Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm.6.17
Collection of theological works
Physical Description
Mid-20th century
[i] + 1 + 2-8 | 9-77 ; 79-118 ; 119-138 + 143-144 + [ii]
Folio numbers 78, 139, 140, 141, 142 assigned to leaves no longer present in the volume (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library). Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, by H.L. Pink .Collation
At its core, the manuscript comprises two codicological units (Quires 3-10 and 11-15). Additional quires were inserted at the front (Quire 2) and at the back (Quires 16-17), and which were of different but presumably near-contemporary production. The same style of formal bookhand is used at both ends (though by more than one hand), and since the additions at the back begin on what must have been initially blank leaves at the end of Quire 15 it seems likely that these were always intended to be bound with the core quires of the manuscript. Another quire (Quire 1) was added to the front of the manuscript; though the subject-matter of its contents fits with the rest of the manuscript, its markedly different production and on a standalone quire suggests that it was a subsequent addition, and so the manuscript has been catalogued as a composite. The 15th-century additions to the endleaves, however, point to the parts of the manuscript having been bound together at a fairly early stage.
- Quire 18-1 (ff. 2-8: 1st leaf excised) |
- Quire 24 (ff. 9-12) ;
- Quire 38 (ff. 13-20)
- Quire 410 (ff. 21-30)
- Quires 5-98 (ff. 31-70)
- Quire 108-1 (ff. 71-77: 8th leaf cancelled) ;
- Quires 11-158 (ff. 79-118) ;
- Quire 168 (ff. 119-126)
- Quire 1712 (ff. 127-138)
18-1 (1st leaf excised) | 24; 38 410 5-98 108-1 (8th leaf cancelled); 11-158; 168 1712
Additions
Addition of a Sufrage to St Egwin of Evesham added to f. 143r (see Part 2 for further details).
Quire signatures ('a-b | 1-15') 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 H.L. Pink (no longer indicative; see Collation). Pink also added a collation formula to the rear pastedown).
Binding
Rebound in June 1961 by Douglas Cockerell and Son in Letchworth, according to a note inside the upper cover. Brown quarter leather and marbled paper covering over millboards, with plain pastedowns. The classmark and title ‘Miscellanea’ are tooled on the spine in gold.
Binding height: 270 mm, width: 160 mm, depth: 40 mm.
Labels from a previous binding - including a strip of red Russia leather with the gold-stamped title: ‘Tractatus M.S.’ and scraps onto which are printed the current classmark - are pasted inside the upper board.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Richard Colingburne (fl. c. 1450-1550) : his ownership inscription on f. 1v:‘ Ricardus Colynburne me possidit’.
A certain date of accession is not known, however the manuscript is first recorded
among the
collections of Cambridge University Library in a catalogue compiled in 1754-56
by Thomas Goodall (now Cambridge, University Library, MS Oo.7.53-55). It may have belonged to
John Moore (1646-1714)
, bishop of Ely, and it contains the donation bookplate engraved by
John Pine (1690-1756)
in 1736, in commemoration of the purchase and donation of Moore's library by
George I (1660-1727)
(front pastedown. However, as noted there by
Charles Sayle
- '‘Possibly Bishop Moore's, but
not included in any list of his MSS. - C.S.’ - it has not been possible to
identify this manuscript among Moore's
collections as recorded in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c.
1697) or in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore's manuscripts (now MS Oo.7.50(2)) compiled by
Thomas Tanner (1674-1735)
after its publication, and these bookplates are not wholly reliable guides to a manuscript's
provenance and
acquisition.
Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm.6.17, ff. 2r-8v]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
A theological poem with prose commentary that has been variously attributed to Peter of Blois , John of Garland , and William de Montibus .
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 18-1 (ff. 2-8: 1st leaf excised)
Layout
105 × 75 mm. Not ruled. Single columns. 30-32 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
This part of the manuscript is written by a single scribe in a cursive script with both Anglicana and Secretary features (e.g. single- and double-compartment 'a').
History
Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm.6.17, ff. 9r-138v, 143r-144v]
Contents
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
The sermon consists of three separate works
According to Weidmann (2011), p. 242 fn. 34, this is a typical English sermon that largely consists of Pseudo-Augustine's De triplici habitaculo and the Elucidarium of Honorius von Autun.
A previously unidentified copy of Quandocumque tribularis, two linked passages on temptation that are integrated into both the Ancrene Wisse and The Chastising of God's Children, but this Latin piece also circulated as a separate work. Previously, five manuscript copies of the text had been identified [see Colledge and Bazire (1957), p. 260]. This sixth version, like the other copies, has retained the child's exclamation in English: ‘dame dame’.
The text has now been edited in Strub (2024).
The same opening line occurs in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 751 .
