Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.1.1
Contents
Incomplete listing of the contents of the volume.
Une sage home de graunt valour Ki iadis uesquist en honur Plus ore a vous ne dirrai Mès a Dieu vous commanderai
A thirteenth-century treatise in octosyllabic couplets on morals, manners, and conduct for boys and young men. (Dean 1999, p. 130).
Attributed on internal evidence to Bozon. Composed apparently after the Bull Exivi de Paradiso of 1312. (Dean 1999, p. 325).
A collection of sermons in octosyllabic rhymed couplets for the Sunday Gospels (Dean, 1999, p. 325).
A prayer in sixteen stanzas based on the sixteen words of Ave Maria. (Dean 1999, p. 434).
The final section of a longer poem on the life of the Virgin, Roman de Dieu et de sa mère (composed c. 1288-95), which also circulated independently.
A verse paraphrase in 1240 lines of pseudo-Bernard's Liber de passione Christi et doloribus et planctibus matris ejus (Migne, P.L. 182:1133-42), a dialogue between "Bernard" and the Virgin about the Passion and her sorrows. (Dean 1999, p. 478).
This treatise in octosyllabic couplets, known also as "Aprise de franceis", "Femme", and Femina, is in effect a French vocabulary arranged by categories from the care of an infant through the possessions and occupations of a man of property. (Dean 1999, p. 160). It survives in two recensions. MS Gg.1.1 preserves the longer recension with prose prologue but lacks the letter which usually also precedes the text. Interlinear English glosses, provided by the author, accompany the text throughout.
Written in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, this chronicle in monorhymed alexandrine laisses, composed by Pierre de Langtoft, canon of Bridlington (Yorkshire), runs to more than 9000 lines, depending on the redaction. It is in three parts: the legendary history beginning with the arrival of Brutus; the reigns of Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings to the death of Henry III (1271); and the reign of Edward I during which Langtoft was living. (Dean 1999, p. 43). MS Gg.1.1 contains only the third part, preceded by a 26-line prologue which summarises the first two parts. The text breaks off with the bishops' consent to give the king aid in 1296, and closes with a 9-line song in English. (Dean and Boulton 1999, p. 44).
Seven lines in Latin are added at the foot of fol. 345v.
The rest of fol. 346r-v contains a table of rubrics.
The text is followed by two short passages in Latin:
392v Diabolus quosdam mordet per suggestiobnem, quosdam fedat per delactationem, quosdam vulnerat per consensum, quosdam devorat per operacionem, absortum revocat per miseracionem.
392v Mulier prefertur viro scilicet: Materia. Quia Adam factus de limo terre, Eva de costa Ade. Loco. Quia Adam factus extra paradisum, Eva in paradiso. In conceptione. Quia mulier concepit |deum, quod homo non potuit. Apparicione. Quia Christus primo apparuit mulieri post resurrectionem, scilicet Magdalene. Exaltatione. Quia mulier exaltata est super choros angelorum, scilicet beata Maria.
Predictions for the year based on the day of the week on which Christmas falls (Dean 1999, p. 201).
An Anglo-Norman prose version of the legend, possibly based on a Picard original. (Dean 1999, p. 264).
A copy of Le miracle du champ fleuri in octosyllabic couplets. The same text also occurs as no. 58 in a collection of 60 Miracles of the Virgin found in London, British Library, Royal MS 20 B.XIV.
An illustrated prose version of the thirteenth century, with a prose commentary different from those based on Berengaudus. (Dean 1999, p. 259). The prologue is a translation of that of Gilbert de la Porrée (d. 1154).
Prose predictions based on the month of birth. (Dean 1999, p. 203).
Extract from the Passion narrative concerning Pilate.
A thirteenth-century debate on the relative merits in love of a clerk and a knight, in which the clerk wins; 404 lines in octosyllabic couplets. (Dean 1999, p. 122).
An early fourteenth-century Anglo-Norman reworking of a Continental version in octosyllabic couplets ... [Gg.1.1 contains] an abridged reduction of 646 ll., comprising material found in ll. 172-1364 of the Selden MS [Oxford, Bodleian Library, Selden supra 38]. (Dean 1999, p. 272).
This version of the text is extant in this manuscript alone. Zettl considered the work undoubtedly translated from some text of the short English metrical chronicle with which he printed it (p. xxxii); but Legge thought it more likely that a French octosyllabic poem was the source of both this prose and the English verse. (Dean 1999, p. 31).
