Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts
MS. 67
A Myrrour to Devote Peple
Contents:
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Prologue to "A Myrrour to Devote Peple"
extent:ff. 1r-3r
incipit:
Gostely sustre in ihesu criste
explicit:
and withoute ende Amen.
decoration:On f. 1r, an illuminated 4-line "G" opens the text of the Prologue. The body of the G is in blue and red ink with white filigree. In the center lobe, a dark blue shield bearing the arms of the Scrope and Chaworth families is split in two. The left hand contains the Scrope family arms: azure background, argent label, and gold bend. The right half contains the Chaworth family arms: azure background with two gold chevrons. Gold leaf fills the remaining spaces in the initial box. There is also full-page decorated border with leaves, kidney-shapes, tendrils, and acanthus leaves.
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Table of Contents for "A Myrrour"
extent:ff. 3r-5r
rubric:
Here folowith the chapitres of the boke folowynge. the whiche is callede A myrroure to devote peple.
incipit:
HOwe man was firste made onely of the goodenesse of god
explicit:
worthi apostele seint john euangeliste Capitulum .xxxiijum. et vltimum
decoration:One 3-line "H" with blue body and detailed red pen flourish opens the Table of Contents. The "capitulum __" indicators are rubricated, and paraph marks are also in red. Following each chapter indication, the first letter of the first word of the synopsis is done in blue. Rubricated chapter numbers (medieval arabic numbers) are placed between dots in the outer margins of facing verso-recto pages.
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A Myrrour to Devote Peple
extent:ff. 5r-108r
rubric:
[H]owe man was firste made onely of the godenes of god and what worthynes he was in bothe in body and soule howe he loste it by his wylful synne in brekynge of the comaundement of god Capitulum primum
incipit:
RElygiouse sustre in the begynnyng of thies symple meditacions
explicit:
nowe and withoute ony endynge. A. M. E. N.
colophon:
Finito libro; sit laus et gloria christo / Soluite nunc mentem pro .W.H. ad omnipotentem / De uita christi; libro finis datur isti / Paruos lactabit; solidos qui pane cibabit / De bethlem pratum; dedit hos Ihesu tibi flores/ Post hunc ergo statum; reddas sibi semper honores
decoration:4-line decorated capitals are present for the first word of all 33 chapters of "A Myrrour" except Chapter 2. The initials are blue body with red flourish and various designs in the lobes. Paraph marks in the text are red, and occasionally marginal numbers (chapter subsections?) are rubricated as well.
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O Intemerata
extent:ff. 108r-109r
rubric:
Oracio bona et deuota ad beatam uirginem mariam matrem domini nostri ihesu christi. et beatum Iohannem Euangelistam.
incipit:
O intemerata et in eternum benedicta singularis
explicit:
succurre nobis piissima uirgo maria. A M E N
decoration:At the bottom of f. 108v, black diamond figures are interspersed among the letters of the rubricated "AMEN". Also, a 6-line "I" with blue body and red flourish opens the last two lines of text on the page ("In omni tribulacione..."). On f. 108r, a beautiful 5-line illuminated "O" introduces the text of the Marian prayer "O intemerata." The entire body of the O is gold leaf as are John and Mary's halos and crown, the infant Christ's halo, and the body of the chalice which John holds. John the Evangelist and Mary are wearing blue robes. John holds, in addition to the chalice, a figure that may be a palm branch or a pen symbolizing John's status as writer of a Gospel and of the Apocalypse.
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A Treatise on the Craft of Dying
extent:ff. 109v-126r
incipit:
FOr als miche as the passage of deth oute of the wrycchednesse of the exile of this world
explicit:
Ihesu Cryste that is mediator bytwix god and man Amen.
