Royal MS 19 B V

JEAN CHARLIER DE GERSON: several tracts in French. The chapters are numbered consecutively and summarized in the table of contents (f. 3) as if a single work, but artt. 1-3 are evidently really distinct, and the Latin versions are separately printed by L. E. Du Pin, J. Gersonii Opera Omnia, Antwerp, 1706. English glosses in a nearly contemporary hand are interlined here and there. Contents;-

1. 'Maistre Jeham Jarson, chancellier de leglise nostre dame de Paris [1395-1429] solempnel docteur en theologie, composa ce present traittie par lequel on peult sauoir quant on pesche mortelement ou veniellement' . In twenty-five chapters. Other copies are at Paris, e.g. Bibl. de l'Arsenal, MSS. 2113,3386, Bibl. Mazarine, MS.

947. An anonymous Latin translation is printed by Du Pin, ii, col. 485, entitled Tractatus de differentia peccatorum venalium et mortalium. Beg. 'Qui bien considere la bonte de dieu'; ends 'quilz feissent contre ses commandemens'. f. 6.

2. 'Cy sensuit le traittie des temptacions', numbered as ch. xxvi. In the Arsenal MS. 2113 it precedes art. 1. Latin translation in Du Pin, iii, col. 589 as Tractatus de diversis diaboli tentationibus. Beg. 'Pour nous humilier dessoubz le non de dieu'; ends 'intercession de tous les sainset saintez. amen'. f. 36 b.

3. 'Vng petit traittie fait par maistre Jehan Jarson sur les commandemens de la loy . . . en especial pour quatre manierez de gens . . . Gloire soit a dieu ou quel nom pour le salut des amez du simple peuple christien . . . est ordonne ceste briefue escripture', &c. This long heading, numbered ch. xxvii, introduces a form of the treatise printed in Latin by Du Pin, i, coll. 425-450, as Opus tripertitum de praeceptis decalogi, de confessione et de arte moriendi. It is not the work printed (in 1495?) as Le traicte des dix commandemens de la loy selon maistre Jehan Gerson. In the French the parts often occur separately, e.g. Bibl. de l'Arsenal 3386, Bibl. Mazarine 966, and Bibl. Nat., anc. fonds fr. 990. Pt. i beg. (ch. xxviii) 'Fermement nous deuons croyre et tenir', and ends with ch. xxxv, but ch. 17 of pt. i is transferred to form an introduction to pt. ii (ch. xxxvi). Pt. ii is headed 'Sensieut lexamen de conscience' (ch. xxxvii) f. 85), beg. 'Qui se veult mettre de lestat de pechic en estat de grace'. Pt. iii is headed 'Cy sensuit vne briefue maniere pour ammonester ceulx ou celles qui en especial sont en larticle de la mort pour apprendre a bien morir' (ch. xxxix, f. 94), beg. 'Se les vrays amys dun malade font grant dilligence'; ends 'au prestre a ce ordonne'. f. 62 b.

4. 'Vne vraye medecine a lame en article de la mort ordonnee par maistre Jehan de Varennes' (doctor of theology at Paris, circ. 1396), numbered (with art. 5) as ch. xl. Beg. 'Il est escript en vng liure auctentique de monseigneur saint Anceauline'; ends 'la pryere de sa tres doulce mere. amen'. f. 98 b.

5. 'Le credo quon chante en la messe en francois compose par maistre Jehan Sarrazin docteur en theologie pour les gens lays'. Beg. 'Ie croy en dieu vng pere tout puissant'. f. 101. Colophon, 'Cy fine ce present liure compose par maistre Jehan Jarson docteur'. On the fly-leaves are:-(a) Fragment of the beginning of a poem in French verse (rhymes abababab) on the Redemption of Man, beg. ' Seignours et dames, or entendes ou nom du pere ornnipotent'. f. 9,;-(b) The Hours of the Cross in English verse, resembling the version printed in the Minor Poems of the Vernon MS., Early Engl. Text Soc., 1892, pt. i, ed, Horstmann, P. 37, cf. Add. MS. 37787, f. 12 b, but the present version has an extra couplet to each hour beginning ' Wyt a O and a V', cf. a MS. at Cambridge, Gonville and Caius Coll. 175 (96), Heuser in Anglia, xxvii, p. 312, and Miss Rose Peebles in Bryn Mawr Monographs, Legend of Longinus. Beg. 'Herly yn a maye mornynge the Iuys Ihesus canne take'. f. 103.

Paper (exc. f. 1, a vellum fly-leaf); ff. 103. Folio. 11 3/4 in. x 8 in. Third quarter of XV cent. Gatherings (beg. f. 6) of 12, leaves (vi⁶, ix¹⁰),lettered,with catchwords. Sec fol. in text 'tous cas'. Erased inscriptions on f. 2. 'Iste liber pertinet Thome Vnton' and f. 102 'Ceste livre apertente a Thomas Vnton' (perhaps Sir Thomas Unton of Minster Lovell, co. Oxon., d. 1533). Cat. of 1666, f. 11; not in CMA.