Manuscripts

The nativite of oure lady : [manuscript]

1 of 10

Description: ff. 1-109v; ff. 110-112, modern; f. 112v blank. [John Lydgate]. [Life of Our Lady]. Incipit: A Floure of vertu full longe kept in cloos. Explicit: That the fortune made debonayre/ For to susteyne þe honour of her toun//. Rubric: The Nativite of oure lady Capitulo primo. English. Text preceded on ff. 1-2v by a chapter list and a prologue, " O thouȝtfull hert plunged in distresse/ With slombre of slouthe þis long wynterys nyȝt. . ." Ends defectively; on ff. 110-112, Book 6, vv. 327-462 replaced in an imitative anglicana hand on modern parchment: "And thourgh hire helpe and meditacion. . .To kepe and saue fro all aduersyte. Amen." IMEV 2574 . J. A. Lauritis et al., eds., A Critical Edition of John Lydgate's Life of Our Lady. Duquesne Studies Philological Series 2 (Pittsburgh 1961), group b; see p. 42; this manuscript included in the collation; the text in HM 115 divided into 36 chapters (as is the chapter list), rather than the 82 of the Caxton edition or the 87 of the Lauritis edition.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: [between 1425 and 1450]
Call number: mssHM 115
Creator: Lydgate, John (1370?-1451?)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: The Harvard manuscript (Cambridge MA, Harvard, Houghton Library, Richardson 44: Life of St. Catherine), the 2 St. John's manuscripts (Cambridge, St. John's College, N. 16 and N. 17: Lives of John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Jerome) and HM 115 may have been bound together in one volume: they share the same scribe and same dimensions, and were sold together as lot 3597 in the sale of William Fletewode of Missenden Abbey, auction by Paterson, 5 December 1774, to the bibliographer, William Herbert (1718-95). Notes in Herbert's hand throughout the manuscript, collating it with the Caxton edition; his sale, by Arrowsmith and Bowley, 21 November 1798, lot 909. All 4 texts belonged to John Towneley (1731-1813) and may have been rebound at this time, all in blue morocco by Kalthoeber; his sale, by Evans, 8 June 1814, pt. I, where they were lots 879 (Life of Jerome), 880 (HM 115), 882 (Life of St. Catherine), 883 (Lives of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist). Belonged to William Bragge (1823-84); his sale, Sotheby's, 7 June 1876, lot 287 to Ellis and White. In the collection of Robert Hoe: Cat. (1909) p. 126; his sale, Anderson, New York, pt. I, 1911, lot 2148 to G. D. Smith.
Restrictions: RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time.
Dimensions: 150 x 220 mm
Associated organization: Henry E. Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Find out more: View in the Huntington Digital Library(Opens in new tab); View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

Book of Hours, use of Paris : [manuscript]

Manuscripts

ff. 1-183v. [Book of Hours]: ff. 1-11v: Full calendar in French, beginning defectively; ff. 12-17v: Pericopes of the Gospels; ff. 18-85: Hours of the Virgin, use of Paris; ff. 85v-102v: Penitential psalms and litany; ff. 103r-v, 110-111v, 104-106v: Short hours of the Cross, beginning defectively and misbound; ff. 107-109v, 112-113v: Short hours of the Holy Spirit; ff. 114-160: Office of the Dead, use of Paris; ff. 160v-183v: Prayers in French, Obsecro te, O Intemerata, suffrages of the Trinity, John the Baptist, Michael, Peter and Paul, Matthew, Simon and Jude, Andrew, Stephen, Lawrence, Denis, and the Innocents, ending defectively.

mssHM 1151

Scale of perfection : [manuscript]

Manuscripts

HM 112 consists of 2 parts, the first being ff. 1-12v (the chapter list and chapters 1 through most of 16), written in the beginning of the fifteenth century; the second part, ff. 13-78v, copied towards the middle of the century: the matching page dimensions suggest that the second was an intentional completion of the earlier, supposedly unfinished portion. HM 112 itself was the second part of a larger manuscript of which the first is now London, Brit. Lib. Add. 10052, the Speculum religiosorum by Walter, canon of Holy Trinity in London, while the third is now Brit. Lib. Add. 10053, containing, among other texts, Edmund Rich's Speculum ecclesie in English and Hilton's Eight Chapters. The quires in all 3 manuscripts are signed in roman numerals in the lower right corner of the last leaf verso: in Add. 10052, i-ix; in HM 112, x-xvii (but with the penultimate full quire, i.e. now quire 8, skipped; the last 3 leaves, all singletons, have no roman numeral); in Add. 10053, xviii (on the first leaf, a singleton, presumably the end of the last quire in HM 112), then xix-xxix followed by 4 more quires (the first 2 labelled a and b); it would thus appear that the roman numerals represent an effort to unite separate materials. Add. 10053, ff. 1-83 and, possibly with some variations, ff. 85-98, are by the same hand as the second part of HM 112. The name of John Pery is associated with both: in HM 112, on f. 78v, the explicit reads ". . . quod I. Pery" (perhaps in a different hand from the rest of the explicit); in Add. 10053, on f. 29 "quod I. Pery" and on f. 83 "Orate pro anima domini Iohannis Pery canonici ecclesie sancte trinitatis london. infra algate qui hunc librum fieri fecit cuius anime propicietur deus Amen." Span folios: ff. 1-78v. Other Decoration: 4-, 3- and 2-line initials done in both pts. by the same flourisher, in blue with red penwork; the opening initial, f. 4, 6-line, in parted red and blue infilled with void leaf designs and flourished in red; paragraph marks alternating red and blue; paragraph marks usually in red only (a few in blue). HM 112 consists of 2 parts, the first being ff. 1-12v (the chapter list and chapters 1 through most of 16), written in the beginning of the fifteenth century; the second part, ff. 13-78v, copied towards the middle of the century, probably as an intentional completion of the earlier, supposedly unfinished portion. Numerous corrections and insertions in more than one hand (one probably Pery's).

