Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes
General
Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 2: Notes
English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500
#Manuscripts:# i. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 402 (A); on vellum,
215 × 150 mm. The fly-leaf fastened down has the mark S. 15, then follow
three leaves with writing in a seventeenth-century hand (? Joscelin),
mostly a translation of the piece beginning in Morton, p. 6, ‘Nan ancre
bi mi read,’ then 117 folios, on the first of which is a marginal
rubric, J þe feaderes ⁊ i þe sunes | ⁊ i þe hali gastes nome | her
biginneð ancrene | wisse, as at the beginning of SJ (139/1) and SM in
MS. Bodley 34. On the lower margin of f. 1 r in a fourteenth-century
hand is Liber ecclesie s{an}ct{i} Jacobi de Wygemore: que{m} Joh{ann}es
Purcel dedit | eide{m} eccl{es}ie ad instancia{m} fr{atr}is Walt{er}i de
Lodel{awe} senioris t{u}nc p{re}ce{nt}oris. The Abbey of Wigmore was
dedicated to S. James (Dugdale, vi. 344). There are glosses in red
pencil and words underlined in red. The revival of Anglo-Saxon studies
under Archbishop Parker, partly prompted by the desire to use in defence
of the Reformation the evidences as to the tenets of the early Church in
England, caused such books as this to be carefully read. William L’isle
extracted from it some of the prayers (in Morton, 26, 28, 30) and,
treating them as debased Anglo-Saxon, turned them into the latter speech
as he understood it. His efforts are recorded in MS. Laud Misc. 201;
they have led Dr. Heuser (Anglia, xxx. 103) to conclude that the Ancren
Riwle is not a ME. but an OE. document.
The MS. belongs to the second quarter of the thirteenth century. It
cannot be earlier than 1225 A.D., for it mentions the Dominicans and
Franciscans, and it is probably later than 1230. It is the most correct,
but it has additions to the original, such as 62/46-64/62, 64/73-78. See
further A Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in the Library of Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge, by M. R. James, vol. ii, pp. 267, 8.
ii. Caius College, Cambridge, 234 (B); on vellum, 124 × 93 mm.; 368
pages; late thirteenth century. Pages 1-185 consist of extracts from the
AR, but not in the order of the other manuscripts (ES iii. 536). It is
addressed to ‘friends’ 55/1, not sisters, and the second passage printed
here is not in this MS. The contents of the manuscript are given in A
Descriptive Catalogue of the MSS. in the Library of Gonville and Caius
College, by M. R. James, vol. i, p. 298.
iii. Cotton Nero A 14, British Museum (N); on vellum, 146 × 114 mm.;
written in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. Its contents
are ff. 1-120 r, the Ancren Riwle; 120 v-123 v, The Orison, printed at
pp. 132-7 of this book; 123 v-131 v, the pieces printed in OEH i, pp.
200-17. It forms the text of Morton’s edition.
iv. Cotton Titus D 18, British Museum (T); on vellum, 158 × 120 mm.; 148
folios in double columns, written from f. 14, where AR begins, to the
end, about 1220 A.D. Its relationship to two other manuscripts in
respect to their contents is shown by the following table:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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