This poem was composed after the coronation of Edward II (25 Feb. 1308). It is in ten octosyllabic huitains, rhyming ababbcbc, except in Stanza IX which has ababbaba. A rhymed couplet added to the first stanza was perhaps intended as a refrain, but there is no indication in the manuscript for its repetition. (Dean 1999, p. 58).
A short treatise on the brain drawing on the works of Thomas Aquinas and the Arabic philosopher Avicenna and accompanied by a diagram (fol. 490v).
The words of the priest, including the formula for absolution, are given in Latin on fol. 629r.
Physical Description
The manuscript was foliated 1-633 in ink on the upper right corner of each recto at some point after the missing folios were removed. Several leaves (113, 125, 164, 204, 244, 324, 345, 384, 392-399, 629-632) are foliated in the upper margin in a 16th-century hand qui semble avoir été exécutée avec négligence (Meyer 1886, p. 283).
Collation
The manuscript consists of 55 quires as follows:
- Quire 1:8, wanting leaf 8 (fols 1-7)
- Quires 2-21:12 (fols 8-247)
- Quire 22:12, leaf 6 only stub remaining (fol. 252a) (fols 248-258)
- Quires 23-30:12 (fols 259-354)
- Quire 31:10 (fols 355-364)
- Quires 32-35:12 (fols 265-412)
- Quire 36:12, wanting leaves 1, 11 and 12 (fols 413-421)
- Quire 37:12, wanting leaves 1 and 4 (fols 422-431)
- Quire 38:12, wanting leaf 3 (fols 432-442)
- Quires 39-42:12 (fols 443-490)
- Quire 43:4 (fols 491-494)
- Quires 44-53:12 (fols 495-614)
- Quire 54:14 (fols 615-628)
- Quire 55:6, leaf 6 only stub remaining (fol. iiir) (fols 629-633)
Bradshaw added pencil quire signatures (a-z, aa-tt, A-M) throughout the manuscript in the lower right corner of the first leaf of each quire and noted on adjacent leaves where leaves were missing. His collation, dated November 1860, is recorded on the modern paper endleaf.
Catchwords are present on fols 19v, 31v, 43v, 55v, 67v, 79v, 91v, 103v, 115v, 139v, 151v, 163v, 175v, 187v, 199v, 211v, 223v, 235v, 247v, 258v, 270v, 282v, 294v, 306v, 318v, 330v, 342v, 354v, 364v, 376v, 388v, 400v, 412v, 431v, 442v, 454v, 466v, 518v, 530v, 542v, 554v, 566v, 578v, 590v, 602v, 614v, 628v.Layout
Ruled in crayon, most pages are written in 2 columns with 36-40 lines. Fols 261v-264v, 265v-279v, 328v-345v are written in a single column of 38-40 lines in verse; fols 407r-439v are written in 38 long lines as prose interspersed with illustrations. Fols 279v-294r are written double-spaced to leave room for an interlinear gloss.
Hand(s)
Written by several scribes in Gothic bookhand (textualis).
Decoration
Full-page miniature at end of L'image du monde:
- 390r God blessing, holding orb, upon orange rainbow on blue ground within pink and brown mandorla; below, Creation represented as eight concentric circles in blue, brown, pink, green, red and orange, innermost containing fish and surrounding central roundel which shows man with spade between trees.
