Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.1.6
Collection of devotional works
Contents
Physical Description
19th-century foliation:
[i]-[ii] + 1 + 2-147; 148-179; 180-193; 194-215; 216-245 | 246-247 + [iii]
Written in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf.
f. [ii] is a strip of parchment, perhaps a former endleaf guard.
Collation
This manuscript comprises two Parts: the main contents of the volume (Part 1) and leaves recycled as endleaves at the rear (Part 2). Part 1 is formed mainly of quires of ten leaves. These may be grouped into five codicological units, as follows:
- 1: Quires 1-15 (ff. 2-147)
- 2: Quires 16-19 (ff. 148-179)
- 3: Quires 20-21 (ff. 180-193)
- 4: Quires 22-24 (ff. 194-215)
- 5: Quires 25-27 (ff. 216-245)
Prior to Quire 1, there is a single ruled leaf surviving (f. 1r), bearing text, and a further blank but similarly ruled stub (f. [ii]). Folio [ii] recto bears the impressions of five binding channels, indicating its use or (given the ruling) later re-purposing as a pastedown. Although it is possible that other leaves have been lost from what was originally a quire, the likelihood is that folio 1r has always been an endleaf, so these two leaves have not been included in the collation of the manuscript.
- Quires 1-1410 (ff. 2-141)
- Quire 1510-4 (ff. 142-147: 7th-10th leaves missing, with stubs remaining) ;
- Quires 16-1710 (ff. 148-167)
- Quire 188 (ff. 168-175)
- Quire 196-2 (ff. 176-179: 5th and 6th leaves missing) ;
- Quire 2010 (ff. 180-189)
- Quire 2110-6 (ff. 190-193: 4th-7th and 10th leaves missing, with stubs remaining) ;
- Quires 22-2310 (ff. 194-213
- Quire 24two (ff. 214-215: perhaps also originally a quire of ten leaves, with only the 1st and 10th remaining, all of the rest missing or some missing and others perhaps blank and excised) ;
- Quires 25-2710 (ff. 216-245) |
- A bifolium (ff. 246-247)
1-1410 1510-4 (7th-10th excised); 16-1710 188 196-2 (5th-6th excised); 2010 2110-6 (4th-7th, 10th excised); 22-2310 24two; 25-2710 | a bifolium
Additions
A hand from the second half of the 16th century or first half of the 17th century has written names from the Gesta Romanorum in margins throughout ff. 216r-242r.
Table of contents add by an unidentified 18th-century hand to the former front pastedown (preserved in part on the inside upper cover).
Annotations in English added to empty margins and spaces by one or more 16th-century or early 17th-century hands:
- 'prope ardor procull ardorum [...]' (f. 52r, outer margin).
- 'Noverint [? universi] [...]' (f. 70v, upper margin).
- Illegible (f. 74r, outer margin).
- 'for vs god made all thinge better the we could deuise / and yet in our vses we do him disspise' (f. 89r, outer margin).
- 'Let vs honor praise And gloryfy his name / And distribute to him his due honor and fame / Anno Domini 1571' (f. 97r, outer margin).
- 'P[?ar] my humfre owen de suffolke amen / Selled and delyvered in the presens of master thomas hoopton' (f. 100r, upper margin).
- Beginning: 'God made man to his owen lykenes, to the intent we should do good and not evill for yf we remember our selfes we are bound, and rebounde, to geve to him our maker [etc]' (f. 102r, outer margin).
- 'Item payed to [...]' (f. 128r, upper margin).
- Item payd to master harve of darsam / Item the county of Suffolke knave Amen' (f. 131v, upper margin).
- 'I trvst he will vs to him call, and save vs from a bitter fall' (f. 147r, outer margin).
- 'The trentall of Saynte Gregorie the bishope' (f. 215v).
- 'My loue did watche me and when se did cacthe [sic] me then did she scrache me' [2x] (f. 215v).
- 'Whill the grasse grouethe oft, the horse may starve / Trust in faire promises, oft times may swarve' (f. 215v).
