New Testament (later Wycliffite version), vol. i.

Shelfmark

MS. Rawl. C. 237

Date

15th century, first quarter, before 1415 (?)

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment, paper flyleaves

Physical extent

155 leaves, c.

Hands

informal and irregular textura; changes of ink and scribal style throughout, e.g., in MS. Rawl. C. 238, fols. 17r, 136r, 139r, etc.; calendar in a different 15th-century hand with initials in a different style

Decoration

Plain KL monograms in red and blue ink in the calendar.

3- to 4-line gold initials on blue and burgundy background at the beginnings of books.

Border made of a gold bar in the right margin with penwork sprays and gold leaves in the lower margin at the beginning of Matthew.

2- to 4-line blue initials with red penwork at the beginnings of prologues and chapters.

3-line gold initial at the beginning of the prologue to John and a penwork initial at the beginning of the gospel (fol. 121r–v).

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Nearly identical bindings on both volumes. Brown leather over pasteboard, late 17th or early 18th century, rebound for Stamford in 1693 (?). The text, originally in a single volume, was probably broken between two volumes at the time of rebinding: Stamford’s signature appears in each volume. Rebacked in the Bodleian; 19th-century spines. Double blind fillet-line border round the outer edge of both covers. Four raised bands on spines. Panels between the bands are framed with double blind and gilt fillet lines. Gilt lettering on spine: ‘PURVEY’S NEW TESTAMENT’, ‘VOL. I.’, ‘RAWL. MS. C. 237.’ Laid paper pastedowns and flyleaves dating from the 17th- or early 18th-century binding.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: bequeathed by Rawlinson and accessioned in 1756. Earlier shelfmarks: ‘Rawl. no. 544’, ‘22’ (MS. Rawl. C. 237, upper pastedown).

Provenance

Added calendar in a different, somewhat later 15th-century hand.

In use late in the 15th century: the calendar updated and references to lections added; lections marked within the text; indexing letters and notes stating the liturgical occasions added in the margins; a table of lections added on a flyleaf. The same late 15th-century owner may have also marked a passage on Pharisees of possibly Lollard interest at Luke 11.

The feasts of Thomas Becket are crossed out, presumably at Reformation.

Thomas Grey, second Earl of Stamford (1653/4–1720); see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ‘Stamford 1693’ (fol. 1r).

Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755); see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Title

New Testament (later Wycliffite version), vol. i.

Shelfmark

MS. Rawl. C. 237

Date

second half of the 15th century

Language

English

Physical extent

1 item