Sloane MS 1009/1

This manuscript is the first part of a large collection of miscellaneous texts, tracts, and letters that may have been gathered by Sir Hans Sloane (b. 1660, d. 1753), and is now divided in two parts. The second part is Sloane MS 1009/2.

The collection contains a large number of early modern items, including correspondence and tracts written by lieutenant Gideon [Gédéon] Bonnivert (b. 1651, d. 1703), son of Paschall and Judith Bonnivert of Sedan in Champagne. However, the manuscript opens with a section (ff. 2r-61r) containing late 15th-century copies of texts in Latin and Middle English, including The Tale of Melibeus by the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (b. c. 1340, d. 1400).

Two loose printed playing cards with handwritten verses by Philippe Quinault from Jean Baptiste Lully's opera Proserpine, 1680, which were most likely kept among the puzzles with cards and dice in French on ff. 181r-193r, have been removed from Sloane MS 1009 and are kept separately at the British Museum, where they are registered as 'Sl, 1009. 1-2' [accessed 5 December 2021].

Contents:

ff. 2r-16v: Memoriale Credencium: Middle English prose tract on penance, confession, tributlation, temptation, contemplation, the sacraments and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, beginning: 'Penance is the seconde medycyne'; written in the 15th century.

ff. 17r-25v: Reclusorium Anime, beginning: 'We knowyth welle by comyn sapience'; written in the 15th century.

ff. 25v-26v: Three Workings on Man's Soul [based on Richard Rolle's writings], beginning: 'A grete clerke richard of seynt victores'; written in the 15th century.

ff. 26v-27r: 'Nonnula de hominum natura prava'; written in the 15th century.

ff. 27r-28r: Middle English tract on the six religious duties, beginning: 'Ther be vi thynges'; written in the 15th century.

f. 28r: Prayer, beginning: 'O vos sacerdotes'; written in the 15th century.

f. 28v: Prayer to Christ for absolution [Latin], beginning: 'Dominus noster Jesus Christus qui est summus pontifex per suam piissimam misericordiam te absolvat'; written in the 15th century.

ff. 29r-48r: Geoffrey Chaucer, Tale of Melibeus, beginning: 'A yonge man mythye and riche'; ending: 'his goode name for it is written'; written in the 15th century.

ff. 49r-57r: Speculum sacerdotis, entitled: 'De vita et honestate clericorum liber sive speculum sacerdotis sive ut alii volunt speculum edwardi regis'; written in the 15th century.

f. 57r: Prayer to Christ for absolution [Latin], beginning: 'Dominus noster Jesus Christus qui est summus pontifex te absolvat et ego auctoritate michi concessa absoluo te [in] primis a vinculo exommunicationis'; written in the 15th century

f. 57r: Latin verses, imperfect: 'Sunt tria gaudia pax [pax sapiencia copia rerum] / Sunt tria tedia [mors et inedia ffraus mulierum]'; written in the 15th century.

ff. 57r-57v: Payments to (?) a religious fraternity, 1497-1498.

ff. 58r-58v: Computacio daniele prophete; written in the 15th century.

ff. 59r-61r: Somniale; beginning: 'Apes videre vel capere lucrum significat'; written in the 15th century.

f. 61v: Medical recipes [Latin], beginning: 'Contra pyn et web in oculo'; written in the 15th century.

ff. 62r-68v: Excerpts from Vitruvius and other authors on architecture; written in the 17th century.

ff. 68v-72v: Albertus Magnus, De mineralibus et lapidibus; written in the 17th century.

ff. 73r-74v: Essay on Ambition [ 'Essay on Ambition by W. B.'], beginning: 'Ambition is but a goulden cage'; written in the late 17th century.

ff. 75r-76r: Tract on Wisdom, beginning: 'It was aunchiently held that wisdome had no Mother to make us understond that it could not partake of those Imperfections to whiche that sexe is subiect'; written in the 17th century.

f. 77r: Notes on the origin of Britain; ink stains make the text illegible at the beginning; ending: 'Som thinke the Greekes gave it this name from Albion, the son [of] Neptune, as Hesperia Italy of Hesperus the son of Atlas'; written in the 17th century.

ff. 78v-79v: Table of religious houses that were destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, entited: 'A Catalogue of MSS the Relegoues houses that ware demolheshed in the Rayne of Henery the 8'; written in the 17th century.

f. 80r: Copy of a clog almanac, drawn in brown ink; made in the 17th century.

ff. 81r-98v: Astrological tracts in French, beginning with '48 Images celestes', featuring astrological and wind diagrams (ff. 82v, 87v, 88v, 89v, 90r, 91r-96v, 98v), including horoscopes of Charles II of England (f. 91r), King Edward VI of England (f. 91v); Queen Elizabeth I (f. 92r); King Henry III of France (f. 92v); King Henry IV of France (f. 93r); King Philip II of Spain (f. 93v); Henry I, Duke of Guise (f. 94r); King James VI, dated (f. 94v); Mary, Queen of Scots (f. 95r); King Henry II of France (f. 95v); Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor (f. 96r); Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier (f. 98v); written in the 17th century.

ff. 99r-122v: Tracts [Latin and English] on the aspects of the planets, and rules for solving questions, with astrological diagrams on ff. 102r, 106r, citing Abū l-Ḥasan 'Alī ibn Abī l-Rijāl al-Shaybani [Haly Abenragel], Sahl ibn Bishr al-Israili ['Zael'], Guido Bonatti ['Guido'] , John of Seville, Abu Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī [Al-Kindi], Omar Tiberiades ['Aomar'], 'Zergis', Dorotheus of Sidon; written in the 16th century.

