Composite manual of prognostic, astrological, and moral texts in two parts - 15th century; English

Title

Composite manual of prognostic, astrological, and moral texts in two parts - 15th century; English

Shelfmark

MS. Ashmole 396

Place of origin

English

Date

First half of the 15th century; Means (1993) suggests a date of 1420-30.

15th century, second half

Language

No linguistic content

Middle English (1100-1500)

English

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Physical extent

ii (recycled parchment flyleaves) + iv (parchment flyleaves, modern?) + 204 (parchment, one folio unfoliated) + iii (parchment flyleaves, latter formerly pastedown).

Binding

Late seventeenth-century calf binding over pasteboards, typical of Elias Ashmole's style. The edges of both boards are decorated with concentric tool framing. There are two clasps anchored to the upper board with three pins, on leather fore-edge flaps which are reinforced with parchment. Each clasp contains Ashmole's coat of arms. The facing catch plates are anchored to the lower board with three pins. The board edges are tooled with a repeating zig-zag pattern, also typical of Ashmole's bindings. The sewing supports are laced into the boards using shortened single-hole lacing without channels.

The spine shows five raised sewing supports covering thick cords, without end bands. The binding has been rebacked since entering the Bodleian's collection, and only the second spine panel (containing Ashmole's coat of arms with gold tooling around the margins) remains, now adhered to the spine covering in the same place. The spine is now covered in a separate piece of leather from the boards, of the same colour, that extends under the board-covers. The panels on the spine are decorated with the same style of concentric tool framing as the boards. The shelf mark ASH. 396 is embossed on the third spine panel, in a typeset that is similar, but not identical, to Ashmole's typeset (varying in the height of letters and thickness of vertical strokes in characters A and 9). The signature W 2.2.57 is recorded on the inside of the lower board, the date of rebacking and initial of the bookbinder.

Acquisition

The manuscript was kept in the Ashmolean until 1860, when the collection was transferred to the Bodleian Library.

Provenance

The two composite parts were likely joined together soon after their production, as a single set of medieval leaf signatures is visible across all three parts. The composite parts were likely bound with the recycled end leaf by Elias Ashmole (1617–1692), who is responsible for the current binding of the manuscript. This selection was likely made based on the size of the codicological units, rather than the relevance of their content. Ashmole collected astrological material, especially treatises with tables of lunar phases or relating to the zodiac, such as MS Ashmole 6, 8, 186, 188, 191, etc. Ashmole bequeathed the manuscript in its current condition to the Ashmolean Museum in 1692, in one volume, as part of his donation of 1,100 printed books and 600 manuscripts.