Details

Other Title:

Myrour to lewed men and wymen.

Subjects:

Lord's prayer -- Early works to 1800.
Lord's prayer.
Christian ethics -- History -- Middle Ages, 600-1500.
Christian ethics.
History.
Vices -- Early works to 1800.
Vices.
Virtues -- Early works to 1800.
Virtues.

Form/Genre:

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

Language:

Middle English, with some Latin notations.

Summary:

Prose version of the Speculum vitae, related to B. L. MS Harley 45 (according to E. V. Stover).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title is taken from folio 1v, "...and may be cleped a myrour to lewed men and wymen in whiche þei may see God." Note regarding the title on [ii]v is in a later hand.
Foliation: Parchment, iii (modern paper) + 167 + iii (modern paper); [1-167]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto; leaf between f. 136 and f. 137 has been cut out.
Layout: Written in 30 long lines; ruled in ink.
Script: Written in an Anglicana script, in a single hand. Some additional marginal notes are in 17th- to 19th-century hands.
Decoration: Illuminated border on f. 1r in blue, magenta, green, and gold; with 91 illuminated initials in blue, gold, and magenta throughout text; also illustrated with 11 delicate pen-and-ink drawings in the margin, depicting seven eyes opposite the seven "cleer sightes" for attaining the virtue of equity (f. 48r-v), a moneybag for avarice (f. 62r), a fish being hooked (f. 95r), and a worm (f. 113r), among others. Latin words within the text and Latin marginal notations are in red.
Binding: 18th-century calf, with paper endleaves contemporary with the binding, three in front and three in back. Spine has been rebacked and boards reattached.
Origin: Written in England in the first half of the 15th century (Stover); date 1544 appears in a marginal note, f. 167v.
Manuscript is fragile, with evidence of earlier repairs, in some places the ink has faded somewhat.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Sir William Betham; sold at auction as part of his library by R. H. Evans in 1830, lot 441, to Thomas Thorpe.
Appears in Thomas Thorpe's 1830 catalog, no. 13952, and 1832 catalog, no. 831.
Probably purchased by Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham Clinton, fourth Duke of Newcastle, in the 19th century, for his library at Clumber in Worksop (preface to Sotheby's catalog of the first portion of the sale of the library of the seventh Duke of Newcastle); owned by the dukes of Newcastle through Henry Pelham-Clinton, seventh Duke of Newcastle.
Sold at auction in the third portion of the Clumber library of the late seventh Duke of Newcastle at Sotheby's, 6 Dec. 1937, lot 957, to a representative for Chas. J. Sawyer Ltd. (inscription in Rosenbach copy of sale catalog).
Sold by Chas. J. Sawyer Ltd. (London), 1949.

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. 49 (Ms. English 3).
See note on this manuscript by Stover, E. V. in The Library Chronicle 16 (1949-1950), pp. 81-86.

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 198

Contributor:

Betham, William, Sir, 1779-1853, former owner.
Newcastle, Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham Clinton, Duke of, 1785-1851, former owner.
Newcastle, Henry Pelham-Clinton, Duke of, 1864-1928, former owner.

OCLC:

155962813