Royal MS 18 C X

MIRROR of the Life of Christ, an English version of the Speculum (or Meditationes) vitae Christi commonly attributed to S. Bonaventura, but more probably by Johannes de Caulibus of San Gemignano in Tuscany (cf. 7 A. I, art. 5, 7 D. XVII, art. 1). Printed by Carton, 1488 (?), &c. The name of the translator, who alters his original considerably, sometimes in a controversial sense against the Lollards (e. g. ff. 43 b, 73 b), is not given, but in one of the seven copies of this version in the Brit. Mus. 'Add. MS. 30031, the colophon (f. 110) states that it is by Nicholas Love, Prior of the Carthusian monastery of Mount Grace, co. York, and the inserted passages are marked in most of the MSS. with an N. Warton (History of English Poetry, ed. 1840, ii, p. 320) ascribes it to John Morton, an Augustinian monk. Begins, after the rubric, 'Here bigynneþ þe proheme of þe book þat [is] clepid þe myrour of þe blissed lif of Ihesu Crist, 'Quecumque scripta sunt (&c.). This ben þe wordes of þe gret Doctour and þe holi apostle Poule'; ends imperfectly in Part v, ch. xliii, 'wtoute sustenaunce of þe bodi drawinge dounward peynefull'. It therefore lacks the short treatise on the Sacrament Which elsewhere follows Part vii. A leaf has been cut out after f. 47, containing the end of Part iii and the beginning of Pt. iv.

Vellum; ff. 84. 121/2 in. x 81/4 in. Middle of XV cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves (vi⁷, last⁵). Sec. fol. 'fynde not'. Rubrics and marginal notes in red, initials in red and blue. Belonged to john Theyer (monogram, f. 84 b). Theyer sale-cat. no. 32; CMA. 6631