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Description
ff. 1-169v; ff. 170-172v, blank. [John Gower] Confessio Amantis. Incipit: //As forto speke of any sped/ So wiste I me non oþer red. Explicit: Wher restiþ loue and alle pes/ Oure ioie mai ben endeles. English; Latin. Final colophons: Explicit iste liber qui transiat obsecro liber/ Ut sine livore vigeat lectoris in ore/ Qui sedet in scannis celi det ut ista Iohannis/ Perpetuis annis stet pagina grata Britannis/ Derbeie Comiti recolunt quem laude periti/ Vade liber purus sub eo que recumbe futurus. [f. 169v:] Epistola super huius opusculi sui complementum Iohanni Gower a quodam philosopho transmissa. [space] Quam cinxere freta Gower tua carmina leta/ Per loca discreta canit Anglia laude repleta/ Carminis athleta Satirus tibi sive poeta/ Sit laus completa quo gloria stat sine meta. IMEV 2662; second recension with added passages in Books 5 and 7, the revised dedication to Henry, the revised conclusion on the state of England and the 6-line explicit dedicated to Henry; f. 50, a substitute, presents readings from the unrevised first recension. G. C. Macaulay, ed., The English Works of John Gower. EETS es 81-82 (London 1900-01), who prints from this manuscript passages designated by the letter S (for Stafford). See J. H. Fisher, John Gower, Moral Philosopher and Friend of Chaucer (New York 1964) 303-07 for a list and classification of the manuscripts, including EL 26 A 17. Status of text: Defective initially, and then internally at 10 points. Title from printed catalog. Support: Parchment. Script: Bastard anglicana. Layout: 1⁸(-2, 7) 2-6⁸ 7⁸(-1, 2, 3; the 7th leaf, f. 50, a substitute) 8-9⁸ 10⁸(-2, 4, 5, 7) 11⁸(-1, 2) 12-14⁸ 15⁸(-7) 16-17⁸ 18⁸(-2) 19⁸ 20⁸(-1, 2) 21⁸ 22⁸(-1, 2) 23⁸ 24⁴(+3; the last leaf formerly a pastedown). Catchwords in lower right margin; 2 columns of 46 lines ruled in brown lead with double rules at the 4 sides of the text space, with an additional double rule across upper margin for running headlines, and with an additional single rule in the outer and inner margins to help delineate the 18 mm. wide space for gloss. Decoration: On f. 1, an 18-line miniature, badly damaged, of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Other Decoration: On f. 1, a full border of regularly intertwining pairs of leaves and vines in gold, blue and dark red (no green), a 6-line dark red initial on a gold ground, infilled with a coat of arms (see below) and 2 other coats of arms in the outer and lower borders (see below). Assigned Date: s. XIVex. Possibly as many as 3 people copied medical recipes on otherwise blank leaves at the end of the book: f. 169v: Ayenst the newe Ague Anno domini D xxxix; A playster for the heedde & temples; A drynk for the same desese; A metsen for the Collec and the stone; ii, f. 171v, Ayenst the newe Ague; pleyster far [sic] the heedde & temples; iii, f. 172, A Speciall medecyn for the Sickenesse callid þe pestylens. A 6-line poem signed T. P. Goodwynn, s. XVII, on f. 170: "No fortunes frownes shall make me bend/ Wher Reason striketh nott the stroke..." Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C. W. Dutschke, 1/21/2012. Cataloged from existing description: C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Bound, ca. 1800, in English diced russia; rebacked, original spine laid down; f. 172v, once a pastedown, with markings of 6 bands of previous binding. EL 26 A 17. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Poems. (rbgenr) Illuminations (Painting) England 14th century. (aat) Coats of arms. (aat) Manuscripts (documents) (aat)
Source
Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
On f. 172, erased possession note, s. XV. On f. 170, possession notes, s. XVIin, of William Downes: "Iste liber pertinet And bear it wel in mynde/ Per me Gulielmum downes so gentelle and so kynde/ A vinculis doloris Iesue do hym brynge/ Ad vitam etername [sic] to lyfe everlastynge. Amen" ( Hanna, "Addenda," n. 25 ), and "William Downes mee tenet"; on f. 21, rough strapwork initials, "W[illiam] D[ownes]"; on f. 76, s. XVIex, possession note of Phillip Downes. Notes of an antipapist, s. XVImed, across the upper margins of ff. 30, 60, 66, 77, 91 and 102: "Vacantur nomina paparum, Thomas Bekett & no seynt." Sixteenth century notes on f. 171 on the ownership of church lands: "The personage of Gwendrun & Stythians in ye county of Cornewall percell of ye possessions of ye late monastary of Rewley" and "The personage of Croppreadin in ye county of oxforde in the tenure of one mr chancye by leace for xxiti yeares grauntid unto hym by kinge Edward ye sixt in ye fyfte yeare of his raigne & paiethe by yeare lvili." The manuscript owes its appellation of "Stafford Gower" to the description of it by H. J. Todd, Illustration of the Lives and Writings of Gower and Chaucer (London 1810) 108-09, while in the possession of George Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Marquis of Stafford (aftw. 1st Duke of Sutherland), who had inherited the Bridgewater Library from his uncle, Francis Egerton, 3rd and last Duke of Bridgewater. The designation was used by Macaulay in his edition of the text (1900-01). Bridgewater bookplate on front pastedown and embossed Bridgewater library stamp on f. ii and f. 1. (CSmH)
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