Prayers, offices, etc. for private use, Calendar, Psalter — 15th century and 15th century, end; English and Flemish (?)

Title

Prayers, offices, etc. for private use, Calendar, Psalter — 15th century and 15th century, end; English and Flemish (?)

Shelfmark

MS. Bodl. 939

Date

15th century and 15th century, end

Language

Latin

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Decoration

Good borders, historiated and other initials, Flemish (?), 15th century, end. Partly mutilated. Made in England. Woodcut of Image of Piety, English, 15th century. (Pächt and Alexander i. 377)

Binding

Brown leather with stamps (fleurs de lys, some crowned, with stars, some plain; and a monster; disposed in oblong panels) on bevelled oak boards, contemporary, apparently Flemish.

Title

Private prayers, offices, etc., with a calendar and psalter

Shelfmark

MS. Bodl. 939

Summary

Private prayers, offices, etc., with a calendar and psalter. Owing to mutilations it is difficult to describe accurately the contents, which appear to be:

(fol. 1) Latin prayers for personal use, in prose and verse;

(fol. 6) a calendar, of an English type, with addition of 'Antonii abbates' (Jan. 17), and 'Sancti Niniani episcopi' (Sept. 16): St. Swithin appears as 'Zwilchini episcopi' on July 15; (fol. 12v) Latin prayers headed by one in English rhythm (beg. 'Ihesu almyghty and Mary maydyn fre');

(fol. 22) The 15 O's, in Latin;

(fol. 28) prayers in prose and verse to the Virgin, and commemorations etc. of St. Ursula and the 11000 virgins, Stt. Leonard, Dorothy, Erasmus, and king Henry vi of England (fol. 45v), in Latin;

(fol. 46) Extracts from the Psalter, in Latin, followed by prayers;

(fol. 79) another series of prayers to the virgin, in honour of St. Christopher etc., some in verse, including the seven gaudia (fol. 99, cf. 102); chiefly in Latin, but a rubric on fol. 84 is in French, and twelve prayers are in English: but after fol. 88 the hand is slightly later, cf. 46.

The name of the person for whom these devotions were compiled is given on fols. 76, 76v, 77v, 80v as 'Elina', but afterwards as Aleanora (fols. 81b, 83), who was perhaps in prison at the time. This may be Eleanor (Nevil), grand-daughter of John of Gaunt, baroness Poynings, who married Henry (Percy) earl of Northumberland, and died in 1482. Professor Napier considers the English part to have been written in the North Midland district: there is a Flemish element in the Calendar, cf. MS. Aubrey 31.

Mutilations occur on fols. 33, 35, 81, 112b, and whole leaves have been cut out after fols. 21, 31, 45, 46, 52, 56, 78, 80, 85, but small miniatures are left on fols. 28, 30v, 36v, 37v, 38, 39v, 69v, 70v, 72, 73, 76, 80, 84.

The binding is brown leather with stamps (fleurs de lys, some crowned, with stars, some plain; and a monster; disposed in oblong panels) on bevelled oak boards, contemporary, apparently Flemish: the clasp is lost. On the inside of the front cover is pasted an (injured) 15th century English engraving, an Image of Pity, nearly identical with the one described by Henry Bradshaw in the Cambr. Antiqu. Society's Communications, iii (1879), pp. 148-9, but the words of the Indulgence are almost erased.

Date

written in the last quarter of the 15th century perhaps by a Flemish scribe and illuminator in England

Language

Latin

English

Physical facet

On parchment, illuminated, mutilated, binding, see below

Physical extent

129 Leaves