Middle English verse ('The Rate manuscript'); England (perhaps Leicester?), late 15th or early 16th century

Title

Middle English verse ('The Rate manuscript'); England (perhaps Leicester?), late 15th or early 16th century

Shelfmark

MS. Ashmole 61

Place of origin

England (perhaps Leicester) (see above, Hands)

Date

15th century, late, or 16th century, early

Language

Latin

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Paper, in 'holster book' or 'tall quarto' format with horizontal folds on every leaf, evidently present before writing (e.g. fol. 34). Three watermarks: (A) fols. 19-57, quires 3-5, ring with crown and cross above, cf. Briquet 694 (Palermo, 1479); (B), fols. 58-84, quires 6-8, hand with 6-leaved flower or star above, cf. Briquet 11159 (Genoa, 1483) and 11165 (Perpignan, 1505); (C) unicorn, closest to Briquet 10116 (used 1488). Fols. ii(b), 1-18, 92-104 are unwatermarked. Beta-radiographs are available in the Bodleian Library.

Physical extent

iii (unfoliated modern paper, added 1986) + i (19th/20th cent. paper, fol. i) + i (laid paper, fol. ii(a)) + 1 (original paper leaf, fol. ii(b), formerly glued to fol. ii(a)) + i (unfoliated modern paper, added 1986) + 162+ i (17th cent. laid paper) + iii (unfoliated modern paper, added 1986) leaves

Hands

Anglicana with secretary /a/, by one scribe, signing as 'Rate' or 'Rathe'; possibly to be identified with one of the man named William Ratt or Rot(te) active in Leicester in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries. Scribal drawings of fish and flowers throughout the manuscript have been associated with a device of Leicester's Corpus Christi guild (Blanchfield).

Decoration

No significant decoration; no rubrication; yellow wash applied to some capitals.

For drawings of fish and flowers see above, Hands.

Binding

Rebound in off-white leather, 1986.

Previous late 17th century binding kept with the manuscript: dark brown calf with gilt fillets and simple blind-roll tooling on the outside edges; two claps with the arms of Ashmole. Repaired and rebacked in the 19th and/or 20th centuries.

Acquisition

Transferred to the Bodleian Library in 1860.

Provenance

fol. 161v, Item to me from M. Austin of Hook norte[?] on Thursday 2 couple of Rabbitts the Thursday following 2 couple more Thursday the 15 of August 2 couple more, 16th or 17th century, i.e. Hook Norton in Oxfordshire. Fol. 106v, “Delivered d dame Elizabeth [sic].”

Elias Ashmole, 1617–1692.

Bequeathed by him to the Ashmolean Museum.