Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS 1236
Commonplace book and handbook of liturgical music (Use of Sarum)
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Added in the 17th century by the same hand that added the Christ-Pelican couplets on f. 7v. Perhaps in imitation of the format of an indenture, the text is written continuously across ff. 7v-8r instead of beginning on f. 7v and continuing on f. 8r. Below the text are two circles, one containing a heart and the other with the word ‘Pellican’ written inside it.
Added in the 17th century by the same hand that copied The Short Charter of Christ on ff. 7v-8r. Below the couplets, in the same hand, is written the date ‘feb: 2.o .1637.’.
Full transcription.
Robinson (1988), I, p. 78, notes that a red crayon cross next to the year 1475 may indicate that the manuscript was produced between Easter of 1474 and that of 1475.
A single line of music without text added by the same 17th-century hand that added music to ff. 64r, 65r, 71r, and 72v.
A single line of music with the text ‘many tymes have I bene in’ at the bottom of the page (perhaps the opening words of the melody). The music was added by the same hand that added the music to ff. 57r, 65r, 71r, and 72v. The text was added by the same 17th-century hand has added an anti-Catholic poem to f. 127v.
A single line of music with the title ‘State and Ambition alas will deceive you [and]’ added by the same 17th-century hand that added music to ff. 57r, 57r, 71r, and 72v; and the same 17th-century hand that added text to f. 71r.
A single line of music with the text ‘Æterne Rex altissime. Redemptor’ added by the same 17th-century hand that added music to ff. 57r, 64r, 65r, and 72v; and the same 17th-century hand that added text to f. 65r.
A single line of music ("State and Ambition") added by the same 17th-century hand that added music to ff. 57r,64r, 65r, and 71r.
The recipes contain instructions for drawing an egg through a ring, keeping cherries fresh, 'for to do as thow wost', to make trees remain green and keep their leaves, to make a man or a woman look like a leper, to make hens fall off their perch, to stop others eating a good morsel of meat, to establish whether a young woman is a virgin, to stop dogs barking at you, to make a man dream of devils, to know whether something is stolen and who has it, to make a man or woman fart, to make invisible ink, gold or silver ink, transluscent ink, and (once more) silver ink.
According to Beadle and McKitterick, this prophecy is elsewhere attributed to Merlin and Chaucer.
According to Beadle and McKitterick, this prophecy is elsewhere attributed to Merlin and Chaucer.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Full transcription; the text refers to the lunar table on f. 94r.
Added in a (?) 16th-century hand.
Full transcription; the text refers to the lunar table on f. 94r.
Full transcription; the text has been added by a 16th- or 17th-century hand that may also be responsible for additions to f. 64r and f. 127v.
Full transcription; the text accompanies and refers to circular diagram with, inside it a circular paper pastedown with an X and Y axis and three concentric circles in brown ink drawn on it; possibly this paper disk originally was part of a volvelle. However, the disk also resembles a part of an astrolabe.
Full transcription; reverse text for ‘Ama [? amo] et salue cordis mei amor Margareta’.
Full transcription.
The table consists of two columns, entitled ‘aureus numerus’ and ‘Epacte’; the text contains instructions ‘To find ye prime for euery year’ and ‘To knowe the age of ye moone for euer’.
Added in a late 16th-century hand; with a later addition: ‘Easter Sunday the first yt happens after the full moon after March 21.’
Latin treatise on music with examples of music notation.
Possibly an extract from the Secretum Philosophorum.
A table of 4 columns and 4 rows of numbers.
On f. 120v are notes and calculations added by the same hand that added notes on Easter to f. 95r.
Two full stanzas and three lines of a third, attributed to "Ieremias", "Ysayas", and "David" (their names are inscribed in red ink to the right of each stanza).
The last four lines have been erased and replaced with an anti-Catholic poem by a 17th-century hand: ‘on a Crucifix: why not the picture of our dying Lord as of a friend not this nor that and adored does not the Eternal law command that thou Shalt euen as well forbeare to make as hon.’. The same hand has added a line of music and text to f. 64r.
Physical Description
19th- or 20th-century foliation:
[i]-[ii] + 1-56, [56a], 57-58, 58+, [58+a], 59-62, [62a], 63-96, 96bis-128 + [iii]-[iv]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos.ff. [58+] and 96bis were probably first misfoliated as '58' and '96'; ff. [56a], [58+a], and [62a] are inserted parchment slips with additions to the music.
17th-century foliation:
Numbering in pencil at the centre of the lower margins, often cropped off.Collation
This collation deviates from that of McKitterick and Beadle in that it identifies Quire 10 as a sexternion instead of a quinternion. It also identifies the inserted leaf in Quire 13 as f. 121 instead of f. 123, based on the presence of a folded parchment stub on f. 121 and the location of the red sewing thread between f. 122 and f. 123. It corresponds with the modern quire numbers (see Additions) except in identifying the start of Quire 2.