- 'Afflictus sum et humilatus sum nimis' (f. 242v, gap between text).
- 'Suffolk and Norffolk / amen dico vobis' (f. 245r, outer margin).
- 'To the ryght worshipfull / to his veary loving frind' (f. 247r, outer margin).
Quire signatures ('1-27') 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/20th century.
Collation formula by the hand of H.L. Pink (rear pastedown).
Binding
Binding by J.P. Gray and Son of Cambridge, 1958 (binder's stamp and note on the front pastedown. Millboard three-quarter binding with marbled cloth covering and brown leather spine. The title and classmark are tooled in gold on the spine (classmark labels from previous binding retained on the front pastedown).
Binding height: 282 mm, width: 210 mm, depth: 65 mm.
Red speckled fore-edge.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The name of Arthur Hopton is inscribed in the upper margin of f. 242v ('Arturus Hopton'): he was a member of the Hopton family of Westwood in Blythburgh in North-East Suffolk, as a 16th-century or early 17th-century note suggests: 'P[our] my humfre owen de suffolke amen / Selled and delyvered in the presens of master thomas hoopton' (f. 100v, upper margin). The same hand has written a note with the date 'Anno Domini 1571' (f. 97r, outer margin); a note on a payment to master Harvey of Darsham in Suffolk: 'Item payd to master harve of darsam / Item the county of Suffolke knave Amen' (f. 131v, upper margin); and 'Suffolk and Norffolk / amen dico vobis' (f. 245r, outer margin). Darsham is situated a few miles to the south-east of Blythburgh. If these notes were written by Arthur Hopton (which is unclear because he writes his name in a different stylised script), then he almost certainly was Arthur Hopton (c. 1540-1607), High Sheriff of Suffolk.
The name of Arthur Melle : 'Arthur melle ded wryt thys' (f. 2r, lower margin). Perhaps Arthur Melle, son of Henry Melle and his wife Frances, born in 1548 at Bramfield, five miles south-west from Blythburgh.
One of the manuscripts of Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649) , Master of Emmanuel College.
Acquired by the University Library in July 1664: no. 4 in the inventory of Holdsworth's manuscripts compiled by William Crowe (MS Ff.4.27 / Dd.8.45).
Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.1.6, ff. 1-245]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Due to the loss of a preceding folio (or folios), only the final item in the table of contents survives, referring to the Trental of Saint Gregory on ff. 242r-245v.
Added in the mid-16th century.
Unique copy, beginning with a verse prayer to Christ; the name 'Richard ffox' written at the foot of f. 50r.
Another copy survives in Chicago, University of Illinois, MS 80.
Added by four hands in the 16th century. They address the following:
- 'For a hete in the stomake' (heat in the stomach, perhaps 'adustion')
- 'For the [...] off the stomake' (illness not specified in the stomach, rubric incomplete)
- 'For the red [...]' (illness not specified, rubric incomplete; involves applying a plaster to the back near the kidneys)
- 'For ony payne in the backe' (back pain)
- 'A medson for the glandrs' (an ailment of horses)
- 'A drinke for a horsse'
- 'For the collyke' (colic)
- 'For the gowte' (gout)
Here attributed to John Lydgate.
Here attributed to John Lydgate.
Here not attributed to John Lydgate, but in MacCracken's edition.
Attributed to Thomas Hoccleve by MacCracken.
Here attributed to John Lydgate.
Here attributed to John Lydgate.
Ending imperfectly.
Attributed to John Lydgate in another manuscript.
