BEDE &c.; S. XV1

Title

BEDE &c.; S. XV1

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 175

Place of origin

script of English and Continental appearance.

Date

S. XV1

Language

Latin

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

327 leaves (i + 326) The edges retrimmed with loss of marginalia and stained yellow.

Hands

Several scribes, of widely varying competence: an anglicana hand fols. 1–96v; secretary, probably Continental, fols. 97–154; anglicana fols. 157–62v, 317v-25v; an extraordinarily rough and uncalligraphic cursive which annotates earlier on, with occasional short passages by the previous hand fols. 163–200 and art. 14; a highly proficient upright anglicana formata fols. 200v-56; similar, but forward-slanting and tremulous art. 13; an anglicana hand fols. 263–317.

Decoration

Hardly any; unfilled spaces for coloured initials and rubrics; art. 7 is rubricated; arts. 11–12 have rubrics and running heads in red.

Binding

Oxford, s. xvi in.: thick bevelled oak boards with slightly projecting squares, covered with blind-stamped brown calf, rebacked; resewn on five bands; formerly two straps from the front board to catches at the back, replaced s. xvii by cloth ties. Near the head of the rear cover were inked titles, of which ‘Opera quedam uenerabilis [Bedae]’ can still be read; below is ‘Liber ?.17.us’. Formerly chained from two positions at the foredge of the front board, near the foot; the lower one has not affected the front pastedown. Inside the back board are marks of the large brass chain-staple; these do not affect the leather cover. The binder who applied the cover was George Chastelaine (Oldham’s ‘Fruit and Flower Binder’), d. 1513, for whom see MS 119; here he used Oldham’s stamps 179, 180, 182, 184, 191, and the half-stamp Pearson 7.

Provenance

At the head of fol. i is ‘Liber domus scolarium de Mertone in Oxonia ut incathenetur in libraria eiusdem ad communem utilitatem ibidem studere uolencium ex dono magistri Henrici Seuer sacre theologie professoris ac custodis domus predicte. Oretis igitur pro eo.’ For Sever, warden 1455–71, see MS 6.

At the head of the front pastedown is ‘B. lier. 17us’ in the usual hand (see above, MS 60). Further down is ‘O. 7. 3. Art:’, s. xvii, canc. and replaced with ‘K. 3. 3 (CLXXV)’ in red; the College bookplate.

Seen at Merton by John Bale (Appendix C, no. 6).

At the head of fol. 1 is the James no. ‘229’, s. xvii in. ‘3’ is inked on the foredge.