sec. fol. 'and in goddis'. On the original binding, portions of which are inlaid in the new binding, were oblong panels stamped in gold on the upper cover I AM THYN O LORDE and on the lower THERFOR SAVE ME, and enclosed by a narrow roll-tooled border of renaissance ornament (mask, etc.), the same border being repeated to form a larger panel outside. Old Royal press-mark 'no. 1170'; not in the old catalogues.