Summary of the text on ff. 242v-245v added in a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quires 1-1410 (ff. 2-141)
- Quire 1510-4 (ff. 142-147: 7th-10th leaves missing, with stubs remaining);
- Quires 16-1710 (ff. 148-167)
- Quire 188 (ff. 168-175)
- Quire 196-2 (ff. 176-179: 5th and 6th leaves missing);
- Quire 2010 (ff. 180-189)
- Quire 2110-6 (ff. 190-193: 4th-7th and 10th leaves missing, with stubs remaining);
- Quires 22-2310 (ff. 194-213
- Quire 24two (ff. 214-215: perhaps also originally a quire of ten leaves, with only the 1st and 10th remaining, all of the rest missing or some missing and others perhaps blank and excised);
- Quires 25-2710 (ff. 216-245)
Leaf signatures comprising lower case letters and Roman numerals - a-z, et [Tironian note], con [Tironian note], title [symbol], and 'est' - in the lower right-hand corner of the first halves of each quire.
Catchwords in lower right-hand corner of the last verso of each leaf of each quire.Layout
195-225 × 125-145 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only, with occasional line ruling. Single columns. 29-39 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Scribe A, Richard Fox (d. 1454) , copied f. 1r (fragmentary table of contents), and ff. 194r-214v in a script with the overall appearance ofAnglicana (e.g. double-compartment 'a' and hour-glass shaped 'g'), but with a strong Secretary influence: note the regular use of an open 'w' (alongside the Anglicana 'w' that is closed by two bows); the consistent use of 'r' on the baseline, often 2-shaped, and the absence of the Anglicana long-r; and the lack of loops on ascenders. Also note the dominant 8-shaped 's' at the end of words, perhaps a stylized kidney-shaped Secretary 's', with the occasional occurence of Anglicana sigma-shaped 's'.
Scribe B copied ff. 2r-147v in a clear Secretary script, but with regular use of Anglicana 'g', and consistent use of Textualis for Latin quotations.
Scribe C, who identifies himself as 'Walterus plenus Amoris (Walter ? Fullalove) on f. 179v, copied ff. 148r-179v in Secretary script, but with Anglicana forms, including the long 'r', and 'w' closed with two bows.
Scribe D copied ff. 180r-192r almost wholly in an Anglicana script, including double-compartment 'a', round 'e', long 'r', sigma-shaped 's' in final positions, 'w' closed with 2 bows, and loops on ascenders. However, the angle of the script, and the rare appereance of unlooped 'w', betray the influence of Secretary script.
Scribe E copied ff. 216r-242v in a Secretary script (e.g. note the one-compartment 'a' and open 'g'), but with a strong Anglicana influence, as can be witness from the regular use of long 'r', sigma-shaped 's' in final positions, looped 'w' (alongside the Secretary 'w'), and consistently looped ascenders.
Scribe F copied ff. 242v-245v in a script predominantly featuring Anglicana letter forms, featuring the two-compartment 'a', round 'e', hour-glass shaped 'g', long 'r', looped 'w', and looped ascenders. However, the script's angularity and occasional use of single-compartment 'a', indicate the influence of Secretary as well.
Texts added to empty spaces on pages and in margins have been written in Secretary scripts
Decoration
One- to nine-line blue initial with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing throughout, some of which are heavily stained, see ff. 82v, 131r, 148r, and 148v.
One-line plain capitals in blue or red ink.
Small capitals highlighted in red throughout.
Paraphs alternately in blue and red (ff. 2r-147r), and in red (ff. 148r-179v), but with occasional blue ones on ff. 160v, 176v, 176v, 177v
Underlining and corrections in red ink.
Line-fillers in red ink.
Cadels with human and zoomorphic faces on ff. 171r, 172v, 174r.
Introductory and final rubrics, and Latin quotations rubricated in red ink.
Additions
A hand from the mid-15th centuyr or second half of the 15th century has inscribed 'Christi' at the top of f. 2r, 'Alinor Hulle' at the top of 148r, and 'lydgate' at the top of 148r.
