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 Hh.6.13

Theological works

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript mainly comprises two large theological works. The first is a copy of William of Auvergne's De sacramentis, which, according to a colophon, was copied by the scribe Thomas Singulton of Newark in 1442. In the published version of his 1999 Lyell Lectures, Malcolm Parkes grouped Singulton together with other examples of commercial scribes who signed their copies, and suggested that the inclusion of place names in such inscriptions advertised to a manuscript's reader, and prospective future customer, where a scribe's services could be found. To Singulton's work was later added, but not much later, a second theological text: a previously unidentified mid- or late 15th-century collection of excerpts from the Memoriale presbyterorum, an early 14th-century manual for parish priests that is known in only five other manuscripts. An additional quire of eight leaves was used to accommodate the Memoriale. The blank page (f. 78v) in between the end of De sacramentis and the beginning of the Memoriale was filled by the copyist of the latter text with more than a dozen Latin aphorisms, including one attributed to St Ambrose: 'Sputum hominis ieiuni est venenum serpenti' - 'The saliva of a young man is the poison of the serpent'. This is found in Ambrose's Hexameron, but was widely quoted, including among the Sermones of Jacobus de Voragine. The manuscript retains its medieval endleaves, which were recycled from a 14th-century account roll. Entries therein reference York and Lowthorpe, which suggests that the book spent part of its life in the north-east of England. An inscription in the margin of f. 83v records the gift of the book by an unnamed legator to a 'William Cat', chaplain, 'in order that he say a trental for my soul after my death'. A trental is a set of thirty requiem masses. The chaplain named may have been the William Catte who was made rector of All Saints' Church, Edingthorpe, Norfolk, in 1465. Dr Clarck Drieshen| Project Cataloguer | Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: Codex: i + 2 | 83 | 1 + i leaves.
Foliation:

Mid-20th-century foliation:

[i] + 1-2 | 3-85 | 86 + [ii] + [a]

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto side of each leaf. f. [i] and [ii] are modern paper flyleaves; ff. 1-2, and 86 are original parchment flyleaves; f. [a] is a paper pastedown on the f. inside of the lower cover and is not included in Extent.

Collation

  • Quires 1-48 (ff. 3-34)
  • Quire 58-1 (ff. 35-41: 8th leaf missing)
  • Quires 6-88 (ff. 42-65)
  • Quire 912 (ff. 66-77) ;
  • Quire 108 (ff. 78-85) |
  • 1 endleaf

2 endleaves (1 bifolium) | 1-48, 58-1 (8th missing), 6-88, 912; 108 | 1 endleaf

Additions

Quire signatures ('1-10') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, and '+' in the same position on the first leaf after the centre of the quire, written in pencil by a hand of the 19th century ('+' perhaps added later, by a hand of the 20th century).

Collation formula written in pencil on f. [ii] verso, by the hand of H.L. Pink .

Binding

Quarter binding of light brown sheep leather with grey marbled paper sides over mill boards, old paper shelf mark labels pasted on a paper pastedown on the inside upper cover.

Rebound in August 1958 by Douglas Cockerell and Son , according to a note attached to the rear pastedown ([a]) signed 'SMC' (i.e. Sydney Morris ('Sandy') Cockerell .

215 × 145 × 35 mm.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely: no. 136 (f. 1r) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).

Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I : donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736 on the front pastedown.

Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Hh.6.13, ff. 1r-2v, 86r-86v]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 1r-2v
Household accounts [I]
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || 1r [...] quasi per unum diem
Explicit: 2v Summa tocius huius [...]||

Accounts of a monastery or other religious institution with a list of food and drink distributed to the poor, with several references to ‘Boceham’ and ‘Woddekok’.

2. 86r-86v
Household accounts [II]
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || 86r Emptio panni
Explicit: 86v d[..]enard .vij. li. xiij s xj [...]||

Bound upside down. Accounts of a monastery or other religious institution with a list of food and drink distributed to the poor, including a reference to York: 'new wine bought near York' (‘vini noui empt. apud Ebor.’); and payments to Henry Barton (‘Henrici Barton’), John of Sadyngton (‘Et solucium Johannis de Sadyngton pro diuersis [...]’), Lowthorpe in the East Riding of Yorkshire (‘louthorp pro parte expens. clericorum existencium oxonie’), and Richard Wardroper (‘Et solicium Ricardo Wardroper pro iij [...]’).