Few excerpts contain rubrics, including: ‘De fide’, ‘De spe’, ‘De caritate’, ‘leo papa’.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
The first half of the tract corresponds with Sermo 76 from Maximus of Turin's Collectio sermonum antiqua [CCSL 23] while the second part occurs in William of Ockham's Dialogus, Part 3, tract 1, book 4, Chapter 3 [ed. Kilcullen and others (2011)]. However, the work as a whole also occurs in Ambrose's Feria III. Hebdomadae Sanctae [see Sancti Ambrosii, Mediolanensis Episcopi, Opera Omnia (1886), pp. 67-68].
Edited as part as a possible sermon [Sermo 191] of Augustine of Hippo in PL 39: 2101-2102.
The suffrage is from the proper office of the feast of the deposition of St Egwin, as found in the Evesham Breviary (now Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barlow 41 ).
Added by a 15th-century hand.
Full transcription; the line also occurs in the Vision of Piers Plowman
Added by a 15th-century hand
Added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand [the same hand that added the next recipe].
Added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand [the same hand that added the previous recipe].
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 24 (ff. 9-12) ;
- Quire 38 (ff. 13-20)
- Quire 410 (ff. 21-30)
- Quires 5-98 (ff. 31-70)
- Quire 108-1 (ff. 71-77: 8th leaf cancelled) ;
- Quires 11-158 (ff. 79-118) ;
- Quire 168 (ff. 119-126)
- Quire 1712 (ff. 127-138)
Layout
155 × 120 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Single columns. 30-33 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
The core part of the manuscript (Quires 3-10 and 11-14 and the first three leaves of Quire 15) was written by a single scribe in a formal, semi-textualis bookhand.
Quires 2, the rest of Quire 15 and Quires 16-17 were written by several hands, each executing a form of Northern Gothica Textualis.
Added medical recipes on ff. 143r are written in a current Secretary script.
Decoration
Two-line red initials, in Quires 2 and 17 only.
One-line capitals highlighted in red throughout.
Line fillers in red ink.
Headings rubricated in red ink throughout.
History
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.
Bibliography
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Sancti Ambrosii, Mediolanensis Episcopi, Opera Omnia, Vol 4 Juxta Editionem Monachorum
Sancti
Benedicti, (Paris, 1661)
Bibliotheca Patrum concionnatoria, Combefis, François (1662)
Iohannis Wyclif Tractatus de simonia. Now First Edited, from the Vienna Mss. 4536,
1622, 4504,
4515, 3927, 3937, and 1343; from the Prague Ms. X. E9. and the Trinity College
(Dublin) Ms. C.1.24 Wyclif's Latin works, (London, 22, Trübner, 1898)
La collection des 38 homélies latines de Saint Jean Chrysostome The Journal of Theological
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Archaeological Journal, McNulty, Joseph (30, 119, 231-247, 1931)
Stephen of Eston, Abbot of Salley, Newminster, and Fountains Yorkshire Archaeological
Journal, McNulty, Joseph (31, 49–64, 1932)
The "Stimulus peccatoris" of William of Rymyngton Citeaux, O'Brien, Robert (16, 278-304, 1965)
Die Handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus Sitzungsberichte
(Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse).
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Kirchenväter, Heft 3,4, Römer, Franz (Wien, 2: Großbritannien und Irland, Böhlau, 1972)
Edmund of Abingdon: Speculum Religiosorum and Speculum Ecclesie Auctores Britannici
Medii Aevi, (London, Oxford University Press for the Academy, 1973)
Incipits of Latin works on the virtues and vices, 1100-1500 A.D. Mediaeval Academy
of America publication, Bloomfield, Morton W., (Cambridge, Mass., Mediaeval Academy of America, 1979)
An Edition of the Judica me Deus of Richard Rolle Salzburg studies in English literature.
Elizabethan & Renaissance studies, (Salzburg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1984)
'Meddling with Makings' and Will's Work Late-Medieval Religious Texts and Their Transmission:
Essays in Honour of A.I. Doyle York Manuscripts Conferences: Proceedings, Hanna, Ralph (Woodbridge, 85-94, D.S. Brewer, 1994)
Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009)
"Quod nos hortatus est dominus noster": Eine Predigt Augustins aus der Collectio
Longipontana Wiener Studien, Weidmann, Clemens (124, 231-250, 2011)
Dialogus, part 2, part 3, tract 1 Auctores Britannici medii aevi, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011)
From 'Companion to the Novitiate' to 'Companion to the Devout Life': San Marino, Hutnington
Library, MS HM 744 and Monastic Anthologies of the Twelfth-Century Reform
Middle English Religious Writing in Practice: Texts, Readers, and Transformations
Late Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Edsall, Mary Agnes (Turnhout, 115-148, Brepols, 2013)
Hope Allen’s ‘Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle’: A Corrected List of Copies, Doyle, A. I.Hanna, Ralph (Turhout, Brepols, 2019)
The Play of Love, 1230–1578: A Case Study and Edition The Journal of Medieval Religious
Cultures, Strub, Spencer (50, 2, 159-183, 2024)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
