Poetic anthology on the courtly game of love; England, 15th century, third quarter
MS. Bodl. 638
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Description
From Medieval manuscripts in Oxford libraries
This is an extract only. For more information, see the catalogue record in Medieval manuscripts in Oxford libraries.
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Title
Poetic anthology on the courtly game of love; England, 15th century, third quarter
Shelfmark
MS. Bodl. 638
Associated place
Leominster
Place of origin
English
Date
15th century, third quarter
Language
Middle English (1100-1500)
Latin
Anglo-Norman
Contents
Form
codex
Support
Parchment forms the outermost and centre bifolia of each quire; the remaining leaves are paper. Watermarks, quires 1–7 (fols. 1r–111v): a crown with centre piece of lance heads, cf. Heawood 1929, fig. 27; quires 8–10 (fols. 112r–59v), grapes, cf. Briquet nos. 12992–13006; quire 11 (fols. 160r–75v), bull, cf. Briquet no. 2783; quires 12–14 (fols. 176r–219v), mount, cf. Briquet no. 11706.
Physical extent
i + 219 + i leaves
Hands
Written in gothic cursiva antiquior, apparently by a single scribe.
Decoration
Coloured capitals.
Rubrics, running heads, paraphs, and brackets for poetic structure in red.
Binding
Early seventeenth-century binding from the Bodleian Library, reversed calf over laminated pulpboard with printed binding waste used as pastedowns. Formerly chained.
Acquisition
Apparently acquired between 1613 and 1620. Former shelfmarks: MS T.9.7 Iur (fol. i recto and 1620 catalogue), NE C.3.10 (fol. i recto). An inscription Gyl: Astley 1410 (upper pastedown) may be from a Giles Astley (died 1666) who was an undergraduate at Hart Hall in the 1630s.
Provenance
Numerous sixteenth-century inscriptions, possibly indicating ownership by a school, include Richard Becher (fols. 17r, 159r), James Hedington (fol. 83v), be me Humffrey Fflemyn (Humfrey Flemyng?, fol. 214r, cf. 127r, 162r), Antony Sherington in Lemsster (Leominster), 1563 (fol. 36v, cf. 144v), John Smart (fol. 191r), S. Pot (fols. 193v, 194r), TH 1573 (fol. 194v).
Robert Copland (fl. 1505–1547) used the manuscript as the printer’s copy in his edition of The Parliament of Fowls for Wynkyn de Worde in 1530. See Mary C. Erler, ‘Printers’ Copy: MS Bodley 638 and the “Parliament of Fowls”’, The Chaucer Review, 33.3 (1999), 221–29.
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