f. 123r: Annual expences of the Grand Signior's seraglio; written in the 17th century.

f. 123v: Music notation: neumes on 5-line staves.

ff. 124r-126r: Botanical pencil drawings of Cuckoopint and Pilewort; drawn in the 17th century.

ff. 127r-135r: Description of Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford, entitled: 'The Earle of Strafford Characterised in a letter sent by a worthie gentleman in the Cittie to a freind in his Countrie' [1640].

f. 136r: Poem on the death of Sir William Paston, 1st Baronet, entitled: 'Umbrae venerabilis et clarissimis viri Domini Gulielmi Pastoni Baronetti corporis exuvias relinquenti octavo Calendarum Martij Anno Domini 1662 Latinis Jambis Prosopeia'; followed by his epitaph; written in the 17th century.

ff. 137r-138r: Minutes of Privy Council [French] relating to the seizure by the French of Alexander Burnett's fishing vessel, and complaints of Aberdeen and London merchants of the exactions of French Custom House officers, 1667-1668.

ff. 139r-140v: De Courbière, Letter [French] to Gédéon Bonnivert, 1676.

ff. 141r-141v: Draft letter [English] by Gédéon Bonnivert to a friend respecting the cure of his blindness, Cambridge, 1686.

ff. 142r-143v: Satire: A new bill of sale at Peters Coffee House in Covent Garden [English], c. 1680.

ff. 144r-145r: Additions to a contract between Richard Busby, Head Master of Westminster School, and John Angier, entitled: 'An Account of more Worke done that is not mentioned in the Articles between Dr. R. Busby and John Ainger, nor in the Draught' [Westminster, Westminster School]; written in the late 17th century.

ff. 146r-157r: Report [English] by the Committee of the Common Council, London, appointed to inspect the acts and proceedings entered in the journals in the time of the usurpation, 1683.

ff. 158r-159v: Sale catalogue of the books of a French Bookseller in the New Exchange, Strand; written in the early 18th century.

ff. 160r-162r: Isaac Bauda's speech for the defence of v. J. Gonsal; written in the late 17th century.

ff. 163r-164r: Gédéon Bonnivert's speech for the defence of Jacques Martin; written in the late 17th century.

ff. 165r-165v: Letter from G. Bonnivert with an account of rejoicings at Sédan, France; written in the late 17th century.

ff. 166r-166v: Unaddressed and undated letter in French; written in the 17th century.

ff. 167r-167v: Unaddressed and undated letter in French; written in the 17th century

ff. 168r-168v: 'Mad. Mondeville', Letter [French] to Gédéon Bonnivert: written in the late 17th century.

f. 169r: Biographical notice of Thomas Farnaby, Schoolmaster, by Gédéon Bonnivert; written in the late 17th century.

ff. 170r-174v: Religious texts in French, beginning: 'Meditatio S. Augustini - Invocatio Dei ad morum et vitae reparationem'; written in the 17th century.

f. 175r: Excerpts, beginning: 'Lydi ac Medi ubi diem noctescere viderunt, a pugnando destiterunt'; written in the 17th century.

ff. 176r-177v: Tract, entitled: 'Quon ne doit point apprehender la mort'; written in the 17th century.

ff. 178r-179v: Tract, entitled: 'De la Relligion [sic]'; written in the 17th century.

f. 180r: List of medical books, including 'Liber 28 libri servitoris Bulcasin Benabesazarin'; written in the 17th century.

ff. 181r-193r: Collection of puzzles with cards and dice in French, imperfect; written in the late 17th century.

ff. 194r-194v: Fragment of a printed inventory of books [medical works] in the library of Gijsbert Voetius (b. 1589, d. 1676), as published in Catalogus variorum librorum instructissimae bibliothecae praestantissimi doctissimique viri in Anglia defuncti clarissimi Gisberti Voetii (London: Pitt, 1678), pp. 27-28. The print has been used for various 17th-century inscriptions, including monograms, and names: 'Brunehault', 'Fredegonde', 'Thomas Kempis', 'Gedeon'.

ff. 195r-197r: French tract, entitled: 'De l'abus des predicateurs'; written in the 17th century.

f. 198r: Route from Daventry, Northamptonshire to Harrington; written in the late 17th century.

ff. 199r-207v: Gédéon Bonnivert, 'L'A. B. C. du Monde'; written in the late 17th century.

f. 208r: Description of the so-called 'Sweet Singers of Israel' at Edinburgh, 1681, imperfect at the beginning, beginning: '[It seemed good to] them, to take out of their Bibles the Psalms in Meeter [sic] (being a human addition) and burn them in the prison, and afterwards sweep away the ashes'.

f. 208v: Sketches of a human head and an insect in brown ink.

ff. 209r-212v: Copy of the 13th-century De virtutibus herbarum: written in the 17th century.

ff. 213r-216r: Account of Antwerp [English], imperfect at the beginning: written in the late 17th century.

ff. 217r-222r: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De officiis, Book 1 [English], imperfect at the beginning: written in the late 17th century.

The manuscript contains later additions:

f. 1v: Title inscription: 'Tract var. miscell.'; added in the (?) 18th or 19th century.

Decoration:

ff. 2r-16v, 29r-48v: Large plain red initials. Capitals highlighted in red. Rubrics in red. Paraphs in red. Line-fillers in red.

ff. 58r-61r: Large red initials with red penwork decoration inside the letters and red pen-flourishing. Capitals highlighted in red. Paraphs in red. The 'explicit' has been rubricated in red and decorated with a red frame featuring two opposing human heads with foliate motifs extending from their mouths.

f. 135r: Text frame in black ink.