Small miniatures (10-20 lines) in coloured frames in Apocalypse:
- 407v St John preaching
- 408r Vision of Christ and Seven Candlesticks
- 408v St John asleep and Angel
- 409r St John writing and Angel
- 411r St John climbing ladder to heaven
- 411v Elders adoring Christ, Evangelists' symbols in roundels at frame corners
- 412v Elders kneeling before Christ flanked by Evangelists' symbols
- 413r Adoration of Lamb, Evangelists' symbols in corners
- 413v first seal: white horse accompanied by Lamb, lion and St John
- 414r second seal: red horse accompanied by Angel
- 414r third seal: black horse accompanied by eagle
- 414v fourth seal: pale horse accompanied by bull
- 415r fifth seal: souls of martyrs
- 415v sixth seal: earthquake
- 416r Angels holding four winds
- 416r Angel rising out of east
- 416v adoration of God and Lamb
- 417r an Elder and St John
- 417r seventh seal: seven trumpets given to Angels, an Angel censing altar
- 417v first trumpet: hail, rain and blood cast on earth
- 418r second trumpet: fire cast on sea
- 418v third trumpet: falling star
- 418v fourth trumpet: darkening of sun and moon, eagle crying
- 419r fifth trumpet: falling star, locusts, horse-like locust in mail
- 419v sixth trumpet: unbinding of four angels
- 407v army of four angels slaying people (420)
- 420v Great Angel and seven thunders
- 421r Angel gives book to St John
- 421v Angel gives St John rod to measure Temple
- 422r earth swallowing water spewed by Dragon against Woman
- 422v seven-headed Beast rising from sea
- 423r worship of Beast
- 423v harpers on sea of glass
- 424v false prophet and followers
- 425v adoration of Lamb on Mount Sion
- 426r first Angel: `Fear God'
- 426v second Angel: fall of Babylon
- 427r third Angel: harvest of earth
- 427v grape harvest
- 428r sixth vial: frogs coming out of mouths of False Prophet, Beast and Dragon
- 428v seventh vial: earthquake and destruction
- 429r an Angel with vial showing St John, Great Whore seated on seven-headed Beast
- 430r Beast goes to perdition, with Angel
- 431r fall of Babylon
- 432r Angel casting millstone into sea
- 432v triumph in heaven
- 433v the Word of God, sword in mouth, followed by armies of heaven
- 434v First Resurrection
- 435r St John before new earth, sky and sea
- 435v Angel showing St John New Jerusalem
- 436v ‘The Lamb is Light thereof’
- 438r River of Life
- 439r Angel giving book to St John
- 439v St John preaching
Diagrams:
- 358v-362r, 374v-378v Diagrams of world including its antipodes, elements, moon, sun and their eclipses, seven planets and seven days of week, all illustrating L'image du monde.
- 490v Diagram of the human brain with five cells or ventriculi representing the five 'powers' of thought (the common or imaging sense, imagination, estimation, cogitation and memory), illustrating Qualiter caput hominis situatur.
Historiated initials:
- 8r Blue initial D in pink frame on gold ground with a clerk, presumably Ralph of Linham, and an open book (9 lines)
- 407r Rose initial S in blue frame on gold ground with St Paul holding a sword and book (11 lines)
- 510r Blue initial D with pink frame on gold ground with King Boctus and Sydrac the Philosopher (8 lines)
Ornamental and minor initials:
- Blue or purple initials (2-10 lines) on purple or blue and gold ground, with white ornamentation and foliage scroll infill (occasional human or animal heads), at beginning of remaining books (6v, 17r, 21v, 24r, 36v, 46r, 75v, 96r, 111r, 113v, 120r, 122r, 135r, 139v, 261r, 264r, 265r, 265v, 272r, 279v, 294v, 328v, 346r, 347r, 390v, 392v, 393r, 394v, 397v, 399v, 403r, 404v, 440r, 464v, 466v, 469r, 470v, 472v, 474r, 476v, 479v, 484v, 490r, 491r, 495r, 505r, 627r, 628r, 629v).
- Blue or red initials with red or blue penwork flourishing (2-7 lines) to chapters and subdivisions.
Border decoration:
- Blue, purple and gold bars extending from historiated and larger ornamental initials to form partial borders supporting grotesques and animals and decorated with ivy and trefoil leaves in green, orange, and gold; sketches of birds (17r, 24r, 479v), rabbit (329r).
Two illuminators worked on the manuscript; one was responsible for illuminating L'image du monde (346r-390r), the Apocalypse (407r-439v) and the diagram of the human brain (490v); the other for the decoration of the rest of the manuscript.
Binding
Rebound in goatskin by Douglas Cockerell and Son, Grantchester, 1972.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
A note on fol. i(v) in a seventeenth-century hand reads: 'Bought of Mr Washington'. Washington is well-known as a London bookseller of the seventeeenth century (cf. Watson 1966, p. 29).