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Fragments, comprising leaves taken from a roll. 3 leaves. 190-200 × 140-145 mm.

Condition

Leaves are heavily stained, with damage to ff. 1-2 that may have been caused by rodents.

Layout

200 × 145 mm. Unruled. Single columns.

Hand(s)

Written by a single hand in Anglicana script.

History

Origin: Second half of the 14th century. ; Yorkshire.

Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Hh.6.13, ff. 3r-85v]

Contents

Language(s): Theological texts written in Latin, with added medical recipes in Middle English

1. 3r-8r
Table of contents
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: || 3r Ad cognicioenem operis [...]onem fac[...] in eo continentur est notandum quod [...] sunt capita signata et littere signate: unde qui uult inuenire aliquem casum in aliquo sacramento contentum querat per tabulam sequentem primo capitulum et postea litteram
Incipit: 3r Quod baptismus est ianua omnium sacramentorum
Explicit: 8r Quod exorcismi ad illud amouendum non ualeant
2. 8r-77r
De sacramentis William of Auvergne
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 8r Conclusiones sacramentorum descriptis fratris thome de alquino et aliorum doctorum extracte
Incipit: 8r Quoniam me sepius rogasti petre postquam sacerdocij sacrum ordinem suscepisti
Explicit: 77r et de iura recurre pro tum in hoc opere pro te fesso ipsum exores quo omnia sacramenta uirtutem obtinent dominum uidelicet ihesum Christum qui cum patre et spiritu sancto viuit et regnat deus benedictus in secula seculorum Amen
Final rubric: 77r Secundum manum Thome Syngultoun scriptoris de newerke. In anno domini nullio CCCCo quadragesimo secundo

Written in the form of a dialogue between Silo and Petrus

Thomson, Latin Bookhands, no. 106
Robinson, Catalogue (1988), I, p. 33 (no. 50)
Parkes, Their Hands Before Our Eyes (2008), p. 45 n. 83.
3. 77r
Medical recipes for leg and foot injuries
Language(s): Latin recipes with Middle English headers
Incipit: 77r For a sowr leg þat ys red and halys nyght and dey
Explicit: 77r oyl do lefh and blake sowp for þe sa[me]

Added in the second half of the 15th century.

Connolly, Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) (2009), p. 204
4. 77v
Latin aphorisms
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 77v Quid enim prodest corpus attenuare abstinencia: cum anima
Explicit: 77v Sparne voluptates nocet empta doloro voluptas

Written in or after 1442 by the same scribe who copied ff. 78r-85v.

5. 78r-85v
Memoriale Presbiterorum (Collection of excerpts)
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 78r Sic penitencia [erased: presbiteri] fornicantis Si [erased: presbiteris] fornicacionem fecerit debet penitere per x. annos
Rubric: 79r Pro quibus culpis et penitencijs sit penitens ad episcopum remittendus
Incipit: 79r Pro quibus culpis et penitenciis sit penitens ad episcopum proprium remittendus
Explicit: 85v contra illos prestans eadem pena vel paulo minore punire

A previously unidentified collection of excerpts from the Memoriale Presbiterorum, an early 14th-century confession manual for parish priests that has been identified in five manuscripts:

.

A comparison with the earliest surviving copy - Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 148 - shows that the collection here contains twelve of its chapters in the following order: A.49, A.45-47, A.101, A.103, A.104, A.96, A.41, A.60-62.

Michael J. Harren, Sin and Society in Fourteenth-Century England: A Study of the Memoriale Presbiterum (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000) [without this manuscript]

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 4r Utrum alij sacerdotes
Secundo Folio: 9r materia huius sacramenti
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: 83 leaves. 205 × 145 mm.

Collation

  • Quires 1-48 (ff. 3-34)
  • Quire 58-1 (ff. 35-41: 8th leaf missing)
  • Quires 6-88 (ff. 42-65)
  • Quire 912 (ff. 66-77) ;
  • Quire 108 (ff. 78-85)

A single leaf signature ('f.i') in the lower outer corner of f. 42r.