colophon:
Cristo memor mortis nam porta sit omnibus ortus / Sepe sibi iuuenes accipit ante senes / Non homo leteris tibi copia si fluat eris / Sic non semper eris memor esto quod morieris / Es euanebit quod habes tunc alter habebit / Corpus putrebit quod agis tecum remanebit / Finem siste pia mortis michi virgo maria/ Es quia Regina Manfeld defende ruina
decoration:2-line decorated initials with blue bodies and red flourish introduce new sections of the text. On f. 109v, an initial F opens the text of "The Craft of Dying." The top part, a 5-line rectangular box, contains the top half of the body of the F in gold, and in the interior is the image of a human being with gray hair asleep in bed. The torso of the body is nude; the top part of the bed and pillow are white, and the covers are red. The slight background is blue with white filigree. The external background of this top half is blue and red in alternating blocks with white flourish. The lower stave of the F is also gold and contains the figure of a bishop. He is wearing a blue stole with green sleeves over a red robe and white alb. He holds a staff in his right hand and gestures upward, to the sleeping figure, with his left. His head, wearing a bishop's mitre, is also tilted upwards towards the sleeping human. Off the top part of the F are vine-like flourishes with gold and green dots.
Date of origin:1410 is the date of Nicholas Love's "Myrour of the Blessyd Life of Jesus," which is explicitly mentioned in the Prologue to "A Myrrour to Devote Peple." 1455 is the date of Lord John Scrope's death, although it is possible that this book was made upon the occasion of his death.
Place of origin: London, England
Support:
Parchment codex.
Foliation:
Foliation is in lead in a modern hand in the top right corner of each recto.
Dimensions:303mm x 210mm (leaves), 210mm x 140mm (ruled space)
Collation:ii 1-158 168 (-8) i Catchwords, neatly enclosed in scrolls in black and red ink, are present on the last verso of every quire except for the last. All or part of the word "examinata" is visible below the catchwords for quires 2-3, 6, 8, and 10-13
Script:Hand #1 in the semi-cursive Anglicana is responsible for the whole of "A Myrour" and for the switch into textualis formata with the Marian prayer "O intemerata," which he promised at the end of "A Myrrour" to include after he had finished the treatise. Hand #2 is responsible for the text of "The Craft of Dying," and he identifies himself as Manfeld in the colophon at the end of the text.
Binding:Contemporary doeskin chemise binding over wooden boards, two brass catches and pin from clasp strap, modern red morocco lettering-piece (chemise trimmed, lacking clasps, extremities rubbed).
Additions:On the verso of ii, a 16th-century hand has quoted from Jerome: "Siue dormio siue vigilo siue aliquid aliud facio semper illa vox nouissima tuba sonat in auribus meis: Surgite mortui et venite ad iudicium. Hieron." On 127v, a legal deed appears at the top: "randyll bill is a wytnes to thys...thys be de lyverred to william neusam of Nuporat Chap man an grase his wyfe suffer the sad Wylliam neusam an graes hys wife to by an sell all manner of wars that be". On back flyleaf i-r, another bill is visible: "to all ciristyn peple to whom this pasport writyn shall come to be sene...under staned we the justis of peces and of the quorom of etc.,". On the back cover pastedown, there appears to be the textual remain of a second pastedown near the bottom. The text is facing the right direction and in Latin beginning "Ego...".
Provenance:
On the basis of the armorial initial on f. 1r, this manuscript was likely commissioned either by or for John Scrope, Fourth Baron of Masham, and his wife Elizabeth Chaworth. The manuscript may have been specially commissioned for Elizabeth, perhaps when she was received into the Bridgettine community at Syon following the death of her husband. The manuscript may have been copied at the Carthusian house of Sheen across the Thames River in London. Bookplate of the Marbury Library with location Bookcase 8, no. 220. Bookplate of W.A. Foyle, Beeleigh Abbey. On the verso of ii, an early 17th-century hand has written "Cost vi s viii d," apparently the price of the codex then. Below this a signature has been elaborately crossed out; according to the Christie's catalog (Edwards), the name erased is George Worthington. On f. 127r, a late 17th-century hand has written on the otherwise blank ruled page "Richard Sauige/ Erle vis county couihester 1686". Savage (1660-1712), a partisan of William of Orange and intimate of Jonathan Swift, became Viscount Colchester upon the death of his brother Thomas in 1680 and was known by the title until he succeeded his father as the 4th Earl Rivers in 1694.
Bibliography:Patterson, Paul. "A Myrrour to Devote Peple": An Edition and Commentary. Ph.D. diss. Notre Dame, 2005.
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