Richard Rolle — 14th century, late or 15th century, early; English

Title

Richard Rolle — 14th century, late or 15th century, early; English

Shelfmark

MS. Don. c. 13

Place of origin

English

Date

14th century, late or 15th century, early

Language

Latin

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment, of mediocre quality, with numerous flaws, irregular edges, and pronounced hair-/flesh-side differences.

Physical extent

iii (modern card/paper) + ii (medieval parchment) + 168 + ii (medieval parchment).

Hands

Written in competant anglicana scripts: the main texts by a single(?) scribe; the added texts on fols. 162v-166v, and 166v-167r, by two further different hands.

Decoration

Rubrics, underlinings and paraphs all in red; some capitals touched in red; a number of looped letters are also sporadically infilled in red, e.g. 'b', 'd', 'e', 'o', etc.

Binding

The original(?) binding. Sewn on five split leather straps, with endbands (all but the top endband now broken at the upper joint), which enter the wood boards from the outside, appear in a channel on the inside, before passing back out to form exterior channels, and finally back in again, the straps held with wood pegs in the first, interior, channel, and ferrous nails in the exterior channel; the endbands with wood pegs in both channels; the boards with bevelled edges, approximately flush with the edges of the leaves; with traces of two strap-fittings, each with a recessed channel with two nails at the fore-edge of the upper board, and corresponding (copper?) nails towards the middle of the lower board (from a strap and pin fastening); the lower board with the remains of a red leather covering, the boards and spine otherwise exposed. In a fitted half-bound green leather box, the spine with the gilt title: 'JOHN WYCLIFFE | SERMONS'.

Acquisition

'Presented to the Bodleian by Herbert Watney M.D. Feb. 1931' (inscribed as such in ink on fol. v recto) through Miss. M. Watney.

Provenance

Written in England, presumably in the North, c. 1400; marginal annotations at fol. 64r suggest an interest in Robert of Lincoln by an early owner.

John Cobdane, 15th century: inscribed in ink, fol. 170r: 'dominus Iohannes Cobdane est pos(essor istius libri?)'; the name is given as 'Coldane' in McIntosh et al., 1986.

John Savage (and descendents/relatives?), 16th century: inscribed in ink in three different scripts: 'John Savage', 'A S te(?) est posessor istius libri', and 'A. S. (?) est posessor istius libri' (fol. 168v).

Unidentified 16th-century owners: inscribed in black ink in large characters in the centre of fol. v recto: '52'; next to this are two erased inscriptions in ink, one of them beginning: 'This ...'; another on fol. 170r reads: 'Saynt batildis day the sunne enteryd into my hall at nonetyde'; there are also 16th-cent marginal annotations throughout.

The upper board with a paper label in lower left corner, printed 'M | 148', perhaps of the Tixall Library.

Sir F. A. T. Chichester Constable, Bt.; a paper label glued inside the box is perhaps inscribed by him, or is perhaps an exhibition label: 'GOSPELS AND EPISTLES. | Exposition of the Gospels and Epistles | for Sundays and Holydays. SÆC XIV'; sold at Sotheby's, 6 Nov. 1899, and the following day, lot 268 (with a cutting pasted inside the box), bought by Quaritch for £40 10s (this price inscribed in pencil, in Quaritch's 'King Alfred' price-code, in the top right corner of fol. 168r).; a letter from Quaritch, dated 13 Nov. 1899, is bound in as fol. iii, referring to 'the volume you have just secured'.

'Herbert Watney, M.D., Buckhold, Berks.', with a printed booklabel glued in the fitted box, with the 'No.' and 'Shelf' inscribed in ink: 'T 10' and 'II', respectively.