Details

Subjects:

Devotional literature.
English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500.
English literature.
English literature -- Middle English.
English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500.
English poetry.
English poetry -- Middle English.
Religious poetry, English.
Mysticism.
Spiritual life.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Poems.
Manuscripts, English (Middle)
Manuscripts, Medieval.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Middle English, passages in Latin.

Contents:

1. f.1r-77v: Scale of perfection or Scala perfectionis, Bk. 1, ch. 19-93, Bk. 2, ch. 1-46 / Walter Hilton.
2. f.77v-127v: Stimulus amoris, or Prickyng of love / translated by Walter Hilton , attributed to St. Bonaventure [in ms., and to Jacobus Mediolanensis in other sources].
3. f.127v-146v: Amor dei or Love of God.
4. f.147r-159v: The Prick of conscience / Richard Rolle.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Overall title from Zacour-Hirsch Catalogue.
Collation: 1-18⁸, 19⁶⁺¹, 20⁸.
Foliation: Parchment, 159 + i; [1-159]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 2 columns, predominantly 42 lines per column, with a few sections in 41 (f. 1r-22r, 145r-146v), 43 (f. 25r-32v, 4th gathering; 41r-48r, 6th gathering), and 45 (f. 152r-159v, last gathering) lines; frame-ruled in ink. First line of text above the top line in last work (f. 147r-159v).
Script: Written in early 15th-century Anglicana script by 2 hands (f. 1-146, 147-159).
Decoration: Red rubrics on folios 1-146, space left for capital initials which were not completed. Marginal drawing of a black swan (f. 114r).
Binding: Late 15th-century calf, by the Virgin and Child binder, possibly active in Winchester (note by N. R. Ker pasted inside upper cover), rebacked. Upper cover detached, clasps missing.
Origin: Written in England, early 15th century (Zacour-Hirsch).
Imperfect, one quire missing at the front, probably at least one quire missing at the back.
Incipit for the first work [incomplete] (f. 1r): ... [thon]kyn and louyn hym and geuen ... [Bk. 1, ch. 19]. Explicit (f. 77v): Vox domini preparantis seruos et reuelabit condensa et in templo eius omnis [sic] dicent gloriam. Ad quam nos perducat qui sine fine viuit et regnat. Amen.
Incipit for the second work (f. 77v): Iste liber sequens primo fuit compositus in latino sermone per quemdam fratrem minorem Cardinalem nobilem doctorem Bonauenturam nomine postea translatus est in linguam anglicanam pro minoribus latinum non intelligentibus per quemdam canonicum Walterum Hilton nomine in amore dei valde deuotum ... Text begins on f. 78v: How a man schal have cristis passyoun in mynde ... Explicit (f. 127v): And so mote oure tretys endyn in preisyng of god. so þat alle blissed speritys mote preisyn oure lord in þe blisse of heuene. Amen. Here endiþ þe tretys þat is called prickyng of loue maad be a frere menoure a cardinal of þe court of Rome, Bonauenture be his name.
Incipit for the third work (f. 127v): Þis schort pistil þat folweþ is deuyded in sundrie maneris eche matere be hymself in titlys as þis kalendere makeþ mencioun ... Text begins on f. 128r: Here begynneþ þe book. In the begy[n]nyng and endyng of alle goode werkis ... Explicit (f. 145v): in help of þi selfe.
Incipit for a short meditation on the five wits (senses) given as part of the preceding text (f. 145v): First kepe wel in þin herte alle þi wittis and þat is esy to do ... Explicit (f. 146v): On þis man[er] mayst þ[o]u kepe þe and þi fyue wittys fro synne and ocupie þe s[er]uyse of god and þ[er]to god geue þe grace. Amen. Explicit tractatus qui vocatur Amor dei. [Entire section is transcribed by Krochalis in the Library Chronicle.].
Incipit for the fourth work (f. 147r): [Þ]e migt of þe fader almigty ... Explicit (f. 159v): Allas qwat schul þ[an] þei do / þat bene ifou[n]de i[n] syn / þ[a]t wold nougt he[m] self do ...
Front cover board detached, clasps missing.
Letter from Charles Cormersach to Lord Camoys laid into the manuscript; it is dated 18 November 1870 and discusses the last work in the manuscript. A copy of this letter is on file in the Library, along with other materials pertaining to this codex; the original letter has been cataloged and filed in the Library's Miscellaneous Manuscripts collection.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Samuell Bouter, 17th century (inside back cover).
Formerly owned by John Butlar, 1674 (f. 82v).
Formerly owned by Thomas Stonor, third Lord Camoys, 1870 (bookplate).
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 29 June 1938, lot 523.
Appears in Maggs Bros. catalog 687 (March 1940), no. 170.
Sold by Maggs Bros., 1951.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 50 (Ms. English 8).
Described in Krochalis, Jeanne Elizabeth, "Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God: Two Newly Identified Pennsylvania Manuscripts," in The Library Chronicle 42 (Spring 1977), no. 1, pp. 3-22. This article is the source of much of the description of the manuscript in this catalog record.
Described in Stevenson, Joseph. "Report upon a Manuscript in the Library of the Right Hon. the Lord Camoys." Second Report of The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Appendix (London, 1871), p. 33. There is a copy of this description on file in the Library along with a description from an unidentified dealer's catalog (Maggs Brothers?).

Publications about:

Kane, Harold J. A Critical Edition of the "Prickynge of Love." Ph. D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1968. [Edition of the second work].

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 218.

Contributor:

Bonaventure, Saint, Cardinal, approximately 1217-1274, attributed name.
Rolle, Richard, 1290?-1349, attributed name.
Jacobus, Mediolanensis, active 13th century.
Bouter, Samuell, former owner.
Butlar, John, former owner.
Stonor, Thomas, third Lord Camoys, former owner.

Related Work:

Jacobus, Mediolanensis, active 13th century. Stimulus amoris.

Contains:

Hilton, Walter, -1396. Scale of perfection.
Prick of conscience.
Amor dei.

OCLC:

155962868

Access Restriction:

Access to this item is subject to staff review.