History
Written partly or entirely after c. 1449, since 'An holy meditation to Our Lord Christ Jesus hanging on the cross' refers to John Lydgate (c. 1370-1449/50?) as 'late a monke of the house of Seynt Edmundus of Bery on whose sowle God have mercy' (f. 194r); and before 1454, since Richard Fox refers to the manuscript in his will dated 12 August 1454. Perhaps partly or entirely written at St Albans, Benedictine abbey of St Albans . Richard Fox, who copied the fragmentary table of contents on f. 1r and the Middle English verse on ff. 194r-214v and rubricated the entire manuscript, was the proctor or steward of St Albans Abbey between c. 1435 and 1454.
Provenance
The manuscript's first owner was Richard Fox (d. 1454) , steward of the Benedictine abbey of St Albans , as is indicated by his will of 12 August 1454 in which he bequeaths the manuscript (identified by its opening text: 'Domine ne in furore') to his son John.
Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.1.6, ff. 246-247]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Musical settings for 'Deo gracias' (f. 246r), 'Paradisi porta per euam' and 'Sancta maria uirgo intercede' (f. 246v), and the Magnificat (ff. 247r-247v, imperfect (missing the last four lines), written in the 2nd half of 14th century.
Physical Description
Hand(s)
The fragmentary music leaves are written in Northern Textualis.
Decoration
One-line plain capitals in red ink
History
Provenance
'Richard'Richard : his name inscribed in a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand on f. 246; the hand does not seem to match that of Richard Fox (d. 1454).
Additional Information
Record Sources
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.
Custodial History
Bibliography
-
The Old English Versions of the Gesta Romanorum: Ed. for the First Time from Manuscripts
in the
British Museum and University Library, Cambridge; with an Introduction and Notes, Madden, Frederic, (London, W. Nicol, Shakspeare Press, 1838)
Early English Versions of the Gesta Romanorum: Formerly Edited by Sir Frederic Madden
for the
Roxburghe Club and Now Re-Edited from the Mss. in British Museum (Harl. 7333 and Addit.
9066) and University
Library of Cambridge (Kk.1.6) Early English Text Society, Extra Series, Herrtage, John Hervon (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1879)
Trentalle Sancti Gregorii: eine mittelenglische Legende Erlanger Beiträge zur englischen
Philologie, Kaufmann, Albert (Erlangen, A. Deichert, G. Böhme, 1889)
Bibliotheca musico-liturgica: A Descriptive Handlist of the Musical and Latin-Liturgical
MSS. of
the Middle Ages Preserved in the Libraries of Great Britain and Ireland, Frere, W.H. (London, 2, 1894)
The Minor Poems Early English Text Society, Original series, 192, Lydgate, John (London, Oxford University Press for E.E.T.S., 1934)
Religious Lyrics of the XVth Century, Brown, Carleton Fairchild (Oxford, Clarendon Press, The Clarendon Press, 1939)
Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England: A Neglected Chapter in the History of English
Letters
and of the English People, Owst, G.R. (Oxford, B. Blackwell, 1961)
A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1500, (New Haven, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1967)
The English Devotion of St. Gregory's Trental Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, Pfaff, R. (49, 1, 75-90, 1974)
Sir Frederic Madden at Cambridge: Extracts from Madden's Diaries 1831, 1838, 1841-2,
1846, 1859
and 1863 Cambridge Bibliographical Society Monographs, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Library for the Cambridge Bibliographical Society,
1980)
Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge Libraries, Robinson, P.R. (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1988)
Dame Eleanor Hull: A Fifteenth Century Translator The Medieval Translator: The Theory
and Practice of Translation in the Middle Ages. Papers Read
at a Conference Held 20-23 August 1987 at the University of Wales Conference Centre,
Gregynog Hall, Barratt, Alexandra (Cambridge, 87-101, D.S. Brewer, 1989)
Patrons, Buyers and Owners: The Evidence for Ownership and the Role of Book Owners
in Book
Production and the Book Trade Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475
Cambridge Studies in Publishing and Printing History, Harris, Kate (Cambridge, 163-199, Cambridge University Press, 1989)
"Thys ys my mystrys boke": English Women as Readers and Writers in Late Medieval England.
