Prick of conscience ; Piers Plowman ; and other works : [manuscript]
Contributor
Langland, William, 1330?-1400? Piers Plowman. (B-text) Rolle, Richard, 1290?-1349, attributed name John, of Salisbury, Bishop of Chartres, -1180 Clarke, Adam, approximately 1762-1832, former owner Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Manuscript. HM 128
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Description
Part 1. ff. 1-16v, 25-32v, 17-24v, 33-94; f. 94v, blank. Pricke of Conscience. Incipit: The ferste part of þis book is soþnesse/ ys ymad of manny wrecchidnesse ffor whan god al þyng had mad of nought/ than of þe foulest matere man was wrought. Explicit: To þe which he vs brynge/ that for our loue maked all þynge. Amen. Here endet þ prikke of conscience. Rubric: Here bigynneþ þe ferste part of þis book þat telleþ of mannys wrecchidnesse. English. Text preceded by a prologue ("Here bugynneþ þe prologe on the Prikke of consciencie þat ferst telleþ of goddes power, The myght of the fadur of heuene/ the wyt of the sone wyth hys ȝyftes seuene"). IMEV 3429; Southern Recension; R. Morris, ed., The Pricke of Conscience. The Philological Society (Berlin 1863), from London, Brit. Lib., Cotton Galba E. ix; see also Stacy Waters,"The Pricke of Conscience: The Southern Recension, Book V," unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1976; Allen, Writings, 373, n. and 539-40; R. E. Lewis and A. McIntosh, A Descriptive Guide to the Manuscripts of the 'Prick of Conscience.' Medium Aevum monographs n.s. 12 (Oxford 1982) 146-47. Two quires bound out of order. Part 1. ff. 96r-v, 95; f. 95v blank. [William Langland] Piers Plowman. Incipit: //than drede went wyȝtly and warnede fals/ and badde hym fle for fere and his felawes alle. Explicit: Or togreden after goddes men. Whan ȝe delen doles/ In aduenture ȝe hauen ȝoure hire here. And ȝoure heuene als/ Nesciat sinistra manus quid faciat dextra. English. Fragment of Piers Plowman, B-text, ii, 208-iii, 72. IMEV 1459. Leaves rejected by scribe and order reversed; see R. B. Haselden,"The Fragment of Piers Plowman in Ashburnham No. CXXX," Modern Philology 29 (1932) 391-94, and pl. of ff. 96, 121. Part 1. ff. 97-112v. Incipit: Istam sequenciam cantat ecclesia dominica prima adventus domini quia in ea memoria agitur de adventu. Salus fidei generis est integritas corporis. Et dicitur de hoc sal. Explicit: Sed certe debet vocari ita et non eta, ut ipsi greci testantur. Et scribitur hoc nomen IHC cum tribus literis propter misterium ternarii numeri. Rubric: Dominica prima adventus domini sequencia, Salus eterna. Latin. An exposition of sequences which presents some similarities to the printed text, Expositio sequentiarum secundum usum Sarum [Cologne: H. Quentell, 1495]; Copinger 2386. Part 1. ff. 113-205. [William Langland] Piers Plowman. Incipit: In a someres seysoun whan set was the sunne/ y schoop me into shrowdes as y a sheep were. Explicit: and sende me hap and hele tyl y haue peris þe ploghman/ and siþ he gradde after grace tyl y gan awake. Explicit visio petri ploughman. English. Corrections in the hand of the scribe over erasures; text on ff. 156-161v disordered. IMEV 1459; W. W. Skeat, ed., The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman, by William Langland. EETS os 38 (London 1869) particularly xxi-xxiii for description of HM 128; G. Kane and E. T. Donaldson, eds., Piers Plowman: The B Version (London 1975), from Cambridge, Trinity College B.15.17, with variants also from this manuscript; see pp. 9-10 for description of HM 128. See also R. W. Chambers,"The Manuscripts of Piers Plowman in the Huntington Library and their Value for Fixing the Text of the Poem," Huntington Library Bulletin 8 (1935) 1-25. Part 1. ff. 205-216. [Siege of Jerusalem]. Incipit: Here begynneth þe seege of ierusaleem & how it was destroyed, In tyberyes tyme the trewe emperowr/ Sere cesar hym seluen seysyd in rome. Explicit: Wente synggyng awey & lefte woo there/ And hool reedyn to rome yblessyd be god almyȝty. Amen. English. IMEV 1583; E. Kölbing and M. Day, eds., The Siege of Jerusalem. EETS os 188 (London 1932), from Oxford, Bod. Lib., Laud misc. 656, with variants also from this manuscript; see pp. viii-ix for description of HM 128. G. Guddat-Figge, Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Middle English Romances (Munich 1976) 303-04. Part 1. ff. 216v-219. How the Good Wife Taught her Daughter. Incipit: The goode wif taught hir doughter fele tyme & ofte gode woman for to be, Doughter ȝif þou wilt ben a wif & wiseliche werch/ Loke þat þou loue well god & holy cherch. Explicit: Her blessyng mote þou haue & wele mote þou thryue. Wele is þe childe þat thryue may my der childe. Explicit expliciat ludere scriptor eat. English. IMEV 671; T. F. Mustanoja, ed., The Good Wife Taught her Daughter; The Good Wyfe wold a Pylgremage; The Thewis of Gud Women (Helsinki 