Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.18

John Walton, Middle English verse translation of Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae

Introduction: Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.18 is an early 15th-century Middle English verse translation of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae by John Walton, Canon of Oseney. The manuscript contains the prologue and all five books, but with a number of gaps in the text. De Consolatione Philosophiae was written by Boethius in the 6th century as a dialogue between himself and the allegorical figure of Lady Philosophy. The many translations of Boethius's work into vernacular languages - including into Old English by King Alfred in the late 9th century, and into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century - are a testament to the text's popularity and influence in the Middle Ages. According to Thomas Tanner, in his Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, John Walton was commissioned to produce the translation by Elizabeth Berkeley, daughter of Lord Thomas Berkeley. There are nineteen extant manuscripts containing Walton's translation, including another at Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 3573). In his 1927 edition, Mark Science traces the genealogy of the then fourteen known medieval manuscripts of Walton's translation. Science refers to MS Gg.4.18 as 'C', and classifies it as part of the B group. By conducting a comparative reading of errors across the fourteen manuscripts, Science identifies B as the group of manuscripts closest to the original translation. Other manuscripts in this group include Oxford, New College, MS 319. This copy of Walton's translation is lightly glossed and annotated with conventional forms of marginalia, written by the scribe himself, including corrections and nota bene marks. Rubrics at the beginning and end of each book are written in Latin: for example, 'Explicit prologus' and 'Incipit liber boecii de consolacione philosophie' on f. 3v. So, too, are the headings that mark the beginning of passages of prose / 'prosa' or metre / 'metrum' in the Latin original (the Middle English translation being written in verse throughout). The Latin incipits are furthermore reproduced alongside these headings. There appears, then, to have been an expectation that readers would possess enough Latin literacy at least to understand simple markers relating to the text's structure, but potentially also to be reading the Middle English translation as an accompaniment to the Latin original. Other, readerly marginalia are present, including two expressions of subjective engagement with the text in Book Two during the later 15th or early 16th century. On f. 20v, against the line 'Me semeth well suche wordes myght she say' in Book Two, Prosa Two, the reader has added the comment 'very good Readynge'. Later, on f. 33v, in Book Two, Metrum Six, against the line 'Thys Nero did þat Rome on fayr set', the reader has noted: 'Reade agayne'. The direct reference to the act of reading, the use of the imperative verb form and the expression of an opinion indicates a reader who was actively engaged with the text. The instruction to 'Reade agayne' might have arisen as a result of the complex discussion at this point between Boethius and Lady Philosophy on the question of whether whether good fortune is the cause rather than the reward of wickedness. Anni Haahr Henriksen|St. Catharine's College, 2018| Revisions and additions by|Dr James Freeman|Medieval Manuscripts Specialist|Cambridge University Library (2024)

1r-112v

De consolatione philosophiae

Language(s): Middle English, with some paratext written in Latin

John Walton

Final rubric: 112v: Explicit liber Boecii de consolacione philosophie de latino in anglicum translatus Anno domini Millesimo CCCC^mo X^mo. Per Capellam Iohannem

Without translator's preface.

Rubrics at the beginning and end of books, and chapter headings, written in Latin. Chapter openings are accompanied by usually marginal glosses that provide the incipit from the Latin text.

DIMEV 2677

IMEV / NIMEV 1597

Manual 7, pp. 2373, 2578-2580

1.1. 1r-3v

Prologue John Walton

Incipit: 1r: The whyle þat Rome was regnyng in hys flourures

Explicit: 3v: For if I couth haue bettir done I wlde

Final rubric: 3v: Explicit prologus

1.2. 3v-18r

Book One

Incipit: 3v: Allas I wreche þat whylom was in welthe

1.3. 18r-38r

Book Two

1.4. 38r-68r

Book Three

1.5. 68v-69r

Translator's preface John Walton

Language(s): Middle English, with some paratext written in Latin

Rubric: 68v: Prefacio translatoris in librum quartum et quintum

Incipit: 68v: O hye and ryche tresour of science

Explicit: 69r: So tak it lord into thy gouernance

1.6. 69r-93v

Book Four

1.7. 94r-112v

Book Five

Explicit: 112v: Þat all thing doth behold plenerly

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Parchment (FHHF)

Extent: Codex: ii + 112 + ii leaves. 265 × 170 mm.

Foliation:

20th-century foliation:

[i-ii] + 1-112 + [iii-iv]

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto side of each leaf by an unidentified hand of the 20th century (probably first half). A stub has been lifted from the rear pastedown and is shown here as folio [v], however it has not been counted in Extent and is not included in the foliation.

Collation

Quire 1⁶ (ff. 1-6)
Quire 2^10-1 (ff. 7-15: 10th leaf missing, after f. 15)
Quire 3-13⁸ (ff. 16-103)
Quire 14⁸⁺¹ (ff. 104-112: 9th leaf inserted, f. 112)

1⁶ 2^10-1 (10th leaf missing) 3-13⁸ 14⁸⁺¹ (9th leaf inserted)

Leaf signatures, mostly cropped: Roman numerals only (cf. ff. 9r ('ii'), 33r and 34r ('ii' and 'iii') and 82r ('iii')), in combination with the usual late-medieval alphanumeric form (cf. 'f' in Quire 6 and '+' in Quire 8).

