The Prick of Conscience — 14th century, end; England

Title

The Prick of Conscience — 14th century, end; England

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 156

Place of origin

England

Date

14th century, end

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

ii + 176pages

Hands

Anglicana Formata. The primary scribe of MS. Douce 156 is the same as the second scribe of Oxford, Trinity College MS 16B(Helen Marshall, 'Literary Codicologies: The Conditions of Middle English Literary Production, c. 1280-1415', [PhD thesis, University of Kent, 2014], pp. 208-219). In addition, Helen Marshall posits that Oxford, Trinity College, MS 16B was written first and that the scribe used this as their exemplar for the text of MS. Douce 156 ('Literary Codicologies', p. 216-219). A further instance of this scribe's work can be found in Holkham Hall, MS 668 (Simon Horobin, 'Scribes of the Vernon Manuscript', in The Making of the Vernon Manuscript [2013], p. 46)

Decoration

Good border (damaged)

Good initials

Blue initials with red flourished penwork for minor divisions in the text as well as several larger initials which mark the opening of each book, in gold leaf on blue and crimson grounds decorated with white vinework with, typically, triplets of barbed coloured balls, also in crimson and blue. The majority of these have been excised (Marshall,'Literary Codicologies', p. 213)

Acquisition

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1834

Provenance

Francis Douce, 1757–1834

Title

The Prick of Conscience, a translation into English verse of Richard Rolle's Stimulus Conscientiae

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 156

Summary

This copy begins 'Here bigynneth the soth to say | A noble book with out nay | The which is cald of conscience pricke': prol. beg. 'Byfore that any thyng was wrought': part 1 beg. 'Man of foulest matere God wrought': parts are transposed in binding, there is a gap after p. 6, and all after 'That hit may neuer slakid bee' in part 6 is lost: pp. 9, 45, 71, are mutilated.

Date

written late in the 14th cent.

Language

English

Physical facet

On parchment, with illuminated border, capitals, etc., imperfect

Physical extent

176 pages