Harley MS 1706, ff 3r-95v

This part of the manuscript was probably copied from an almost contemporary exemplar, now Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 322, and includes:

1. John Lydgate, Kalendar, a poetical paraphrase, in stanzas, of the Sarum calendar, incipit: 'Ihesu lorde for holy cyrcumsicioun' (New Index, no. 1721) (ff. 3r-8v);

This text is attributed in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 322 to John Lydgate: 'a kalendare in englysshe made in baladys by dan John lydegat monke of Bury whych ys a fayre prayer'.

2. Prayers to Jesus, incipit: 'Ihesu þi swetnes whoso my3te it se' (New Index, no. 1781) (ff. 9r-9v);

3. Lament of the Virgin, incipit: 'In a tabernacle of a toure / As I stode musyng on the mone (New Index, no. 1460) (ff. 9v-10v);

4. A prayer, incipit: 'Now noe Ihesu for thy circumcisioun / Whan thou was kut', (New Index, no. 2352) (f. 10v);

5. 'Pety Iob', or 'The nyne lessons of the Dirige which Job made in hys tribulacion lying in the donghyll' ascribed here to Richard Rolle, hermit of Hampole (d. 1349), incipit 'Lyef lord my soule thow spare / The sothe I sey now sykerly' (New Index, no. 1854) (ff. 11r-15v);

6. A moralising poem 'A tretyse of Parce Michi Domine', or the bird with four feathers, incipit: 'By a forest syde walkyng as I went', New Index, no 561 (ff. 16r-17v);

7. A prose confession of the Seven Deadly Sins (ff. 17v-18r);

8. Sex observanda omni Christiano in extremis; Latin maxims followed by an expansion in English verse, incipit: 'Every man and woman hath grete nede', New Index, no. 741 (ff. 18v-19r);

9. Two short notes, 'A descripcioun of feyte, hope. and charyte', and 'Thorough two thynges principally may a man knowe whether he be make or no' (ff. 19r-19v);

10. 'O wordely ffolke auerteth and take hede', extract from John Lydgate, Fall of Princes, two sets of stanzas on mortality, incipit: 'owt of the book of John Lucas' (New Index, no 2585), preceded by Death's Warning to the World (no. 3143) and a drawing of the Death as a skeleton with a bell and spear (ff. 19v-20r);

11. Heinrich Suso, Seven Points of True Love and Everlasting Wisdom, extract 'the fyfte chapytle of a tretyce called Orilogium Sapiencie in maner of a dialog and treteth howe we shull lerne to dye' (ff. 20r-24v);

12. Laurent of Orleans, Somme le Roi, extract entitled 'Toure of all Toures' (ff. 24v-25v);

13. 'The book of crafte of dying' (ff. 25v-36v);

14. 'A tretyse of gostly batayle', a moralisation of the equipment of a knight (ff. 36v-47v);

15. English vesion of the Scala Claustralium by Giulio II, prior of the Grande Chartreuse, of which there is only one other known copy, Cambridge University Library Ff vi. 33, which was written c. 1500 by a Carthusian monk at Sheen (ff. 47v-54r);

16. A short note on the Blessed Sacrament attributed here to 'St Albert the Bishop' and a Latin note ascribed to 'Magister Adamus Cartusiensis Doctor' (ff. 54r-54v);

17. 'A tytell short tretys' giving the opinions of six masters on the spiritual benefits of tribulation; a Latin passage 'Nota de paciencia infirmitatis'; and an English version of the treatise on the Twelve Profits of Tribulation by Peter of Brois (ff. 54v-66v);

18. Richard Rolle, epistle De emendatione vitae, one of several versions of this text with his name and date of birth and tables of chapters; entitled 'the xii chapitres whyche Richard Hampole the Ermyte made howe that a man shulde lyve in contemplacion' (ff. 67r-80v);

19. Meditatio Sancti Augustini, in an English prose translation (ff. 81r-83v);

20. 'Howe a man or woman of sympyl connyng shall make hys prayer to god almyghty' (ff. 83r-84r);

21. The last chapter of the 'Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God and 'a confession whyche ys also a prayer made by Seynt Brandon (ff. 84r-88r);

22. The Poor Caitiff, a theological compendium, extract entitled: 'the Charter of hevynly herytage' (ff. 88r-90r);

23. Monita or Consilia Isidori, entitled here 'Consyderacion off man hym sylfe' and a passage 'Augustinus de contemptu mundi' followed by English and Latin verses (ff. 90r-93r);

24. Cur mundus militat, incipit: 'Whi is þis world biloued þat fals is & veyn' (New Index, no. 4160) (ff. 93r-93v);

25. The ABC of Aristotle, incipit: 'To Amerous to Aunterous ne Angere the nat to muche' (New Index, no. 3793) (f. 94r);

26. An account of Seven Degrees of Humility according to St. Anselm, and Seven Degrees of Pride (f. 94v).

27. List of contents (f. 95r).

Decoration:

Large puzzle initials (2-7 lines) in blue and red with red pen-flourishing extending along the bounding lines. Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing and paragraph marks in alternating blue and red. Drawing of the Death as a skeleton with a bell and spear (f. 19v).