No quire signatures.

Catchwords on the verso of the final leaves of Quires 3-6 and 8-11, sometimes enclosed in a simple box.

Layout

Ruled in ink, frame and line. Single column, 34 lines to the page (33 in Quire 1), written below top line. 170-175 × 95 mm.

Hand(s)

Copied by a single hand in Anglicana formata, with choice and formation of some letterforms influenced by Secretary.

The hand is clear and uniform with sparse linking between individual letters. The most common ligatures are: cr, th, ti, te, ht, st, ss, ge, ga, fu.

The minims are formed by separate, vertical strokes, characteristic of Anglicana formata. Anglicana letterforms include a slightly truncated long r and 8-shaped g (but see below), w with bows, d with looped ascender, the initial and final position sigma-shaped s, the extension of the shaft of t above the head stroke; and closed v with looped left ascender. Secretary influence is visible in the consistent use of single compartment a, 2-shaped and short r and open-tailed g. Spikiness of lobes is not pronounced.

Decoration

Two- to six-line initials in blue and rose, filled with stylised rose, blue, orange or brown leaves on burnished gold ground, at the opening of the Prologue and Book One, at Prosa 10 of Book Three and the opening of Book Five (ff. 1r, 3v, 56r, 94r). Blue and rose branches and acanthus leaves, extending from the initials and into green-leaved sprays with rose, blue and brown vegetation and gold discs.

Three- to five-line initials in red and blue, with penwork flourishing in red, at the opening of Books Two and Three, the Translator's Preface and Book Four (ff. 18r, 38r, 68v, 69r). Red flourishing sprouting from chapter initials.

Rubrics on f. 3v written in red ink (elsewhere in black ink). Chapter headings written in red ink throughout. 'B' and 'P' written in red ink against lines of text, in order to indicate dialogue between Boethius and Philosophy (see, for example, ff. 16r-17r, 22v, 24r, and in particular 71v, where the names are also given in full within the column of text).

Additions

'Omnium est enim artifex omnem habeus uirtutem omnia prospiciens': added in a formal script by a 15th-century hand to the lower margin of f. 79v. A quotation from the Bible (Sap 7:21 and 7:23), also used as an introit verse for Spiritus domini (see Innocent Smith, 'Pentecost and the Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit in early Dominican Mass books', in Bible missals and the medieval Dominican liturgy, Manuscripta Biblica 12 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2023), p. 106).

Marginal annotations by a late 15th- / early 16th-century reader (ff. 20v, 33v). See Summary for further discussion.

Finely drawn manicules added by a reader, pointing to specific stanzas (see, for example, ff. 28v, 35r, 43v, 50r, 68v, 75r, 80v and 97v).

Binding

Full speckled calf with blind-tooled rectangular panel (?17th-century, probably after 1664 - see Acquisition).

Rebacked by Gray of Cambridge, 1961.

History

Origin: First quarter of the 15th century (after 1410). ; England.

Among the list of 'Rejected Manuscripts' in P.R. Robinson, Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge libraries (1988), p. 108. The date of 1410 given in the colophon is the date of the completion of Walton's translation, so provides only a terminus ante quem non rather than a specific date of production. For further information on the author, see: Douglas Gray, 'Walton, John', Oxford DNB (2004) [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28655].

Provenance and Acquisition

'Anne Preston': name inscribed in plummet on f. 54r, with shorter forms or trials also to be found on ff. 24r, 33v, 79v and 96r. Perhaps Anne Paget, née Preston (d. 1587), wife of William Paget (1506-1563), 1st Baron Paget.

One of the manuscripts of Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), Master of Emmanuel College .

Acquired by the University Library in July 1664: no. 48 in the inventory of Holdsworth's manuscripts compiled by William Crowe (MS Ff.4.27 / Dd.8.45).

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press).

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. 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 catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge Catalogue of manuscripts (Gg-Kk), (Cambridge, 3: Gg-Kk, Cambridge University Press, 1858)

John Waltons metrische Übersetzung der Consolatio philosophiae: Untersuchung des Handschriftenverhältnisses und Probe eines kritischen Textes Bonner Studien zur englischen Philologie, (Bonn, P. Hanstein, 1914)

Boethius: De consolatione philosophiae, translated by John Walton, Canon of Oseney Early English Text Society. Original series, (London, Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1927)

English verse between Chaucer and Surrey: being examples of conventional secular poetry, exclusive of romance, ballad, lyric, and drama, in the period from Henry the Fourth to Henry the Eighth Duke University publications, Hammond, Eleanor Prescott (Durham, N.C, Duke University Press, 1927)

A manual of the writings in Middle English, 1050-1500, (New Haven, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1967)

Western illuminated manuscripts: a catalogue of the collection in Cambridge University Library, Binski, PaulZutshi, Patrick (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1017/CBO9780511780479)

Scribal correction and literary craft: English manuscripts, 1375-1510 Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, Wakelin, Daniel (Cambridge, University Press, 2014)

Reading John Walton's Boethius in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Spaces for Reading in Later Medieval England The New Middle Ages, Edwards, A.S.G. (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cam/detail.action?docID=4716784)

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.18

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