Document Details
| Reference Code: | GB 0247 MS Hunter 77 (T.3.15) | ||
| Title: | The Myrrour of the Blessid Lif of Ihesu-Crist | ||
| Call Number: | MS Hunter 77 (T.3.15) | ||
| Images: |
![[ MS Hunter 77 fol. 3v ]](/scans/Manuscripts/Hunter/H77_0003vwt.jpg "[ MS Hunter 77 fol. 3v ]")
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| Associated Websites: |
Images and caption from English Language manuscripts course material web page. Images and caption from World of Chaucer web exhibition |
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| Content: | Nicholas Love, The Myrrour of the Blessid Lif of Ihesu-Crist. [The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ] (S. Eustachii Bonaventvrae, Cardinalis Albanensis, (Giovanni di Fidanza), Meditationes Vitae Jesv Christi.) Nicholas Love's English Translation of Cardinal Bonaventura's Meditationes Vitae Jesu Christi: (Imperfect.) Scribe: Stephen Dodesham, Sheen Charterhouse, Richmond, Surrey. Begins (1, 1 [f. 1] recto lines 1-6): paragraph mark [blue with red ornament] Tabula | A [illuminated initial and floreated margins] tte the begynnyng the proheme of the boke | that is clepid the myrrour of the blessid lif | of Jhesu-crist paragraph mark [blue and red] The first part for [th]e mo- [rubric] | paragraph mark [red] A Deuoute meditacyon of the gret counseils neday. [the last word rubricated] | in heuene. for the restoring of man . and his sauacion . capitulum primum [last two words rubricated]. Ends (21, 7 [f. 165 (168)] verso col. b, lines 18-21): lif blessed without endyng | Amen. Amen. | Explicit Speculum | Vite christi complete. Remarks: The text consists of 63 chapers, in 7 sections; each section representing a day of the week. On front pastedown (verso of ii, 1) pencilled in Dibdin's hand: Perhaps origin of Caxton's Life of Christ. In the top corner of folio ii (formerly ii, 3 recto): £5.0.0 | 1747. On the verso of folio iii (formerly iv, 1) in XV. Cent. hand: Thys Boke be longgyth on to the chartter hows | of schene [i.e. Sheen] wrettyn be [th]e hand[is] of dane stephene | dodd[z]am [= Stephen Doddesham or Dodesham] monke of [th]e same plasse the yer of Kynge | Edwarde the fourthe fourteenthe [1475]. Below this in a somewhat later hand: and yt pleese you | to aduertyse youe then | shall yt then and (?) In the middle of the page, between ruled lines one inch apart, in elaborate fancy Gothic characters: "Galileus" [Galeys], followed by an interlaced device. Beneath, in the pink ink of the foliator: Bind this all black | letter'd thus. MS. | Legend. A note of Mr. Macbeth, who exposed this folio, is affixed explaining that it had one end paper pasted on each side (i.e folios iii and iv (formerly iii, 1. and V.1.). On the verso of folio iv (formerly v, 1) in Dr. Wm. Hunter's hand: The Myrrour of the blessid Lif of Jesu Crist. Folio V (formerly 1, 5 verso) col. a, line 21 = fol. 3 recto line 1 of the Ed. Pr. Augustae, 1468 [G.U.L. BD. 7. 6. 8.]. [Formerly Q.2.10; Q.2.29]. Translation of Cardinal Bonaventura's work by Nicholas Love. Printed by Caxton 1488; and issued in Roxburghe Club (Vol. 151) 1908, ed. L.F. Powell from MS. Brasenose Coll. e. 9. Another XV Cent. copy at MS. Gen 1130. Cf.: E. Zeeman, 'Nicholas Love - a fifteenth-century translator', (Rev. of English Studs. VI (1955), 113-127). Rebound in February 1962 by D. Cockerell & Son in brown oasis morocco with blank title labels MIRROR | OF THE | LIFE OF | CHRIST | MS. Sides from previous binding mounted inside back board. J.C. Lammers thinks the hand shows a striking similarity with that of Trinity College Dublin, F.S.8, a middle English translation of the Imitatio Christi: see letter, 23 September 1969. This MS. is in the same hand as MS Hunter 259 (U.4.17), q.v. It is suggested that the MS was once in the posession of Thomas Martin of Palgrave. (Young and Aitken, Ker, William Hunter, and Doyle, p. 103.) It is also a possiblity that the manuscript was purchased by Thomas Payne before being sold to Hunter, although there is no direct evidence to support this. (Ker, pp. 20-21) |
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| Place of Creation: | Richmond?, England | ||
| Date of Creation: | 1475 | ||
| Physical Description: | Bound volume. Vellum, 11¼ x 8 3/4, ff. 165, originally ff. 168, beautifully written in double cols. of 30 lines, each 7¼ x 2 3/8, signatures, catchwords, foliation (XVIII. Cent. in pink ink), floreated pages and borders, gilt illuminated initials, blue initials ornamented and gestured red, rubricated running titles, initials touched with gamboge, rubrics and red and blue paragraph marks, text margined and ruled with brown crayon, double pink marginal lines added later, cropped, fol. sec. paragraph mark Of the resceyving. Late Cent. XV. (1475). Binding: Millboards, covered brown calf, originally varnished black, blind-tooled, recently re-backed, tarnished gilt edges. Cent. XVIII. [For detailed collation see: John Young and P. Henderson Aitken, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of The Hunterian Museum in The University of Glasgow. (Glasgow, 1908), p. 85.] |
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| Language: | English | ||
| Document Type: | Document | ||
| Bibliography: | Julie Gardham, The world of Chaucer: medieval books and manuscripts (Glasgow, 2004), p. 24; John Young & P.H. Aitken, A catalogue of the manuscripts in the Library of the Hunterian Museum in the University of Glasgow (Glasgow, 1908), p. 85; Brendan Biggs, 'The language of the scribes of the first English translation of the Imitatio Christi', Leeds studies in English, new series, 26 (1995), pp 79-111 (especially pp. 88-91); Doyle, A. I., ‘Stephen Dodesham of Witham and Sheen’, Of the Making of Books: Medieval Manuscripts their Scribes and Readers: Essays Presented to M.B. Parkes, eds. P.R. Robinson and R Zim. (Aldershot, 1997) pp. 94-115; Ker, N.R., William Hunter as a Collector of Medieval Manuscripts, (Glasgow, 1983), pp. 20-21. | ||
| Notes: | This manuscript has been exhibited on the following occasion: 'The Magic of the Middle Ages, Part 1: Sacred Manuscripts', Glasgow University Library, 21 April-30 July 1994; 'The World of Chaucer', Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, May-Aug. 2004. | ||
| Level of Description: | Item | ||
| Access: | Normal conditions | ||
| Accession Number: | 2482 (See collection level record) | ||
| Series: | Part of MS Hunter 1-658 (See series level record) | ||
| Record Number: | 32620 | ||
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