Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

[English religious poems] [manuscript].

[England, ca. 1400]

122 leaves : parchment, col. ill. ; 243 x 161 (179 x 77) mm. bound to 257 x 172 mm.

Collection of three devotional works in metrical verse.

Ms. codex.

Title supplied by cataloger (Zacour-Hirsch).

Spine title: Seven Penitential Psalms. The Pricke of Conscience. The Lamentation of St. Anselm.

Title of first work as given in the ms.: Seuene Psalmis (colophon, f. 12v). No attribution is given in the ms. The beginning of the text is missing. This work is ascribed variously to Richard Maidstone (or Maydestone) and Richard Rolle (cf. Zacour-Hirsch Catalogue).

Title of second work as given in the ms.: Stimulus conscie[ncie] (colophon, f. 118r). There is no attribution in the ms. In the past it has generally been attributed to Richard Rolle, but this attribution is not certain.

Third work has no title in the ms. Text may be incomplete, since it ends abruptly without a colophon. There is no attribution in the ms. This is the only known ms. version of this work, which appears never to have been published. It is a homiletic poem of 200 octosyllabic verses. It appears to be based on St. Anselm of Canterbury's "Deploratio male amissae virginitatis."

Incipit of third work: Qwhan drighten dere his doom schal dresse / And alle oure dedys demen on a day ... (f. 118v).

Foliation: Parchment, ii (modern paper) + 122 + ii (modern paper); [i], [1-121]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto. This foliation was added after the missing folios were lost. Some leaves have traces of an earlier foliation.

Layout: Written in a single column of 40 lines, frame-ruled in ink.

Script: Written in several hands using a basically similar Gothic hybrid script.

Decoration: Extensive use of red and some blue for headings and initials. 4-line blue initials with red filigree throughout, 6-line illuminated initials (f. 21r and 118v), and 8-line illuminated initials (f. 30r and 34v).

Binding: Modern brown full morocco (Sangorski & Sutcliffe, London).

Origin: Written in England, ca. 1400.

Upper cover and two endleaves detached. Back hinge wearing. Blank margin on f. 80 cut away. First and last couple ff. badly stained and soiled, possibly due to damp. Text very difficult to read on last few ff. due to wearing and staining.

Imperfect. The following leaves are known to be wanting: one before f. 1; one between ff. 7-8; one between ff. 12-13; two between ff. 14-15; eight between ff. 25-26; one between ff. 49-50 ; one between ff. 78-79; and one between ff. 91-92.

Many marginal entries in 16th- and 17th-century hands.

Description of this manuscript by Patrick O'Neill on file in the Library. It consists of seven typewritten leaves and is undated. It contains a useful discussion of the date and collation of the ms., as well as other physical details. It also includes a brief discussion of the contents.

Description from an unidentified dealer's catalog on file in the Library.

UPenn Ms. Codex 196.

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania Ms. Codex 196