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 Ii.6.31

The Book of Privy Counselling

Contents

Introduction: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.6.31 contains a copy of the devotional treatise known as The Book of Privy Counselling. It is unique among the ten surviving copies for presenting the text on its own; elsewhere, the text is accompanied by The Cloud of Unknowing or other treatises attributed to the same author. Phyllis Hodgson consulted this copy for her basic text edition, but deemed it 'obviously unsuitable', as the text is 'much modernised in vocabulary and spelling' (Hodgson (1944), p. xxiii). The version of the text in this manuscript is distinctive, since it concludes with an additional passage that only appears in three other extant copies, suggesting that they shared a common exemplar (the manuscripts are: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.6.41 ; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 262 ; and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 576 ) (see Edwards (1999), p. 271). Language and Dialect: The dialect has not been located in the Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English (1986). Given the late date of the manuscript, it is difficult to pinpoint specific localising features, as the language is moving towards a more standardised form (see Date for notes on vowel change and pronouns). It has some southern features, such as the forms 'shall' and 'shulde', which, according to eLALME distribution maps, were most highly concentrated in the Midlands ( eLALME Dot Maps, 'SHALL, SHOULD: sh- (shal, shulde)' [accessed 12/03.19]). The southern '-eth' third-person singular present verb ending is used throughout throughout the manuscript, but also appears in the first and second person forms ('me thynketh', and 'thee thynketh'). Overall, the manuscript's dialect may be best described as what Jeremy Smith terms 'colourless written English', a less regionally diverse form that arose at the end of the fifteenth century, in line with the increasing elaboration of English (see Jeremy Smith, 'From Middle to Early Modern English', in The Oxford History of English, ed. by Lynda Mugglestone (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 147-79, (p. 165)). Rebecca Field
1r-64r
The Book of Privy Counselling Epistle of Privy Counsel
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Rubric: 1r: The pystle of pryuate cowncell
Incipit: 1r: Goostly frende in god as towchyng thyn inwarde occupacyon
Explicit: 64r: the whych he hathe bowght with hys precyous blode . Amen
Final rubric: 1r: Here endyth the deuowte pystle of pryuate cownsell . iesus
IPMEP 251
Wells Rev. 9:3429 [26]
Hodgson (1944), pp. 135-72
Hodgson (1982), pp. 75-99
Connolly (2009), IMEP 19, p. 229

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r: how muche
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFHF)
Extent: Codex: i + 1 + 64 + 1 + i leaves. 160 × 125 mm.
Foliation:

16th/17th-century foliation:

[a] + [i] + 1-64 + [ii] + b

Numbering in ink in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. '45' written in error for '49' and corrected in pencil by a modern hand.

Collation

The manuscript comprises eight, mostly irregular quires. It is possible that this irregularity signifies the use of single sheets rather than the cancellation of one half of a bifolium. The formula given below deviates from that provided by H.L. Pink (see Additions), who considered the front and rear parchment endleaves to comprise part of the first and last gatherings, however the different quality, colouration and size of these endleaves suggests otherwise, so they have been excluded from what follows.

  • Quire 112-5 (ff. 1-7: 4th-5th leaves cancelled, after f. 3; 10th-12th leaves cancelled, after f. 7)
  • Quire 210-2 (ff. 8-15: 1st-2nd leaves cancelled, before f. 8)
  • Quire 36 (ff. 16-21)
  • Quire 48-1 (ff. 22-28: 8th leaf cancelled, after f. 28)
  • Quire 58-1 (ff. 29-35: 7th leaf cancelled, after f. 34)
  • Quire 612-2 (ff. 36-45: 9th-10th leaves cancelled, after f. 43)
  • Quire 710 (ff. 46-55)
  • Quire 810-1 (ff. 56-64: 10th leaf excised, probably blank, after f. 64)

No leaf signatures.

Quire signatures (a-h), written in ink in the lower margin of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire ('a' not marked; 'f' marked in the lower margin of the verso side of the last leaf).

No catchwords.

Condition

The leaves have been unevenly and roughly trimmed prior to binding, with loss in the top margin of the upward flourishes of the decorated initial (f. 20v). The trimming likely occurred before the addition of marginal comments by a later hand, since all the marginalia remains intact (see Additions for further details).

Layout

120 × 85-95 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Single column, 15-17 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Hand:

There is one scribe throughout. The hand is a large, clear, highly legible Gothic bookhand, well-spaced, with a set aspect. There is a close resemblance to textura quadrata, as the minims have distinct diamond-shaped feet, but there are also multiple features of bastard anglicana which make it difficult to designate a single script. The ascenders are particularly long, especially in the case of 'k' and the barred double 'l'; 'h' is often crossed with a bar, which does not necessarily indicate an abbreviation, and its limb consistently descends below the ruled line. Both long 's' and the 'st' ligature are used, the 'g' is closed with a separate horizontal stroke, and the 'y' has a long descender, which curves to the right. The closed double compartment 'a' is typical of the gothic script, whereas the 'w' is closer to the Anglicana form. There are consistent otiose strokes at the end of words, particularly following 'r', 's' and 't'. The spelling reflects the later date of the manuscript: 'th' replaces þ/thorn, which is retained only for the 'þat' abbreviation. The hand changes slightly in size and aspect through the manuscript. The text on f. 4r is notably smaller, for example, and on f. 47v, lines 6-10, the hand briefly becomes extremely pointed and angular, and uses bifurcated ascenders, two-shaped ‘r', and a capital 'a' composed of two curved strokes.

