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Royal MS 20 B III
- Record Id:
- 040-002107662
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x0003b5
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 20 B III
- Title:
- Treatise on the love of God
- Scope & Content:
-
ff. 1r-89v: Treatise on the love of God for guiding life: ‘Vos volez qe ie vous enueasse chose qi confortait vostre alme. mes ieo faz le contraire Car ieo vous en voi mez grevaunces. … [89v] sanz mesesez sanz fin ou cil vos amaint qui est sanz comencement et sanz fin. Qui vivit et regnat per infinita secula seculorum. Amen.’
ff. 90r-98r: Three poems, written as prose:
ff. 90r-92v: Prayer to Christ, beginning in sets of four lines, but continued in less regular couplets: 'O douz dieu, verray lyesse, De touz mes maus fetez redresse. En dolour sui et en peresse Pur ma grant disnaturesse … [92v] Oies et grauntes ma priere, Ihesu Criste nostre savere. amen'.
ff. 92v-96r: Hymn to the Virgin, in a similar metre: 'O ne doit pas estre ublie Par qi le monde est sauve La pucele tresbenure Qi Marie est apele … E me donez ma garisoun En cel ou sount ti compainon. amen.'
ff. 96r-98r: Prayer to the Virgin and Christ, inspired by the sight of a painted crucifix, preceded by a 23-line verse prologue, in sets of eight lines with alternating rhymes: 'En deduaunt au mois de may pensif alai lains un boscage … [96v] Marie mere de iesu crist qi par sa mort venqit la gere … [98r] E en pes vivre deesore auaunt saunz peche doloure e encombraunce.'
Decoration:
Initials in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in white and marginal extensions. Paraphs in blue with red pen-flourishing or in gold with blue pen-flourishing.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002107662 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 20 B III : Treatise on the love of God - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1803]/040-002107662
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_20_B_III (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Anglo-Norman
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1449
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Dimensions: 255 × 180 mm (text space: 170 × 110 mm).
Foliation: ff. 101 (+ 1 unfoliated ruled parchment flyleaf [f. i] mounted on marbled paper, followed by 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf [f. ii] with pastedown, and 1 ruled parchment flyleaf foliated with 'i' [f. iii] at the beginning, followed by a leaf torn out of the book; final flyleaf mounted on marbled paper).
Collation: i–x8 (ff. 1–80), xi8+1 (ff. 81–89; 9th added), xii8 (ff. 90–97), xiii2–1 (f. 98; 1st cancelled), xiv4–1 (ff. 99–101; 4th cancelled).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Royal Library binding of brown leather.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England, S. E.
Provenance:
Unknown fifteenth-century English owner: inscribed 'Mercy and grace' on the verso of the third flyleaf at the beginning.
Henry VIII (b. 1491, d. 1547), king of England and Ireland: the monogram 'HR' [for Henricus Rex] (f. 1r).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 551' (f. 1), included in the inventory of books in the Upper Library at Westminster of 1542 as 'Mirroir pur bien vivre', with an annotation 'Deficit this booke'.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, p. 360.
Jean Sonet, Répertoire d'incipit de prières en ancien français (Geneva: Droz, 1956), nos. 111, 1238, 1341.
Janet Backhouse, 'Illuminated Manuscripts Associated with Henry VII and Members of his Immediate Family', in The Reign of Henry VII: Proceedings of the 1993 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by Benjamin Thompson (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1995), pp. 175-87 (p. 180, n. 19).
Charity Scott Stokes, ‘Thomas Hoccleve’s Mother of God and the Balade to the Virgin and Christ: Latin and Anglo-Norman Sources’, Medium Aevum, 64.1 (1995), 74-84.
J. P. Carley, 'Marks in Books and the Libraries of Henry VIII', Papers-Bibliographical Society of America, 91 (1997), 583-606 (pp. 588, 604).
Ruth J. Dean, Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society Occasional Publications Series, 3 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), nos. 627, 784, 864, 982.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library in association with The British Academy, 2000), p. 33, H2.779.
Kathleen L. Scott, Tradition and Innovation in Later Medieval English Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 162, n. 222.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)