John Pecham, Johannes de Rupescissa — 15th century, second half; English

Title

John Pecham, Johannes de Rupescissa — 15th century, second half; English

Shelfmark

MS. Eng. th. c. 57

Place of origin

English

Date

15th century, second half

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment of average quality; the outer margin of fol. 39 cut away; the last original leaf (fol. 157), cut in half vertically.

Physical extent

i (modern parchment) + 157 + ii (modern parchment) leaves.

Hands

Three hands: 1) fol.1–55v; 2) fol.56–154; 3) fol. 153v (prophecy), fol. 154 (sermon), fol. 156

Decoration

Blue initials with red flourishes.

Binding

Original binding. Sewn on seven split leather thongs (beginning to break at the upper joint), with kettle-stitching, and a headband (the tailband missing); bound in oak(?) boards, gently rounded at the edges (the fore-edge half of the upper board is missing, and replaced by a modern repair); the thongs entering the boards at the outer edge, and passing immediately through the board into a series of equidistant horizontal channels in the inner face; held in place by wood pegs (one missing); the boards also have shallow oblique channels as if for end-bands, but these were apparently never used, and have no peg-holes; score-marks and the surface quality of the wood on the inner face of the boards suggest that there was once a covering material with turn-ins, of which no other visible trace survives.

Acquisition

Bought by the Bodleian from Maggs Bros., 1945

Provenance

'W. Browne 1555' inscribed thus in ink in a neat hand on fol. 156v, and similarly 'W. Browne' in the upper margin of fol. 1r.

Unidentified owner, 17th(?) century, responsible for a number of marginal annotations in English.

Sir R. Leicester Harmsworth, Sotheby's 15 Oct. 1945, and following day, lot. 2114, bought by Maggs for £68