PROJECT RESOURCES / MANUSCRIPT DESCRIPTION
Cambridge, Trinity College Library MS. B.10.12 (223)
Described by: Ryan Perry from microfilm analysis.
Source:
Revision Date: June 1st, 2010
Heading
Illustrated copy of The Privity of the Passion, c. before 1420.Condition of the MS
Good.Number of Items
4Title(s) of Pseudo-Bonaventuran Text(s)
The Privity of the Passion.Incipit
1. " When tyme was comen of forgifnes & mere- cies of our lorde in whilk he had oddenede to safe mankynde þt was lost thurgh syne", fol. 1r; this copy of the Privity opens with text corresponding to the beginning of the Meditationes de Passione Christi, and as such, represents a fuller version of the text than is found in the 3 other manuscripts.
2. "A deuoyt meditacione
Ihesu mercy, mercy, I cry, myn vgly synnes þu me forgyfe", fol. 53r.
3. "Alya cantica
Ihesu þi name honourede myʒt be ; wt al þt any lyfe is in", fol. 55r.
4. A"ttendite popule meus legem meam.
als a gret clerke schewis in his boke of al þe creatures", fol. 56r. Colophon
*Secundo Folio
"be sum of þe seuenti & two discipils".Explicit
*Languages of the MS
EnglishDetailed Description of Contents
1. The Privity of the Passion, fols 1-53r.
2. "Ihesu mercy mercy I cry" (IMEV 1732), fols 53r-54r.
3. "Ihesu þi name honourede myʒt be", (IMEV 1780), fols 54r-55r; items 2-3 are similarly found together in Chetham Library MS 6690, fols 133r-4v, a book that also includes Love's Mirror.
4. The Layfolk's Catechism, "Attendite popule meus legem meam" an alliterative treatment of the 14 articles of faith, the 10 commandments, the seven sacraments, the seven deeds of mercy, the seven virtues, and the seven deadly sins, fols 55r-67r. *Fols 67v-69v are blank other than ruling. Estimated Date of Production
1st quarter C15.Writing Support
Parchment.Foliation
i + 69 fols + i; MS foliated in top right corner in pen.Dimensions of Page and Writing Space
Leaf size: 200 x 146 mm approx.
Writing Space: 145 x 100mm approx. Collation
i + 1-58, 68 -1 (wants 1), 78 -1 (5 cancelled from the quire without loss of text), 88, 98 -1 (8 removed, though 6-8 were all blank) + iLayout
1 column, 25 lines; frames and lines ruled in pen; some signs of pricking.Rubrication/ Ordinatio
Chapter headings (and headings of items 2-4) in red; blue paraphs provide subdivisions; the manuscript opens with a 3-line initial with pen-work sprays- thereafter, all initials are unadorned. Where the textual discussion deals with a number of points (eg. the points of the supper), marginal numerals mark the discussion of each article.Illustration
There are 44 excellent miniatures that accompany the text of the Privity; see Scott, Later Gothic no. 62 for discussion; click the link for an electronic version of M.R. James catalogue description, and with access to digital images of the miniatures. Scott argues that this artist was also responsible for the miniatures in British Library MS Cotton Faustina B.vi, (part ii), a copy of Desert of Religion made under the patronage of a Northern Benedictine monastery or nunnery.Number of Scribal Hands
1Style of Hands
Very good quality hybrid Textura/Anglicana Formata script.Estimated Date of Hands
1st quarter C15.Scribal Annotation
Scott records traces of instructions in Latin for the rubricator and miniature artist.Notable Dialect Features
Located within LALME to the West Riding of Yorkshire; LP 175, grid 471 408, vol. I, p. 65; vol. III, p.619.Localisable on Google Earth
(click markers to view sample dialect forms)
View Trinity College Cambridge, MS B.10.12 in a larger mapAnnotation and Marginalia
N/AGraffitti
Fol. 70r (rear fly-leaf): this side has been marked by two C15 hands; the first writes, "serve god devouteley & love well the churche"; the second writes: "Respice finem" (consider the end).Names recorded, signatures, ex libris marks
Fol. 1: A partially erased inscription, "Roberti Hare 1548".Notes
Textually, this is a fuller version of the Privity than that published by Horstmann in Yorkshire Writers- the additional material means that the pattern of the text squares more exactly with other translations of the Meditationes de Passione, beginning now with an extended treatment of the Last Supper; the previous printed version of the Privity (from the Thornton MS) instead began at the section of text generally headed in the original Latin version, Meditatio Passionis Iesu Christi in generali; indeed, the other texts of the Privity in Durham University Cosin MS v.vii..8, and Yale, Beinecke Library, MS 660 similarly lack this opening section. These 'extra' sections parallel those in the "Middle English Meditationes de Passione", but appear to be closer in detail to the translation in the unique text in Michigan State University MS 1. It is certainly distinct, but it provides further evidence of some sort of link between the two translations of the MPC. The similarity (yet distinctness) may also indicate that this should be considered the authentic full version of the Privity.