mssHM 112

Book of Hours, use of Paris : [manuscript]

Manuscripts

ff. 1-165v [Book of Hours]: ff. 1-12v: Full calendar in French alternating red and blue with major feasts in gold; ff. 13-25v: Pericopes of the Gospels, with the Obsecro te and the O Intemerata; ff. 26-46v: House of the Virgin, use of Paris; misbound and should be read as follows: 26-46v and 78r-v, matins, with the weekly variations of the psalms set into the text before the lessons; ff. 79-101, lauds through sext; ff. 101v, 105, 104, 102, none; ff. 103, 108, 109, 107, 106, 47, vespers; ff. 48-52 [f. 52v, ruled, but blank], compline; ff. 53-70v: Penitential psalms and litany; ff. 71-74: Short hours of the Cross; ff. 74v-77: Short hours of the Holy Spirit; ff. 77v: Office of the Dead, misbound and should be read as follows: ff. 77v, 112, 111, 110, 113, 114, 117, 116, 115, 118-150; ff. 150v-157: Suffrages of the Trinity, Michael, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter and Paul, Sebastian, Nicholas, Anne, Catherine of Alexandria, Margaret, Genevieve; f. 157v, ruled, but blank; ff. 158-165v: Prayers in French.

mssHM 1133

Book of Hours, use of Rome : [manuscript]

Manuscripts

ff. 1-159: [Book of Hours]: ff. 1-12v: Calendar, with major feasts in blue or gold; f. 13: [Psalm 42] Iudica me deus et discerne causam meam de gente ...; ff. 13v-91v: Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome with short hours of the Cross and the Holy Spirit worked in, and on f. 81v, suffrage to Anthony abbot; ff. 92-110: Penitential psalms and litany; ff. 110-149: Office of the Dead, use of Rome; ff. 149v-151: Pericope from the Gospel of John; ff. 151v-159: Prayers in Latin and French, a list of the Ten and the Five Commandments, and a suffrage and mass of Genulph; f. 159v, blank.

mssHM 1139

Book of Hours, use of Rome : [manuscript]

Manuscripts

ff. 1-166v: [Book of Hours]: ff. 1-12v: Calendar; ff. 13-85: Incipit offitium beate et gloriose virginis marie secundum consuetudinem romane curie; ff. 85v-86v, blank; ff. 87-110: Penitential psalms and litany; ff. 110v-115: Short hours of the Cross; ff. 115v-116v, blank; ff. 117-166v: Office of the Dead, use of Rome.

mssHM 25779

King Johan : [manuscript]

Manuscripts

ff. 1-35; f. 35v blank. [John Bale] King Johan. Incipit: To declare the powres, & their force to enlarge/ the scriptur of god, doth flow In most abowndaunce. Explicit: Also to preserue hir most honourable counsell/ To the prayse of God, and glorye of the Gospell. Thus endeth the ii playes of kynge Iohan. English. Revisions and 2 added leaves (ff. 12, 14) in the first part (ff. 1-22), and all of the second part (ff. 23-35) in the author's hand. J. Payne Collier, ed., Kynge Johan: a Play in Two Parts by John Bale. Camden Society 2 (London 1838), the first edition, from this unique manuscript. J. M. Manly, ed., Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama (Boston 1897) 1:523-618 from Collier's edition. W. Bang, ed., Bales Kynge Johan nach der Handschrift in der Chatsworth Collection. Materialen zur Kunde des älteren englischen Dramas 25 (Louvain 1909) in facsimile with reference to verse numbers in Manly's edition. J. H. P. Pafford, ed., with assistance of W. W. Greg, King Johan by John Bale. Malone Society (Oxford 1931) in type-facsimile with plates of portions of ff. 1, 6, 23v, 32. B. B. Adams, ed., John Bale's King Johan (San Marino 1969). P. Happé, ed., The Complete Plays of John Bale (Cambridge, 1985-86).

mssHM 3

The nativite of oure lady : [manuscript]

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