Cotton MS Tiberius A VII/1, ff 39–106

Contents:

The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man (Boffey 4265, imperfect), a verse translation of Guillaume de Deguileville, Le Pelerinage de la vie Humaine, attributed to John Lydgate (for discussion of Lydgate's authorship, see Walls (1977) and Green 'Lydgate and Deguileville' (1978)).

The text is incomplete, consisting of 4 000 lines, beginning at line 18 313 (numbering in Furnivall, Pilgrimage (1904), during Avarice's discourse: 'May in to heve[n]...' (f. 39r) , with some sections missing, and ending at line 23 676 in the passage on Abusion: 'And the Fatte away they pulle' (f. 106v).

Decoration:

53 one-third page-size pen drawings with colour wash. Marginal pen-drawings of birds (ff. 53v-54r), and human figures performing various activities (f. 72r). Foliate decorations in red and green to catchwords in the lower margins (e.g., ff. 54v, 62v) Initials in blue with pen-flourishing in red at the beginning of each verse. Paraphs in blue. Rubrics in red.

The subjects of the images are:

f. 40r: Avarice with a treasure chest and Death with a coffin;

f. 40v: The martyrdom of St Lawrence on the gridiron;

f. 41v: The pilgrim (right) watches Avarice with many hands meeting Youth with winged hands and feet;

f. 42r: The pilgrim meets Necromancy's messenger, with a sword and shield;

f. 43r: The pilgrim and the messenger before the pavilion of Necromancy;

f. 44r: Necromancy's messenger conjures a demon and uses the dark arts to bring him treasure;

f. 47v: The Duke of Friseland escapes baptism; he has one foot in the font and a bishop is holding him back;

f. 49r: The messenger tries to catch the pilgrim, while Youth watches from the branches of a tree;

f. 50r: Heresy, carrying a bundle of sticks, calls to the Pilgrim; Heresy takes the pilgrim's scrip to cut it;

f. 51r: Satan and Heresy try to capture the pilgrim in nets;

f. 51v: Satan and Heresy cast nets in the Sea of the World;

f. 52v: Satan fishes for pilgrims with a hook;

f. 56r: A Hermit in a chapel, deceived by Satan disguised as an Angel, murders his own father;

f. 57r: Satan roars at the escaping pilgrim;

f. 58r: The pilgrim swimming across the Sea of the World;

f. 58v: The pilgrim on the wheel of fortune, which is partly submerged in the sea and attached to a tree, with a hand emerging from a hole in the trunk trying to hook birds sitting on their nests, and four heads visible below;

f. 59v: Fortune stands on her wheel, while the pilgrim falls off into the water;

f. 65v: The House of Idolatry, with the pilgrim entering and a man worshipping a crowned idol;

f. 68r: Worshippers of Christ on the cross and the Saints;

f. 69r: The pilgrim is hooked by Sorcery, an old woman with a basket on her head, carrying a severed hand;

f. 70r: Satan instructs witches; two are making a brew in a cauldron, while one is about to take a child from a woman;

f. 74r: The pilgrim on an island with Sylla's dogs while she blows a horn;

f. 75r: False knights surrender to a rival king, leaving their true king unprotected in his pavilion;

f. 76r: The pilgrim lying on the island, his clothes torn by the dogs;

f. 76v: The pilgrim before the flaming tower in the sea;

f. 77r: The pilgrim and the siren, or Worldy Joys (Gladnesse);

f. 78v: Worldly joys: flirting and gambling;

f. 79v: Youth and the siren embracing, while the pilgrim is cast into the sea;

f. 80r: The pilgrim sits alone on an island;

f. 81r: A ship with castles and towers sails up to the island;

f. 81v: Grace disembarks from the ship;

f. 82r: The pilgrim kneels before Grace;

f. 83r: Grace shows the pilgrim the bath of tears falling from the eye of the rock;

f. 84v: The pilgrim bathes in the tears, while Grace hits the eye of the rock with her staff;

f. 88r: Grace shows the pilgrim four monasteries;

f. 89r: The pilgrim at the gate of Citeaux abbey;

f. 90r: The pilgrim is greeted by Charity at Citeaux abbey, while a woman serves food to old men at a table;

f. 90v: The pilgrim meets Lesson, a woman with a book;

f. 91v: Hagiograph shows the pilgrim her books;

f. 93r: Hagiograph shows the pilgrim her mirrors;

f. 95r: A king on his throne with flatterers on either side;

f. 95v: The pilgrim looks in a mirror while Hagiograph watches;

f. 97r: The pilgrim talks to Obedience, with a file in her mouth and a shield at her breast and Discipline, holding a rope;

f. 97v: Abstinence shows the pilgrim a group of nuns in a refectory served by two skeletons;

f. 99r: Chastity makes beds while Wilful Poverty sings;

f 99v: The pilgrim speaks to Wilful Poverty;

f. 100r: The pilgrim with Wilful Poverty standing behind him and Impatient Poverty seated on a bench;

f. 101v: The pilgrim speaks to Chastity;

f. 102r: The pilgrim watches Prayer who is kneeling before an altar;

f. 102v: The pilgrim meets Prayer holding a shield with a picture of a chalice and host, with two skeletons behind her;

f. 104v: The pilgrim enters a room where a woman, Latreia is seated before an organ playing a cow's horn; behind is a table with a harp on it;

f. 106r: The pilgrim watches Abuse who is portrayed as a wasteful and bad abbess of a convent; she holds a rule, a spoon to signify gluttony and is counting a pile of coins.