Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.31

Piers Plowman

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript is a sixteenth-century copy of Piers Plowman, one of the most famous medieval texts in English. Written in the fourteenth century by the otherwise largely unknown William Langland, this allegorical dream vision poem offers both a quest of personal purification, and a critique of lax morals at all levels of contemporary society. It details the encounters of a pilgrim, Will, with various allegorical figures representing the soul's journey to salvation and the perils along the way; this varied and colourful cast of characters includes the mysterious Piers the plowman, who has a strong connection to Christ. The poem survives in more than fifty manuscripts in three distinct versions, 'A', 'B' and 'C'. MS Gg.4.31 is a copy of the most widely accepted and edited version, the B text. Its significance primarily lies in the evidence it offers of continued interest in and engagement with the text in the sixteenth century, possibly due to its critique of the immorality of lax clergy. This copy is unique in containing a table of contents after the main text, on ff. 101v-103r, which may represent an otherwise unattested personal engagement with the Piers Plowman text on the part of the original scribe, or annotator who signs him/herself 'W.H.'. There is also a short devotional poem at the end of the manuscript. Arthur Westwell

Language(s): Middle English

1. 1r-101r
Piers Plowman
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
William Langland
Rubric: 1r Hic Incipit Petrus plow[man] de visione liber primus
Incipit: 1r In a someres seyson, when soft was the sonne, I shoope me in srowdes as I a shepe were, In habyte as a heremyte vnholy off werkes, wente wyde yn thys world wonders to here
Explicit: 101r & send me happe & heale tyll I have pyers þe plowman & sythe he gradde after grace tyll I gan awake
Final rubric: 101v Explicit hic diolagus petri plowman
2. 101v-103r
Table of contents for Piers Plowman
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 101v Here ynsuethe þe table off pyers plowman
Incipit: 101v þe first passe off þe vysyone conteynethe iii chapters
Final rubric: 103r Explicit diolagus tabule petri plowman
3. 104r-105v
A goodly prayer
Language(s): Middle English, with a Latin rubric
Rubric: 104r A goodly preaer
Incipit: 104r Blessed god sovereange goodnes mercy to me þi synfull creature
Explicit: 105v where we may behold thy bryght vysage with angelles & seyntes syngyng in kynd sanctus sanctus sanctus lord god withowte end
Final rubric: 105v finis huius orationis

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper. Waterwheel with teeth and three oak leaves, comparable to Briquet 13396 (1514), Heawood 4025 (1579) and Heawood 4024 (undated, but datable to 1544, according to Michael Beazeley) (see Jefferson (2011).
Extent: Codex: ii + 106 + ii leaves. 250 × 175 mm.
Foliation:

16th-century foliation

i-ii + 1-106 + iii-iv

Written in ink in the top right-hand corner of the recto side of each leaf; cropped in places and gaps supplied with numbers written in pencil by a 20th-century hand.

Collation

  • Quire 112-1 (ff. 1-11: 1st leaf excised, probably blank)
  • Quires 28 (ff. 12-19)
  • Quire 316 (ff. 20-35)
  • Quires 4-812 (ff. 36-95)
  • Quire 912-1 (ff. 96-106: 12th leaf excised, probably blank)

Quire signatures ('A-I').

Condition

Quite severely cropped in places, with text lost in places (see ff. 1r and 25v). Red staining, from the rubric ink, on f. 17v. Otherwise, generally very good condition.

Layout

240 × 140 mm. Ruled in ink, frame only. Single column, written below top line, with a variable number of written lines to the page, generally 33-45 lines in the main text, 26-36 lines in the tabula and 28 lines in the prayer.

Hand(s)

All written in secretary by one scribe. Rubrics and Latin passages are in a more formal version of this script.

Decoration

Latin passages in the text or rubrics written in red.

Additions

Running annotations and marginalia, providing corrections and commentary, many in the hand of the main scribe, but also in two other hands. The second, probably contemporary, hand signs himself ‘WH’, see folio 69v or 72v (see Provenance). Another comments on passages dealing with immorality by clerics (see ff. 42v and 72v).

Note in pencil regarding a lost leaf, by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886), University Librarian 1867-1886 (f. 106v).

Binding

Late 17th-century binding of blind-tooled leather. The manuscript was rebacked by Douglas Cockerell and Son of Letchworth in July 1962 (note by H.L. Pink on f. i recto). The title ‘The Prophecies of Piers Plowman’ and shelfmark from the previous binding have been pasted onto the rear pastedown.

History

Origin: 16th century. ; England.