Three medieval quire signatures on ff. 49v, 57v, 65v ('f', 'g', 'h').

Condition

The vellum is in good condition though dirty and stained in places, particularly at the beginning and end where leaves are slightly cockled.

Layout

ff. 3r-77r: 150 × 100 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only, with occasional line ruling. Single columns. 29-30 lines to the page. Written below top line.

ff. 77v-85v: 150-155 × 100 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only, with occasional line ruling. Single columns. 27-31 lines to the page. Written below top line.

Hand(s)

ff. 3r-77r are written by a single hand in a Northern Textualis.

ff. 77v-85v are written by a single hand in a cursive script with both Anglicana and Secretary features.

Decoration

Two- and one-line plain red initials on ff. 3r-77r.

Linefillers in red ink throughout ff. 3r-85v.

Cadels in brown ink on ascenders of words on first lines on ff. 40v-77r.

Rubricated headers throughout ff. 3r-85v.

One-line littera notabiliores highlighted in red throughout ff. 3r-85v.

Paraphs in red ink throughout ff. 3r-77r.

Cardinal numbers in lists in frames of red ink on ff. 79r-83r.

Additions

A note in Latin on pregnancy in the lower margin of f. 83v in a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand, relating to the text's discussion of adultery: ‘Hoc stereare [sic: ? ‘scelerare’] est pellis in qua pue in ventre matris’.

A note in Latin on sandals in the lower margin of f. 16r in a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand, probably responding to the text's discussion of liturgical clothing: ‘Sandalia dicuntur sotilares episcopales vel sotilares reges’.

Note of payments for sheep (‘yones iiijs [...] rames is iiiiijs shep iiiiij’), added to the upper margin of f. 34v in the 16th century.

Notes in Latin in the outer margin of f. 13r in a late 16th- or early 17th-century hand relating to the text's description of the sacrament of the Baptism, beginning: ‘Utrum puer non baptizatus cum matre’, and ‘modus baptismi’.

A note in English in the lower margin of f. 19v in a late 16th- or early 17th-century hand relating to the text's description of the sacrament of the Eucharist: ‘Ye maie reioyce to receyve this sacrament as a man reioceth when he hath gotten his princes seale’.

History

Origin: 1442. ; Newark.

The first main text (ff. 3r-77r) ends with a scribal colophon that dates the text to 1442: 'Secundum manum Thome Syngulton' scriptoris de newerke. In anno domini millesimo quatrocentesimo quadragesimo secundo [1442]'. To this were added texts (ff. 77v-85v) by a 15th-century hand.

Provenance

Donation inscription in the lower margin of f. 83v: ‘lego istum librum Wyllelmo cat capellano ut ipse dicat unum trentale pro anima mea post mortem meam’. The legator is not named, however the chaplain to whom he left this book may be the William Catte who was made rector of All Saints' Church, Edingthorpe, Norfolk, in 1465 (see Francis Blomefield and Charles Parkin, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk [...] Collected out of Ledger-Books, Registers, Records, Evidences, Deeds, Court-Rolls, and Other Authentick Memorials, 11 (London: Printed by William Bulmer for William Miller), p. 29).

Richard Sacwell : his name ('Rychard Sacwell') inscribed in a late 16th-century script in the outer margin of f. 58r, and perhaps his first name ('Rysha[rd]') inscribed in the same hand on f. 29r.

John Sandland : his name ('John Sandland') inscribed in a late 16th-century script in the outer margin of f. 58r.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on Margaret Connolly, Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo), The Index of Middle English Prose (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2009), pp. 26-30; and an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1926 and 1930 by M.R. James , now held in the University Archives (UA ULIB 7/3/74).

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

    Latin Bookhands of the Later Middle Ages, 1100-1500, Thomson, Samuel Harrison (London, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1969) Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge Libraries, Robinson, P.R. (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1988) Their Hands Before Our Eyes: A Closer Look at Scribes: The Lyell Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford, 1999, Parkes, M.B. (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2008) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009) "Thys ys my boke": Imagining the Owner in the Book Spaces for Reading in Later Medieval England, Wakelin, Daniel (Basingstoke, 13-33, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)

Funding of Cataloguing

Wellcome

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Cambridge Digital Library

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