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Van der Weyden, Descent from the Cross
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PROJECT RESOURCES / MANUSCRIPT DESCRIPTION

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M. 226

Described by: Ryan Perry from microfilm analysis.
Source:
Revision Date: June 1st, 2010

Heading

Nicholas Love, Mirror of the Blessed Life, C15

Condition of the MS

Imperfect at beginning with the loss of the outer bifolium in first quire, several quires missing at rear of the book. Some stained and darkened leaves, but generally in good condition.

Number of Items

1

Title(s) of Pseudo-Bonaventuran Text(s)

Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ.

Incipit

Begins imperfectly on fol. 1r, 'Of stering simple soulis to þe loue of god' (p. 10, l. 35); the initial 'O' has been added later, presumably after the loss of the first leaf.

Colophon

N/A

Secundo Folio

'boþ kepiþ paciens & also more ouer þerewt be glad' (p.12, l. 24).

Explicit

End imperfectly on fol. 101v with the word 'unspecca[ble]' (p. 198, l. 5); a later hand which imitates the scribe's style of script provides a concluding sentence, '[-]ble Ioy þat we may all see him wt such ioy let us prai AMEN'.

Languages of the MS

English with Latin side notes.

Detailed Description of Contents

11

Estimated Date of Production

C15

Writing Support

Parchment

Foliation

ii(?) + 101 fols + ii(?). Foliation is written in pencil top right corner of every recto leaf.

Dimensions of Page and Writing Space

  • Leaf size: 209 x 152mm approx. (signs that the book has been trimmed).

  • Writing Space: 164 x 108mm approx.

    • Collation

    18 (wants 1 and 8), 2-108, 118 (wants 7), 12-138.

    Layout

    1 column, 31 lines, frames ruled, some signs of pricking.

    Rubrication/ Ordinatio

  • Initials occur at chapter divisions and are 2-line, unflourished lombard capitals; for this reason the MS is thus counted by Kathleen Scott among the atypical mss in the corpus, which generally have blue initials with red flourishing. (Scott, p. 71)
  • Chapter titles in red ink.
  • Textual subdivisions are provided by paraphs.
  • Catchwords occur in rather boxy scroll-work cartouches.
  • Chapter numbers and scribal notes (in red?) occur in margins.

    • Illustration

    There are a number of amateur illustrations in the MS in pink ink, which are sometimes are added as flourishes to initials, and on other occasions occupy the margins of the MS. In fol. 1r the illustrator depicts a mermaid in the left margin and a griffin in the lower margin.

    Number of Scribal Hands

    1

    Style of Hands

    Neatly penned, cursive secretary script.

    Estimated Date of Hands

    Mid-C15

    Scribal Annotation

    Sargent records the presence of 294 marginal notes, a fairly low number for grouping; the 'N-B' notes are not used in the MS.

    Notable Dialect Features

    Sample of forms to be entered here.
    No entry in LALME.

    Localisable on Google Earth
    (click markers to view sample dialect forms)

    N/A

    Annotation and Marginalia

  • Smudged and trimmed writing beside Mary meekly 'kneling downe' (p. 180, ll. 10-13), fol. 93v, C16(?).

    • Graffitti

    'Whan I consent(?) & call to mynde
    the ffrewtes of ffolyshe youthe wyche ys so blynd
    yt brekyth my hart wythe in my brest
    to thynke on suche a noyeffull geste[.] Fol. 28r
    The text is inverted in lower margin, prob. by the hand who wrote 'throghe Rychard Rogers' on the same leaf, C16; the verse is repeated on fol. 35v in the same hand.

    'he that sparythe to speke shall not haue(?) y_(?) -y(?) tent(?)
    yf he spede whan he spekythe ys labur ys well spent(?). Fol. 36r.
    The text is inverted in lower margin (partially trimmed and in gutter), same hand as 'throghe Rychard Rogers', C16.

    Names recorded, signatures, ex libris marks

  • 'Nathan Redgrave de Framlingham in county Suffolk', front flyleaf iir, C16.

  • 'E Mussell', (Ebenezer), who records that he bought the book in 1752 for £10. 10s. 10d in 1752, and that he sold the volume in 1766, front flyleaf iir, C16.

  • 'throghe(?) Rychard Rogers', fol. 28r; the hand has been described as being C15, but is more likely to be C16 (the first word has also been read as 'George' in the librarian's description of the MS); the possibility of correlating the name with an owner is problematised by the fact that the same hand pens another name on fol. 36r, 'robart smythe rychard', following two proverbial lines beginning, 'he that sparythe' and writes 'Jhon throge(?)' on fol. 29r.

  • 'Kattryne Byrleye', fol. 78v, the name is penned beside discussion of the 'holi sacrament' (p. 150 ll. 32-5), C15.

    • Notes

    N/A

    References and Other Resources

    CORSAIR online catalogue
    Michael Sargent, Mirror (2005)
    Kathleen Scott, 'The Illustration and Decoration of Manuscripts of Nicholas Love's Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ', Nicholas Love at Waseda (1997) pp. 61-86.

    Sargent Groupings

    γ1

    Sargent Pages

    Intro. 133; 121, 135-6, 139, 144.

    Sargent Number

    Pm1

    Credits

    Please note: Descriptions of Mirror MSS are indebted to: Nicholas Love, The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ: A Full Critical Edition, ed. by Michael G. Sargent (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2005)