The complete works of John Gower, volume 2 : $b The English worksGower, John
General
The complete works of John Gower, volume 2 : $b The English works
Gower, John
Poetry
As to former possessors, we find written on the last leaf ‘Anniballis
Admiralis dominicalis,’ on f. 80 ‘Be me Anne Russell’ (?), and on f.
115 ‘Elyzebeth Gardnar my troust ys in god,’ all apparently sixteenth
cent. The first name is evidently that of Claude d’Annebaut (also
called d’Hannybal), who was Admiral of France, and died in 1552. He
was in England about the year 1547. The book came to the Bodleian from
Gilbert Dolben, Esq., of Finedon, in Northamptonshire, in the year
1697, and not being in the Catalogue of 1697, it has to some extent
escaped notice.
The text is a very good one of the revised type. It should be
noted, however, that while in the earlier books AJM &c. stand
very frequently together on the side of F as against the rest
of the first recension, in the later, and especially in the
seventh and eighth, AM &c. have an increasing tendency to stand
with the first recension generally, leaving J alone in support
of the corrected text. In the earlier books A sometimes stands
alone in this manner, as i. 1960, ii. 961, 1356.
The orthography (especially that of the second hand) is nearly
that of F. As regards final _e_, the tendency is rather to
insert wrongly than to omit. Punctuation agrees generally with
that of F.
J. ST. JOHN’S COLL., CAMB. B 12. Contains the same as A. Parchment, ff.
214, 12 × 9½ in., in quires of 8 with catchwords: double column of
39 lines, written in a very neat hand of the first quarter of fifteenth
century. Latin summaries usually omitted, but most of them inserted up
to f. 5 (Prol. 606), and a few here and there in the fifth and seventh
books.
The first page has a complete border, but there are no other
decorations except red and blue capitals. Old wooden binding.
The seventh leaf of quire 12 (v. 57-213) and the first of quire 14 (v.
1615-1770) are cut out, and a passage of 184 lines is omitted in the
first book (i. 631-814) without loss of leaf, which shows that the
manuscript from which it was copied, and which here must have lost a
leaf, had the normal number of 46 lines to the column.
Various names, as Thomas Browne, Nicolas Helifax, J. Baynorde, are
written in the book, and also ‘John Nicholas oweth this book,’ with
the date 1576. At the beginning we find ‘Tho. C. S.’, which stands for
‘Thomas Comes Southampton.’ The book was in fact bought with others by
Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, from William Crashaw, Fellow
of St. John’s College, and presented by him to the College Library in
the year 1635.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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