Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS 54
Joshua, glossed
Contents
Marginal and interlinear glosses from the Glossa ordinaria (Stegmüller 11786).
Physical Description
21st-century foliation:
[a-d] + i + 1-116 + [e-g]
Numbering in pencil.Collation
The manuscript comprises fifteen quires of mostly eight leaves. The quires are preceded by a single leaf (now mostly excised), and the last leaf of Quire 15 was formerly a pastedown.
- Single medieval leaf (f. i)
- Quires 1-148 (ff. 1-112)
- Quire 154 (ff. 113-116)
Quires numbered at the end (mostly cropped).
Catchwords.Condition
Layout
1r-3v: 180 × 140 mm. Prefatory texts: Ruled with crayon, in 2 columns of 30 lines, written above top line.
170-180 × 25-80 mm. Text: Ruled with crayon, 16 lines. Written above top line, in long lines, on alternate lines and in a larger script than the gloss, almost always occupying the full length of the text block (occasionally lines of gloss extend above the first line of text), but varying in width, even on the same page, and usually with one or more columns of gloss adjacent on either side.
Gloss: Ruled with crayon, for up to 32 lines but independently from the text and on an ad hoc basis, not always all occupied, written in smaller script. Written above top line in 1, 2, or sometimes 3 columns (which are sometimes subdivided), of varying width, even on the same page and which sometimes overlap with one another.
Hand(s)
Written by a single scribe in English protogothic bookhand.
Decoration
Large historiated initial E in gold, green and white, on a pink square ground with thin green border, filled with blue. God above the cross-bar, directing Joshua and people below. Joshua and God hold a scroll arranged diagonally, with an inscription written in red ink: 'Moyses seruus meus mortuus est; surge, transi Iordanem istum, tu et omnes populus tecum' (Ios. 1:1-2) (f. 4r).
An arabesque initial P in red, green and blue (f. 1v).
Red and blue capitals precede the opening of the text (f. 4r).
Small initials in red, green or blue (in the text only, not in the gloss).
Fore-edge and upper and lower edges have been painted, presumably at an early date: a geometrical pattern in red and blue.
Additions
113v-116v: pen trials (otherwise blank), including verses ('Quicquid agant homines intentio iudicat omnis' (5 lines), f. 114r, 12th cent.) and 'Summa totalis 4329' (115r, 15th cent.
Binding
Stoakley and Son, late Hawes.
The detached medieval binding, a half-binding of tawed skin over oak boards, was seen by R.M. Thomson in the College Library in 1971 and by N.R. Ker before 1977; it is not to be found now. Part of a leather cover is preserved as Pembroke College, MS 318, no. 4. The mark of a chain-staple is preserved at the foot of f. 1r.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Remains of a title in the early thirteenth-century 'ex libris hand' of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds .
Pressmark (B.54), written by the hand of Henry Kirkestede (c. 1314-c. 1379) (f. 4r).
Presumably given to
Pembroke College, Cambridge
in 1599 by
William Smart (d. 1599)
.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Researchers should note that Pembroke College's western European medieval manuscripts are housed at Cambridge University Library. Scholars who wish to consult Pembroke College manuscripts should contact the Special Collections Reading Room to arrange their visit; all University Library admissions procedures will apply. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library. For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.
Bibliography
-
A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Pembroke College,
Cambridge, James, M.R. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1905)
The Cloisters Cross The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Hoving, D. (22, 317-340, 1964)
The library and archives of Bury St Edmunds abbey, Thomson, Rodney M. (1974, unpublished PhD dissertation)
The Scriptorium of Bury St. Edmunds in the twelfth century Outstanding theses from
the Courtauld Institute of Art, McLachlan, Elizabeth Parker (New York, Garland, 1984)
Some manuscripts in Cambridge from Bury St Edmunds Abbey: exhibition
catalogue Bury St Edmunds: medieval art, architecture, archaeology and economy British
Archaeological Association conference transactions, Gransden, Antonia ([S.l.], 228-285, British Archaeological Association, 1998)
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