The manuscript was owned by John Moore (1646-1714) , Bishop of Ely. Bishop Moore's collection was donated to the University Library by King George I (1660-1727) in 1715.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures contact Cambridge University Library Admissions). Contact the Manuscripts Department for further information on the availability of this manuscript
Bibliography
Editions
Reliquiæ Antiquæ: Scraps from Ancient Manuscripts, Illustrating Chiefly Early English Literature and the English Language, Wright, ThomasHalliwell-Phillipps, James Orchard (London, William Pickering, 1841) Zu Mittelenglischen gedichten Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, Varnhagen, H. (4, 180-200, 1881, http://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/resolveppn/?PPN=PPN338212566_0004) L'Apprise de Nurture. (Cambridge Univ. MS.) Modern Language Notes, Spencer, Frederic (4, 2, 51-53, 1889, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2918854) Ave Maria Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, Heuser, Wilhelm (27, 320-330, 1904, http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/angl.1904.1904.27.320) La plainte d'amour: poème anglo-normand, Bozon, Nicole (Göteborg, W. Zachrisson, 1905) Melior et Ydoiné Romania, Meyer, Paul (37, 236-44, 1908) Die beiden Redaktionen des "Évangile de l'enfance": der handschriften 1. Grenoble 1137 fol. 32v0, 2. Oxford, Bodleian library, Selden supra 38 und Cambridge, University library, GG.1.1, fol. 749v0, Gast, Erich (Greifswald, 1909) Les débats du clerc et du chevalier dans la littérature poétique du Moyen Age, Oulmont, Charles (Paris, H. Champion, 1911) The Northern Passion: four parallel texts and the French original, with specimens of additional manuscripts Early English Text Society. Original series, (London, Published for the Early English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. : and by Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1913) The political prophecy in England, Taylor, Rupert (New York, Columbia University Press, 1911) L'image du monde de maitre Gossouin: rédaction en prose, Gossouin, Maitre (Lausanne, Payot, 1913) Plaintes de la Vierge en anglo-français (XIIIe et XIVe siècles), (Paris, E. Champion, 1921) Die Sprichwörter Hendings und die Prouerbis of Wysdom Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, Schleich, G. (51, 220-77, 1927, http://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/resolveppn/?PPN=GDZPPN00002581X) Zu den Sprichwörtern Hendings Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, Schleich, G. (52, 350-61, 1928, http://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/resolveppn/?PPN=GDZPPN000026107) Anglo-Norman Books of Courtesy and Nurture PMLA, Parsons, H. Rosamond (44, 2, 383-455, 1929, http://www.jstor.org/stable/457474) The Northern Passion (supplement): Cambridge University MS. Gg 1. 1, Oxford MS. Rawlinson Poetry 175 Early English Text Society : Original series, (London, Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1930) An anonymous short English metrical chronicle Early English Text Society. Original Series, Zettl, Ewald (London, Pub. for the Early English Text Society by H Milford, Oxford University Press, 1935) Le Manuel des péchés: étude de littérature religieuse anglo-normande, XIIIme siècle., , (Paris, E. Droz, 1940) The fifteen signs before doomsday., Heist, William Watts ([East Lansing], Michigan State College Press, 1952) Anglo-Norman political songs Anglo-Norman texts, Aspin, Isabel Stewart Tod (Oxford, Published for the Anglo-Norman Text Society by B Blackwell, 1953) Les folies Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, Södergård, Östen (58, 121-26, 1957) Kalender Plain texts series, , (London, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1983) The Old French Évangile de l'enfance: an edition with introduction and notes, Boulton, Maureen Barry McCann (Toronto, 70, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1984) Les enfaunces de Jesu Crist, Boulton, Maureen Barry McCann (London, 43, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1985) The Anglo-Norman 'Folies' Poems Pluteus, Hunt, Tony (3, 14-32, 1985) The Prophecy of the Six Kings Speculum, Smallwood, T. M. (60, 3, 571-592, 1985, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2848176) Édition critique et commentée de Pierre de Langtoft, Le règne d'Édouard Ier, , (Créteil, C.E.L.I.M.A., Université de Paris XII, 1989) Three medieval views of women: La contenance des fames, Le bien des fames, Le blasme des fames, (New Haven; London, Yale University Press, 1989) The Anglo-Norman lyric: an anthology Studies and texts, (Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies,, 1990) Le tretiz Plain texts series, Biblesworth, Walter de (London, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1990) La vie Seint Richard Evesque de Cycestre Anglo-Norman texts ;, , (London, 51, Anglo-Norman Text Society,, 1995) La lumere as lais Anglo-Norman texts, Pierre, de Peckham (London, Anglo-Norman Text Society,, 1996) The Legend of the Cross before Christ: Another Prose Treatment in English and Anglo-Norman Poetica: An International Journal of Linguistic-Literary Studies, Taguchi, Mayumi (45, 15-61, 1996) Le tretiz: from MS. G.(Cambridge University Library Gg. 1.1) and MS. T (Trinity College, Cambridge 0.2. 21), together with two Anglo-French poems in praise of women (British Library, MS. Additional 46919), Biblesworth, Walter de (Aberystwyth, Anglo-Norman Online Hub, 2009, http://www.anglo-norman.net/texts/bibb-gt.pdf) "Cher alme": texts of Anglo-Norman piety Medieval and Renaissance texts and studies ;, (Tempe, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2010) The treatise of Walter of Bibbesworth = Le tretiz, Biblesworth, Walter de (Totnes, Prospect Books, 2012)Bibliography