1948), with Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS I.4.31 as the basis; HM 126 also edited in full. Also printed from this manuscript by F. Madden, ed., How the Goode Wif thaught hir Doughter (London 1838); by W. C. Hazlitt, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England (London 1864) 1:180-92; by C. Hindley, The Old Book Collector's Miscellany (London 1872; reprint of Madden) 2:1. Part 2. ff. 1-2v. [John of Salisbury]. [Letters]. Incipit: //penitencia et satisfactione substiterit in finibus istis. Explicit: Cum ergo hiis angustiis//. Latin. The incipit and explicit of the pastedown in the back of the book are: //pius ihesus quam ipsum pro pace vel gratia hominis. . .responderes id quod etsi imperitis rerum videatur//. John of Salisbury, Letters, ed. W. J. Millor and C. N. L. Brooke (Oxford 1979) v. 2, p. 104 line 18 to p. 110 line 4 and p. 200 line 9 to p. 206 line 4. Layout: 2 columns of 42+ lines, each column 81 mm. wide, ruled in lead. This part formed of the two pastedowns. Assigned Date: s. XIVex. Title supplied by cataloger. Contains several manuscripts, primarily Prick of Conscience attributed to Richard Rolle and the "B-text" of Piers Plowman. Part 2 is comprised of the text of letters of John of Salisbury found on the two pastedowns. Support: Parchment. Script: Anglicana with some secretary forms. Layout: 1-27⁸ (quires 3 and 4 reversed) 28 (3 leaves of uncertain structure). 40 long lines in the first, second and fourth texts; 2 columns of 61 lines in the third text; 55-65 lines in the fifth text; 30 lines in the sixth text. Ruling in lead, most of which is no longer visible, with single bounding lines. Span folios: ff. 1-219v. Other Decoration: Opening initial by skilled hand, f. 1, 8-line parted red and blue, infilled with vine and leaves, and extended along the inner margin by a red and blue cascade. Opening initial, f. 113, 12-line parted red and blue with flourishing of both colors. Assigned Date: s. XVin. Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C, W. Dutschke, 7/14/2012. 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, s. XVI, in English stamped calf over wooden boards; the roll is of Oldham's class HM.a (17-23); 2 fore edge clasps closing to catches on edge of back cover, one survives; rebacked. HM 128. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Christian life--Early works to 1800 Poems (rbgenr) Manuscripts (documents) (aat)
Source
Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
On the front pastedown, s. XVI,"Robert or William langland made pers ploughman"; beneath this, in the hand of John Bale,"Robertus Langlande natus in comitatu Salopie in villa Mortymers Clybery in the claylande, within viii myles of Malborne hylles, scripsit, peers ploughman, li. 1. In somer season whan set was sunne"; see R. B. Haselden and H. C. Schulz,"Note on the Inscription in HM 128," Huntington Library Bulletin 8 (1935) 26-27, suggesting that the manuscript which John Bale refers to in his Index Britanniae Scriptorum (ed. R. L. Poole, Oxford 1902, p. 509) as being in the possession of William Sparke may be identified with HM 128; see O. Cargill,"The Langland Myth," PMLA 50 (1935) 45 on the possible identity of William Sparke, and G. Kane, Piers Plowman: The Evidence for Authorship (London 1965) 37-42 and pl. 3 of the front pastedown of HM 128. Names of other possible early owners are: f. i, s. XVI,"Richard Rychard"; f. 101, s. XV/XVI,"Alleksander London [or Loudon?]"; f. 144v, s. XV,"cysley"; f. 149, s. XV,"betoun brygges" and, in the same hand, f. 153,"Maude." On f. i verso, a list of the contents of the book, dated in imitative medieval arabic numerals 1751; the same hand has occasionally annotated the manuscript, e.g. regarding the order of ff. 95-96, and on f. 92, across from Prick of Conscience, line 9138,"The other MS ends here.""The other MS" is probably London, Brit. Lib., Egerton 657 which breaks defectively at line 9138. Both Egerton 657 and HM 128 belonged to Adam Clarke (1760?-1832); HM 128 in the Catalogue of the Collection of Dr. Adam Clarke, complied by J. B. B. Clarke (London 1835) pp. 69-70, n. CXXIX (this number on the spine); his sale, Sotheby's, 20 June 1836, lot 352 to Thorpe; Thorpe Catalogue (1836) Suppl. n. 509. Acquired by Clifton W. Loscombe before 1838 (when F. Madden used it for his edition of art. 6); his sale, Sotheby's, 19 June 1854, lot 1167 to Upham for the fourth Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878); see the Catalogue of the Manuscripts at Ashburnham Place (London n.d.), Appendix, n. CXXX; Ashburnham sale, Sotheby's, 1 May 1899, lot 78 to Quaritch; Quaritch Catalogue 193 (1899) n. 54. In January 1918 Henry E. Huntington selected this and other books from the collection of Ross C. Winans, at the time in the hands of G. D. Smith.
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