Mid-fifteenth century single-text codex of The Wars of Alexander

Title

Mid-fifteenth century single-text codex of The Wars of Alexander

Shelfmark

MS. Ashmole 44

Place of origin

English, likely north. Gisela Guddat-Figge suggested an origin of Northern England (1976, p. 246), supported by Duggan and Turville-Petre (1989, p. xxv). LALME describes the scribe's dialect as substantially of Durham, or possibly S[outh] Northumberland, but with odd features of apparently N[orth] W[est] Midland origin. For a detailed analysis of this and the Durham manuscript, see Gert Ronberg (1985).

Date

15th century, middle

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

paper One watermark throughout: a set of scales resembling Briquet 2401 (dated c.1437), following Duggan and Turville-Petre (1989, pp. ix-x). Folded in quarto.

Physical extent

ix + 97 + ix

Hands

One scribe throughout, writing in a current Anglicana of the mid-fifteenth century. Passus headings written in a more ornate bastard Anglicana with final secretary s, by the same hand. The text has been corrected with care using a combination of expunction, underlining, over-writing, and marginal notations (see Duggan and Turville-Petre, 1989, p. ix-x).

Decoration

There are two inhabited initials in the manuscript, executed in the same ink as the text and likely by the same scribe. They mark the beginning of the text and the beginning of a Passus. The text opens on fol. 1r with a 6-line initial W decorated with a face and embellished with a zig-zag design. A five-line inhabited N occurs on folio 9v.

When they do not contain an inhabited initial, the beginnings of Pasuses are marked with a running title and a variety of lombardic initials, in the same ink as the main text and likely by the same scribe. Two-line initials occur at folios 4v, 15v, and 55r. Larger three-line initial are also used, as on folios 19v, 25r, 29v, 34v, 45r, 52r, 75v, 87v, 94v, and 97r. More ornate four and five-line initials with additional flourishes appear on folios 40r, 49r, 59v, 63r, 65r, 69r, 73v, 79r, 81v, 84v, and 91v.

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. The head, tail, and panels of the spine display the same style of tooling in horizontal frames. The spine shows four raised sewing supports covering thick cords, without end bands. The sewing supports are laced into the boards using shortened single-hole lacing without channels.

The binding has been rebacked since the manuscript left Ashmole's collection. The spine is covered in a separate piece of leather from the boards, of the same colour, that extends under the board-covers. On to this leather, a portion of the former (Ashmolean) spine has been adhered. This piece of leather covers the three central spine panels and raised sewing supports. The shelf mark ASH. 44 is embossed on the third spine panel in Ashmole's typeset. Above this is Ashmole's embossed crest featuring his quartered heraldic design. The board-covers show evidence of having been lifted up at the spine-edge to allow for the spine-cover to be adhered beneath them.

The inner rear board bears an inscription typical of the Bodleian's in-house bindery, with the initial W. and the date 16-12-55 - likely the date of the rebacking.

Acquisition

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

Provenance

The initials R. R. and R. ANON are written in the lower margin of folio 1r in an early hand, possibly of the fifteenth century. This same hand copies several single and two-compartment a also in the lower margin. Ethel Seaton theorises that this manuscript may have been owned by Sir Richard Roos (c. 1410-1482) because of the similarity to the poetic device I roos anon she identifies in La Belle Dame Sans Mercy (1961, p.111).

There is little evidence for the early provenance of the manuscript. The scribal dialect has been located to the North of England, perhaps to County Durham (see Duggan and Turville-Petre, 1989, p.xxv; and LALME). Duggan and Turville-Petre suggest that the scribe was copying from an exemplar containing West Midland forms, which are visible in scribal errors and mistranslations (p. xxv).

The manuscript was later owned by Elias Ashmole (1617–1692). The date at which he acquired it is uncertain, but in a letter dated the 23 January 1656 he writes to Henry Oxinden of Barham, Kent, to say that he will be lending him an Alexander which is true and good (British Museum Add. MS. 28003, fol. 334; edited in Autobiographical and Historical Notes, ed. Josten, vol. 2, p. 687). In his reply of the 6 May 1656, Oxinden acknowledges the receipt of a book on Alexander the Great (British Museum Add. MS. 28003, fol. 341; edited in Autobiographical and Historical Notes, ed. Josten, vol. 2, p. 690).

The manuscript was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum by Elias Ashmole in 1692 as part of his donation of 1,100 printed books and 600 manuscripts.