Manuscript Descriptions and References
A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, , (München: Hildesheim, 3, Kraus; Olms, 1980) Les manuscrits français de Cambridge. II. - Bibliothèque de l'université Romania, Meyer, Paul (15, 237-357, 1886) French devotional texts of the Middle Ages: a bibliographic manuscript guide, Sinclair, Keith Val (Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press,, 1982) Census and Bibliography of Medieval Manuscripts Containing Apocalypse Illustrations, Ca. 800–1500: Ii Traditio, Emmerson, Richard KennethLewis, Suzanne (41, 367-409, 1985, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27831177) A linguistic atlas of late mediaeval English, McIntosh, AngusSamuels, M. L.Benskin, Michael (Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 1986) Handlist of Manuscripts Containing the French Prose 'Brut' Chronicle Scriptorium, Tyson, Diana B. (48, 2, 333-44, 1994) Anglo-Norman literature: a guide to texts and manuscripts Anglo-Norman Text Society occasional publications series, Dean, Ruth J.Boulton, Maureen Barry McCann (London, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999) A new index of Middle English verse, Boffey, JuliaEdwards, A. S. G. (London, British Library, 2005) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English prose,, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009) Western illuminated manuscripts: a catalogue of the collection in Cambridge University Library, Binski, PaulZutshi, P. N. R. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011)Bibliography
Secondary Literature
Il dibattito sul chierico e il cavaliere nella tradizione mediolatina e volgare Romanistisches Jahrbuch, Tavani, Giuseppe (15, 51-84, 1964, http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/roma.1964.15.issue-1/9783110244748.51/9783110244748.51.xml) The library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes ... British Museum Bicentenary Publications, Watson, Andrew G. (London, British Museum, 1966) Prolegomena to a study of mediaeval Anglo-Irish Medium Ævum, McIntosh, AngusSamuels, M. L. (37, 1-11, 1968) Religiöse Dichtung im englischen Hochmittelalter: Untersuchung u. Edition d. Handschrift B. 14. 39 d. Trinity College in Cambridge Münchener Universitätsschriften. Philosophische Fakultät. Texte und Untersuchungen zur englischen Philologie ;, Reichl, Karl (München, Fink, 1973) Légendes religieuses en ancien français (Ms. 951 de la Bibliothèque de Trinity College à Dublin) Scriptorium, Shields, Hugh (34, 1, 59-71, 1980) A Mis-Judged Author and a Mis-Used Text: Walter de Bibbesworth and His "Tretiz" The Modern Language Review, Rothwell, W. (77, 2, 282-293, 1982, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3726811) Early Gothic manuscripts [II]: 1250-1285 A survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles, Morgan, N. J. (London, Harvey Miller, 1988) Catalogue of sources for a linguistic atlas of early medieval English, Laing, Margaret (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1993) A descriptive catalogue of the medieval manuscripts of All Souls College, Oxford, Watson, Andrew G. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997) Before the Gaze Visuality before and beyond the Renaissance: seeing as others saw, Camille, Michael (Cambridge, 197-223, Cambridge University Press, 2000) Visuality before and beyond the Renaissance: seeing as others saw Cambridge studies in new art history and criticism, Nelson, Robert S. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000) The medieval craft of memory: an anthology of texts and pictures, Carruthers, Mary J.Ziolkowski, Jan M. (Philadelphia, PA., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002) Tradition and innovation in later Medieval English manuscripts, Scott, Kathleen L. (London, British Library, 2007) Mapping Points West of West Midlands Manuscripts and Texts: Irishness(es) and Middle English Literary Culture Essays in Manuscript Geography: Vernacular Manuscripts of the English West Midlands from the Conquest to the Sixteenth Century Medieval texts and cultures of Northern Europe, Thompson, John J. (Turnhout, 113-28, Brepols, 2007) Lieux et présence de l'anglo-français insulaire dans l'écriture religieuse anglaise (fin XII - fin XIV siècles) Actes de la Journée d'études anglo-normandes, Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Pouzet, Jean-Pascal (Paris, 39-80, 2009) Angels lost and found, in the University Library, Cambridge The medieval book: glosses from friends & colleagues of Christopher de Hamel, Binski, Paul ('t Goy-Houten, 38-44, Hes & De Graaf, 2010)Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
