Table of lections of Type I, New Testament in the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible with usual prologues — 15th century, first quarter; England

Title

Table of lections of Type I, New Testament in the Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible with usual prologues — 15th century, first quarter; England

Shelfmark

MS. Lyell 26

Place of origin

England

Date

15th century, first quarter

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment, paper flyleaves

Physical extent

354 leaves, c.

Hands

textura, black and brown ink

Decoration

4-line gold initials (8-line initials ‘I’) on blue and pink background at the beginnings of books; the first (fol. 15v) with a spray of penwork and gold leaves and disks.

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

Rubrics in red ink.

Binding

Black morocco over pasteboard, first half of the 17th century. Gilt fillet-line border round the outer edge of both covers. Gilt rectangular figure with stamped gilt decoration and gilt initials ‘I M’ on both covers. Five raised bands on spine. Gilt lettering on spine ‘NEW TESTAMENT MS. ON VELLUM’. Paper label on spine with handwritten ‘MS. LYELL 26’. Gilt edges of textblock. Laid paper pastedowns and flyleaves.

Provenance

Faythe and throth ys nat one thynge, 15th or 16th century (fol. 340v).

Borton ys a knave. John at…, 15th or 16th century, partly erased (fol. 341v).

This is william wood his boke it is a good boke, 16th century (fol. 337v). [wood(?)] is overwritten with lancaster; lancaster is also written above in a slightly later 16th-century hand, probably responsible for Latin prayers, and Latin and English epitaphs and proverbs (see below). willem wood[e?] of Ste[d…(?)] he is a no… (fol. 139v).

Thomas Howard His Book in capitals (fol. 342v) and in the same (?) hand ‘Anne’ (fol. 3v). Thomas Howard, third duke of Norfolk (1473–1554) (?), married to Anne; see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Latin prayers (fols. 1r–3v) and Latin and English epitaphs and proverbs (fols. 337v–338v, 340v–342r) in a 16th-century hand (see De la Mare (1971)).

Theological notes in English in a 17th-century hand on fols. vi recto and 344r–348r.

Richardus Smitheus (fol. 6r) and Richardus Smytheus wontoniensis (fol. 336v), 17th century. Possibly Richard Smith (bap. 1590, d. 1675), law officer and book collector; see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, who owned another Wycliffite New Testament (see Forshall, J. and Madden, F. (eds), The Holy Bible … in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1850), vol. 1, p. xli).

James P. R. Lyell (1871–1948), book collector; see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: bought in October 1943 from Quaritch; no. 17 in their catalogue of manuscripts (1931); see also pastedowns and fol. i recto. Lyell’s bookplate on the upper pastedown.