Abbreviations:

The scribe uses a number of common abbreviations throughout. ‘þt' is used for 'þat', and 'wt' for 'with', most commonly in the forms 'wtin' and 'wtout'. Macrons are used to denote missing 'm' and 'n' in both the English main text and the Latin rubrics. A macron is also used twice on fol. 3v above 'both', to indicate a missing 'o'. In one instance (f. 47v), a barred 'p' is used to indicate 'er' in 'perfectly'.

Punctuation:

The scribe uses a punctus throughout, to indicate both the end of the sentence and caesura. The colon is also regularly used, along with virgulae, to mark caesura. Parentheses are occasionally used, as on ff. 62v and 64r.

Corrections:

All corrections are in the scribal hand and inserted superscript, with or without a caret mark. Examples of both kinds can be seen on f. 4v.

Decoration

Three- or four-line plain cadel-style initials in black, with simple infill and marginal flourishing in ink (ff. 1r, 20v).

One and two-line plain initials in red or black, at the opening of passages of Latin text, occasionally with simple infill and marginal flourishing in black.

Passages in Latin and paraph marks in red.

Additions

Maniculae are drawn throughout, marking passages of interest. There are two distinct types, a simplistic form in black ink, and other, more elaborate versions, in brown ink.

Numerous marginal annotations and glosses by Stephen Batman (see Provenance for further details) (see Edwards (1999), p. 270). His annotations are largely glosses of unfamiliar Middle English vocabulary: 'queynte' is glossed as 'curious'; 'onyd' as 'united'; 'nakydly' as 'purely'; 'boistiously' as 'unfaindedly'. Batman underlined passages and marked them with '*' and 'O', linking them to glosses and expositions in the margins. These range from notes on content, such as 'Against imaginations of passions, that one passion hath wrought redemption' (f. 40v), to longer passages of interpretation, such as 'Not þt ther is any poure of keeping with oute a keeper: the body is kept for a tyme by the lyfe But the wisdom of the sowle is kept by God and therfore called an euerlasting wisdom, by the which the body is made companion of the soule and the sowle with God' (f. 2r). He also annotated the text with relevant biblical references, and on f. 18r corrected the rubricated passage of Latin.

On ff. 38r and 39v, the marginal notes have been scraped away, and in the case of the latter, a pointing finger drawn over the top in brown ink, apparently by a later hand.

Additions to ff. [i] verso and 64v, now erased.

Classmark and notes on binding written on the front pastedown, and a collation formula written on the rear pastedown, by H.L. Pink . Pink also added quire signatures to the first leaf of each quire.

Binding

Rebound by Douglas Cockerell and Son , Letchworth, December 1960 (inscription on the front pastedown by H.L. Pink).

Former binding of 'paper boards' recorded in an unpublished description of the manuscript by M.R. James (see Source for further details). A spine label from this or an earlier binding has been preserved on the front pastedown.

History

Origin: 15th century. ; England.

The manuscript was dated by Margaret Connolly to the 15th century (see IMEP 19, p. 229). I suggest a date of production of the late fifteenth century, based on characteristics of the hand (see 'Script' for further description), and features of the spelling and vocabulary in comparison with the standard edition, which is based primarily upon the earlier copies of the text at the British Library. The most notable differences are the use of the 'th' digraph in place of þ/thorn, evidence of vowel change ('o' becomes 'u', as in 'bot'/'but'), and modernised vocabulary ('them', in place of 'þoo').

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned and annotated by Stephen Batman , who used the manuscript for his transcription, now Harvard University, Houghton Library, MS Eng 1015 (see Edwards (1999), p. 269). Name inscribed at the top of f. 64v (now faint). (For further discussion of Batman's book ownership and reading practices, see: M.B. Parkes, 'Stephan Batman's manuscripts', in Medieval heritage: essays in honour of Tadahiro Ikegami (Tokyo: Yushodo Press, 1997), pp. 125-56, and Simon Horobin, 'Stephan Batman's manuscripts of Piers Plowman', Review of English Studies, 62 (2011), pp. 368-372).

According to an inscription on f. [i] verso, the manuscript was given by Stephen Batman to a William Danby, perhaps William Danby (fl. 1542-1593) , lawyer and coroner. 'William Danby [...] given unto hym by Stephen Batman'.

Peter Hooker (fl. 1613) : name inscribed on f. 64v, with the date 1613.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on Margaret Connolly, Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo), Index of Middle English Prose, 19 (2009) 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

    A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge, 3: Gg-Kk, Cambridge University Press, 1858) <hi rend="italics">The cloud of unknowing</hi> and <hi rend="italics">The book of privy counselling</hi> Early English Text Society. Original series, Hodgson, Phyllis (London, Pub. for the Early English Text Society by H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1944) <hi rend="italics">The Cloud of Unknowing</hi> and related treatises Analecta Cartusiana, Hodgson, Phyllis (Salzburg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1982) Editing and ideology: Stephen Batman and the <hi rend="italics">Book of Privy Counselling</hi> Chaucer in Perspective: Middle English Essays in Honour of Norman Blake, Edwards, A.S.G. (Sheffield, 267-278, Sheffield Academic Press, 1999) 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)

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