Provenance and Acquisition

Annotated and presumably owned by 'W.H.' (see ff. 69v, 72v, 103r).

Donated to Cambridge University Library in 1656, by Robert Morgan (1608-1673) , later bishop of Bangor and alumnus of Jesus College.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the edition and study of the text prepared by Judith Jefferson in 2011 for the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive.

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

    Editions and translations

    The vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman in three parallel texts, together with Richard the Redeless, Langland, William (Oxford, 2, Clarendon Press, 1886) Piers Plowman: the B version: Will's visions of Piers Plowman, Do-well, Do-better and Do-best Piers Plowman: the three versions, (London, Athlone Press, 1988) The vision of Piers Plowman: a critical edition of the B-text based on Trinity College Cambridge MS B.15.17 The Everyman library, (London, Everyman, 1995) Piers Plowman: A Parallel-Text Edition of the A, B, C and Z Versions, (London, 1, Longman, 1995) Piers Plowman: a new translation of the B-text, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000) Will's visions of Piers Plowman, Do-Well, Do-Better and Do-Best: a glossary of the English vocabulary of the A, B, and C versions as presented in the Athlone editions Piers Plowman: the three versions, Kane, George (London, Continuum, 2005) The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, Vol.2 Cambridge University Library MS Gg.4.31, Jefferson, Judith (2011, http://piers.iath.virginia.edu/exist/piers/front/B/G/Front)

Bibliography

    Manuscript descriptions

    The manuscripts of Piers Plowman: the B-version, Benson, C. DavidBlanchfield, Lynne S. (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1997) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English Prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781846157363) Divisions, collaboration and other topics: the table of contents in Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.4.31 Medieval Alliterative Poetry: Essays in Honour of Thorlac Turville-Petre, Jefferson, Judith (Dublin, 140-152, 2010) Late Medieval English Scribes: CUL MS Gg.4.31 Late Medieval English Scribes, Mooney, LinneStubbs, EstelleHorobin, Simon (2011, http://www.medievalscribes.com/index.php?navtype=manuscripts&navlocation=Cambridge&browse=manuscripts&navlibrary=Cambridge+University+Library&id=366&nav=off)

Bibliography

    Secondary studies

    MSS R and F in the B tradition of Piers Plowman Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Donaldson, E. Talbot (39, 177-212, 1955) The Manuscripts Middle English Alliterative Poetry and its Literary Background, Doyle, A. I. (Cambridge, 88-100, 1982) The Reliability of Rubrics in the B Text of Piers Plowman Medium Ævum, Adams, Robert (54, 208-231, 1985) Langland's Dialect Medium Ævum, Samuels, M.L. (54, 232-47, 1985) Remarks on Surviving Manuscripts of Piers Plowman Medieval English Religious and Ethical Literature: Essays in Honour of George H. Russell, Doyle, A. I. (Cambridge, 35-48, 1986) The Early Reception of Piers Plowman, Uhart, Marie-Claire (Leicester, 1986, Doctoral dissertation) William Langland Authors of the Middle Ages. English writers of the late Middle Ages, Hanna, Ralph (Aldershot, Variorum, 1993) Editing Piers Plowman: the evolution of the text Cambridge studies in medieval literature, Brewer, Charlotte (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996) The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature, Wallace, David (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999) Public Piers Plowman: modern scholarship and late medieval English culture, Benson, C. David (University Park, Pa., Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004) Will's visions of Piers Plowman, Do-Well, Do-Better and Do-Best: a glossary of the English vocabulary of the A, B, and C versions as presented in the Athlone editions Piers Plowman: the three versions, Kane, George (London, Continuum, 2005) Robert Crowley and the Editing of Piers Plowman (1550) Yearbook of Langland Studies, Carter, Hailey (21, 143-170, 2007) An overlooked Piers Plowman excerpt and oral circulation of non-reformist prophecy c.1520-55 Yearbook of Langland Studies, Warner, Lawrence (21, 119-142, 2007) The Structure of Piers Plowman B XV-XX: evidence from the rubrics Medium Ævum, Burrow, J.A (77, 306-12, 2008) Notes on the Metre of Piers Plowman: Twenty Years On Middle English Alliterative Poetry and its Literary Background Leeds texts and monographs, New Series, Duggan, Hoyt (159-186, 2009) Scribal Responses to Latin in the Manuscripts of the B-Version of 'Piers Plowman' Multilingualism in medieval Britain (c. 1066-1520): sources and analysis Medieval texts and cultures of Northern Europe, Jefferson, Judith Anne (Turnhout, 195-210, Brepols, 2013)

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