The Uses of Manuscripts in Literary Studies: Essays in Memory of Judson Boyce Allen
Studies in Medieval Culture, Tarvers, Josephine Koster (Kalamazoo, MI, 31, 305-327, Medieval Institute Publications,
1992)
The Transmission and Audience of Osbern Bokenham's 'Legendys of Hooly Wummen' Late-Medieval
Religious Texts and their Transmission: Essays in Honour of A.I. Doyle York Manuscripts
Conferences: Proceedings Series, Edwards, A.S.G. (Cambridge, 157-167, D.S. Brewer, 1994)
The Seven Psalms: A Commentary on the Penitential Psalms, Translated from French into
English by
Dame Eleanor Hull Early English Text Society / Original series, (Oxford, Oxford University Press for The Early English Text Society, 1995)
Dame Eleanor Hull's Meditacyons upon the VII dayes of the woke: The First Edition
of the Middle
English Translation in Cambridge University Library MS. Kk. i. 6, Conard, Sheila H. (1995, unpublished PhD dissertation)
The Prose Brut: The Development of a Middle English Chronicle Medieval & Renaissance
Texts & Studies, Matheson, Lister M. (Tempe, ACMRS (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies),
1998)
The Idea of the Vernacular: An Anthology of Middle English Literary Theory, 1280-1520
Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies, Wogan-Browne, JocelynJohnson, Ian R. (Exeter, University of Exeter Press, 1999)
The Name Poured Out: Margins, Illuminations and Niniatures as Evidence for the Practice
of
Devotions to the Name of Jesus in Late Medieval England The Mystical Tradition and
the Carthusians, Part 9 Analecta Cartusiana, Renevey, Denis (Salzburg, 127-148, Institut fur Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 1999)
Fifteenth-Century Middle English Verse Author Collections The English Medieval Book.
Studies in Memory of Jeremy Griffiths, Edwards, A. S. G. (London, 101-112, British Library, 2000)
Dame Eleanor Hull: The Translator at Work Medium Ævum, Barratt, Alexandra (72, 2, 277-296, 2003)
The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books: From the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth
Century Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology, Derolez, Albert (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003)
A New Index of Middle English Verse, Boffey, JuliaEdwards, A. S. G. (London, British Library, 2005)
Performing Piety: Musical Culture in Medieval English Nunneries New Middle Ages, Yardley, Anne Bagnall (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
Practical Reading for Body and Soul in Some Later Medieval Manuscript Miscellanies
Journal of the Early Book Society, Connolly, Margaret (10, 151-174, 2007)
Privately-Owned English Urban Manuscripts, 1300-1476 (Urban Manuscript Project) Archaeology
Data Service, Riddy, Felicity (2008, https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/ump_ahrc_2008/index.cfm)
Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009)
Popular Reading in English c. 1400-1600, Salter, Elisabeth (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2012)
Women translators The history of British women's writing, Barratt, Alexandra (Houndmills, Basingstoke, 169-177, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
The contents of Robert Thornton's manuscripts Robert Thornton and His Books: Essays
on the Lincoln and London Thornton Manuscripts, Fein, Susanna (York, 13-65, Medieval Press, 2014)
‘Bycause the redyng shold not turne hem to enoye’: Reading, Selectivity, and Pietatis
Affectum in
Late Medieval England New Medieval Literatures, Noonan, Sarah (225-254, 2015)
Une collection fondatrice et ses enjeux : les manuscrits du fonds Holdsworth à la
bibliothèque
universitaire de Cambridge Comptes-rendus des séances de l année - Académie des inscriptions
et belles-lettres, 162e
année, Pouzet, Jean-Pascal (4, 1595-1657, 2018)
Paper in Medieval England: From Pulp to Fictions, Da Rold, Orietta (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020)
Late Medieval Devotional Compilations in England Medieval Church Studies, (Turnhout, Brepols, 2020)
Richard Fox of St Albans: The Life, Work and Connections of a Fifteenth-century
Chronicler Medievalista, Probert, Anna (34, 1-16, 2023)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