- Quire 18-1+1 (ff. 1-8: 2nd leaf missing, and 1 leaf (f. 5) inserted after the 5th leaf)
- Three single leaves (ff. 9-11: three single leaves, with f. 11 pasted on the reversed stub of f. 10)
- Quire 28 (ff. 12-19)
- Quire 38-1+1 (ff. 20-27: 1st leaf cancelled and replaced with a paper leaf pasted on the parchment stub attached to f. 27)
- Quires 4-58 (ff. 28-43)
- Quire 612 (ff. 44-53)
- Quire 710 (ff. 56-64)
- Quires 8-98 (ff. 65-80)
- Quires 10-1212 (ff. 81-115)
- Quire 1312+1 (ff. 116-128: 1 leaf (f. 121) inserted after the 5th)
18-1+1 (2nd missing and 1 leaf inserted after 5th) Three single leaves 28 38-1+1 (1st cancelled and replaced with a paper leaf) 4-58 612 710 8-98 10-1212 1312+1 (1 inserted after 5th)
Condition
Layout
140-155 × 105-110 mm. Ruled in ink, frame and line ruling. Single columns. 25 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
The texts and music have been copied by a single hand writing in Anglicana (Formata) script, varying greatly in size throughout the manuscript.
The manuscript features various later 16th- and 17th-century additions in cursive and italic scripts.
Decoration
A circular diagram representing a scientific instrucment drawn in brown ink on f. 94v.
Large and small (2- and 1-line) plain initials in red or brown ink.
Large capitals in brown ink decorated with cadels, including human faces (e.g. see f. 14v).
Regular initials (1 line) highlighted with red ink.
Neumes, music staves, and text rubricated in red ink.
Additions
Quire signatures ('1-13') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, written in pencil by a hand of the 19th/20th century (perhaps M.R. James).
Binding
Late 17th-century blind-tooled paneled binding with a double-line blind-tooled border frame and triple-line blind-tooled central frames with blind-stamped fleuron cornerpieces; dark brown speckled leather in the outer frame, light brown speckled leather in the inner frame and dark plain leather in the central frame; gold-stamped sides; and gold-tooled and stamped spine with 5 raised bands and Red Russia leather with the gold-stamped inscription: ‘OLD. MVSICK. [and]. MONKISH RIMES.’. Red-speckled edges.
Binding height: 190mm; width: 135mm; depth: 30mm.
History
Probably compiled and copied by and for a priest of the chapel of the almonry of Christ Church Cathedral Priory in Canterbury. The music in this manuscript is attributed to a number of composers who were active in or had connections with Kent during the 1460s and 1470s. These include William Corbrond and John Nesbet who were Masters of the Lady Chapel choir at Canterbury Cathedral Priory (respectively 1470-1474; and 1474-1488). The music includes unusual blessings sung by the Boy Bishop at the feast of St Nicholas. According to Bowers (1982), the prominence of these blessings and the text Stans puer ad mensam point to an intended use at the chapel of the almonry of Christ Church, Canterbury: the almonry buildings housed a boarding school for eight boys who sang in the Lady Chapel choir, and participated in services in the almonry chapel. Here, they celebrated the Boy Bishop ceremonies annually. Bowers (1982) suggests that the manuscript may have been compiled and owned by one of the priests who was responsible for the upbringing of the boys.
Provenance and Acquisition
Owned or accessed by Thomas Keen (fl. 17th century) : his name inscribed in a flourishing 17th-century script on f. 9v.
Owned or accessed by Jack Pimp (fl. 17th century) : his name inscribed in a flourishing 17th-century script on f. 27r. As Charles (1962), p. 68, notes, ‘Pympe’ was the surname of a prominent Kentish family in the 15th century.
Owned or accessed by W.W. (fl. 17th century) : their initials on f. 128r; probably the same hand that added the poem ‘On a Crucifix’ to f. 127v.
Owned or accessed by Unknown (fl. 17th century) : their name inscribed in a 17th-century flourishing script on f. 128v but obscured by Pepys's bookplate. Only the last three letters ‘-ker’ are legible.
Acquired before 1700 by Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) , naval officer and diarist: f. 1r features a pasted bookplate bearing a portrait of Pepys, his motto ‘Mens cujusque is est Quisque’, the text: ‘SAM. PEPYS. CAR. ET IAC. ANGL. REGIB. A SECRETIS ADMIRALIÆ.’, and the initials ‘R.W. sculp:’, referring to the London engraver Robert White (1645-1703); f. 128v features a paper pastedown with Pepys's bookplate engraved with two anchors and the motto ‘Mens cujusque is est Quisque’. Since the manuscript is not listed in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697), the manuscript may have come into his possession at some point after 1694.
Acquired by Magdalene College, Cambridge upon the death of John Jackson (d. 1724) : in his will (The National Archives, PROB 1/9, Will of Samuel Pepys, Codicil, 13th May 1703), Pepys left a bequest of approximately 3000 manuscripts and printed books to Magdalene College and instructed his nephew John Jackson to arrange for this but they only came to the college after Jackson died. Jackson respected the instructions given in the codicil to the will as can be evidenced from Magdalene College Archives A/41/1: an indenture between Anne Jackson, widow and executrix of John Jackson (nephew and residuary legatee of Samuel Pepys) and the Master and Fellows, being a deed of covenant as to providing a Library at the College for the reception of the collection of the books and papers bequeathed to the College by Samuel Pepys, 1 June 1724. It is here that the manuscript's current shelfmark ‘N.o 1236’ was added in red ink to the inside of the front cover, replacing an older shelfmark ‘802 [? B] 665’ in brown ink on f. [i] recto, now crossed out with red ink.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Visitors to Magdalene College who wish to consult Special Collections material are required to apply to the Pepys Library in advance of their visit. For information on eligibility and admission procedures see: Magdalene College: Pepys Library.
Bibliography
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Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome
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Abbreviations
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