Despite the supurb quality of the miniatures the manuscript is deliberately constructed without ostentation-there is no gilding throughout the book, either in the miniatures or as part of the programme of ordinatio. The capitals do not have sprays other than that on fol. 1, which is adorned with pen-work sprays of the most pedestrian kind.
References and Other Resources
Scott, K., Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Iluminated in the British Isles 6, 2 vols. (London, 1996), no. 62, ill. 248, col. pl. 10.
Oguro, S., R. Beadle, and M. G. Sargent, Nicholas Love at Waseda: Proceedings of the International Conference, 20-22 July 1995 (Cambridge, 1997) + pl.
Mooney, L. R., The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist 11: Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1995), p. 7 [the description here wrongly describes Princeton Taylor MS 11 as a Privity rather than a "Middle English Meditationes.
Lawton,David A. 'Gatrynge's Sermon: "Dictamen"and Middle English Alliterative Verse', Modern Philology, Vol. 76, No. 4 (May, 1979), pp. 329-343. Greg, W. W., Facsimiles of Twelve Early English Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College Cambridge (Oxford, 1913), no. 9
James,M.R. Catalogue.
Heading
Condition of the MS
Number of Items
Title(s) of Pseudo-Bonaventuran Text(s)
Incipit
Ihesu mercy, mercy, I cry, myn vgly synnes þu me forgyfe", fol. 53r.
Ihesu þi name honourede myʒt be ; wt al þt any lyfe is in", fol. 55r.
als a gret clerke schewis in his boke of al þe creatures", fol. 56r.
Colophon
Secundo Folio
Explicit
Languages of the MS
Detailed Description of Contents
Estimated Date of Production
Writing Support
Foliation
Dimensions of Page and Writing Space
Collation
Layout
Rubrication/ Ordinatio
Illustration
Number of Scribal Hands
Style of Hands
Estimated Date of Hands
Scribal Annotation
Notable Dialect Features
Localisable on Google Earth
(click markers to view sample dialect forms)
View Trinity College Cambridge, MS B.10.12 in a larger map
Annotation and Marginalia
Graffitti
Names recorded, signatures, ex libris marks
Notes
Textually, this is a fuller version of the Privity than that published by Horstmann in Yorkshire Writers- the additional material means that the pattern of the text squares more exactly with other translations of the Meditationes de Passione, beginning now with an extended treatment of the Last Supper; the previous printed version of the Privity (from the Thornton MS) instead began at the section of text generally headed in the original Latin version, Meditatio Passionis Iesu Christi in generali; indeed, the other texts of the Privity in Durham University Cosin MS v.vii..8, and Yale, Beinecke Library, MS 660 similarly lack this opening section. These 'extra' sections parallel those in the "Middle English Meditationes de Passione", but appear to be closer in detail to the translation in the unique text in Michigan State University MS 1. It is certainly distinct, but it provides further evidence of some sort of link between the two translations of the MPC. The similarity (yet distinctness) may also indicate that this should be considered the authentic full version of the Privity.
Despite the supurb quality of the miniatures the manuscript is deliberately constructed without ostentation-there is no gilding throughout the book, either in the miniatures or as part of the programme of ordinatio. The capitals do not have sprays other than that on fol. 1, which is adorned with pen-work sprays of the most pedestrian kind.
References and Other Resources
Scott, K., Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Iluminated in the British Isles 6, 2 vols. (London, 1996), no. 62, ill. 248, col. pl. 10.
Oguro, S., R. Beadle, and M. G. Sargent, Nicholas Love at Waseda: Proceedings of the International Conference, 20-22 July 1995 (Cambridge, 1997) + pl.
Mooney, L. R., The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist 11: Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1995), p. 7 [the description here wrongly describes Princeton Taylor MS 11 as a Privity rather than a "Middle English Meditationes.
Lawton,David A. 'Gatrynge's Sermon: "Dictamen"and Middle English Alliterative Verse', Modern Philology, Vol. 76, No. 4 (May, 1979), pp. 329-343. Greg, W. W., Facsimiles of Twelve Early English Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College Cambridge (Oxford, 1913), no. 9
James,M.R. Catalogue.