GRAMMATICA
Paper and vellum, 8.375 x 5.75, ff. 189, about 36 lines to a page. Late 15th cent.
Binding similar to that of F. 22.
Donor, T. C. S.
Collation: 112 (wants 1: +1 loose) 212 310 418 (3 canc. in 2nd half) 510 68 (wants 1) 712 88 (8 canc.) 94 1020 118 128 (wants 5-8) 1312 - 1512 168 1712 | 1812.
The last quire is vellum.
Contents:
1. Donatus de partibus orationis in English: expanded . . f. 1
How many partes ben {th}ere of reson. viii. Qwech viij. Nown, etc.
Ends f. 12a on concords.
Sic in gramatica dicas concordia quina. 12b blank.
2. In double columns. A glossary . . . . 13
Appoonis (!) a puttyng. Apprecior -ari to set at pryce.
Ending 24b. Cicedula (!) id est, quoddam genus.
3. Verses. Ethna cremans ueluti nequiunt fruges quoque pronus (?) 25
Form of obligation (10 May, 17 Hen. VI) of Thomas Marchall
de Todyngton in Com. Bed. clericus to Joh. Marchall de
eadem.
Another form with initials of names only.
4. Grammatica with memorial verses . . . . 25b
Apud latinos viginti sunt littere.
5. Poem on a cock fight . . . . . 28b
Quare patent metris gallorum prelia multis.
. . .
Unde patet pueris quod erit chelyng elyencis.
Victor pre ceteris cuius superauerat omnes...
Metre changes:
Gallus iste nominatur
Rob (or Kob) qui pennis decoratur. Flauis suo corpore, etc.
Expliciat Rithmus quo pampe Marchallque decorant
Gallorum prorsus pugnam quia metrice laudant.
6. De accentu, mostly in verse . . . . 29b
Tres sunt species accentus.
Ends 34a. Tetra si detur penultima dissilabetur.
Expl. accentus ex usu mag. Thome Syltone.
7. Doctorem reuerere tuum sapiencia prima.
Sic tibi dat clauem si linguam discis opimam . . 34b
Cum prudentes instruerent et filiis cancellarent, etc.
Rithmus. Cumque patres instruerent
Et filiis cancellarent veteres in uersubus
Semper illi ut doctorem
Reuererent per amorem eternis temporibus
etc.
8. De constructione . . . . . . 35
Quoniam de constructione instat intentio principalis.
De Pronomine, 38.
On 40b some scribbles and the first lines of the Schola Salerni.
Anglorum regi scribit bona scola Salerni.
More scribbles on 43b.
On f. 44: English phrases and Latin equivalents in another
hand.
God leue it so be. Omnipotens dominus semper annuat omnia
nobis.
Stond a whyle and renne a myle. Si modicum steteris curras
spatium miliare. . . .
45a blank.
An abridgment in one page of Cato's Disticha. Cum anim-
aduerterem . . . . . . 45b
Expl. lib. parui Catonis quod Marchall.
9. Liber accentarii, with interlinear English glosses . . 46
Que non ponuntur hic omnia corripiuntur.
On the margin of 47b.
Pontifici uellus Decano cedet ocellus.
Ren quia pingue sapit Archiuelita (Archilevita=Archdeacon)
capit.
Sorte sub equali cedit cutis Officiali.
Et lac si fuerit summonitoris erit.
Cum moritur diues concurrunt undique ciues.
Cum moritur pauper uix unus adesse uidetur.
Ends 49a.
U super u solam produc, dant cetera curtam.
Expl. lib. accentarii quod marchall.
Further notes and scribbles.
Rhythm to S. Nicholas . . . . . 49b
Presulis ob festum congaude turma scolarum
Quo nicholaum cleri reuerentur honestum.
. . .
Omnes discentes eliencis grammata scolis
Cantica cum rithmis nicholao pangite gentes.
Expl. Rithmus S. Nicholai amen.
The beginning of Stella celi extirpauit on the same page.
f. 50 blank.
10. De generibus . . . . . . 51
In isto capitulo autor intendit determinare de generibus.
With many verses and English equivalents.
Ends 59b.
Victrices turbe uictricia tela tulere. ffinis. Amen.
Expl. lib. omnium generum declinabilium nominum et constat
Roberto Vlrey.
11. De preteritis et supinis . . . . . 60
In precedentibus autor determinauit de generibus.
The scribe signs his name Wulrey (once Wulrey de Plecy) at
the end of several sections.
Declinaciones nominum (also by Wulrey) . . . 70
Magister Alexander de villa dei dicit se compositurum quendam
librum.
Ends 82b: Tercius et sextus semper formantur in ebus.
Expl. declinaciones nominum. Quod Rob. Wulrey de Plecy.
Nunc ffinem feci penitet me si male scripsi.
(Nunc scripsi totum pro christo da mihi potum.)
Autor in presenti capitulo intendit determinare de tribus
gradibus comparacionis . . . . . 83
Autor in hoc presenti capitulo docet de preteritis et supinis . 85b
Postquam autor egit in precedentibus determinat de regulari
declinacione . . . . . . 87
Autor in presenti opusculo pro posse suo determinat de pro-
ductione et correpcione . . . . . 91b
Continues to 108a embodying a long series of verses : the last
sections are regule uersificandi, ending :
Terna breuis tribraco. iambo breuis usita (!) longe.
Expl. reg. uersificandi.
108b, 109a blank. On 109b a note of Psalms to be said on
certain occasions. Si fueris tristis et molestus corde, etc.
12. Orthographia . . . . . . 110
Omnipotens dominus qui linguas fecit disertas in pluribus mundi
partibus.
Ends 121a. Graphos quod est sciptura quasi recta scriptura.
Et isto modo expl. Artogrophia.
121b blank.
13. Promptorium paruulorum . . . . . 122
Conseruentibus (!) solicite clericorum condiciones
-creata munda inmunda facta sunt. Expl. perambulum
promptorii paruulorum secundum uulgarem modum loquendi
Orientalium Anglorum s. Northfolchie.
(A) bake or bakward retro retrorsum aduerbia.
Ends 157b.
Elme tre ulmus fe. g. secunde declinacionis, p. 138 Way.
Catchword Elmesse follows.
Not mentioned by Way in his preface to the Camden Soc.
edition.
14. In another hand : An Exposition ; grammatical, imperfect at
each end, upon the Church offices : Psalms, Gospels, Anti-
phons, etc. are quoted as examples . . . 158
15. Vellum, rather older.
Doctrinale paruum (A Phebo Phebe, etc.) with expository
notes . . . . . . . 178
Ending 188b: Estque puer purus est sine pube puer.
Expl. ffigure parui doctrinalis. Willelmus kreke (erased).
Qui scripcit carmen, etc. Auncell.
A long grammatical note in prose. Nota quod diffinicio est.
Ending 189a : Expl. Defenciones (Definitiones).
Ut dicit Auncell.
Negative microfilm in St John's College Library.
Quires sixteen and seventeen are one. The correct order of leaves (vide catchwords and alphabetical order of quotations in 'capitulum tercium' (frl. 160r line 19) is 158-61, 168-71, 166-7, 176-7, 172-5, 162-5. See David Thomson, A Descriptive Catalogue of Middle English Grammatical Texts (New York and London, 1979), copy in St John's College Library.
Item 1 is one of a number of Middle English grammars which derive from the Latin 'Donet' or Ars Minor of Donatus. See S. B. Meech, 'Early Applications of Latin Grammar to English', Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 50 (1935), 1012-32.
Item 13 refers to a Latin-English dictionary compiled by a Dominican of King's Lynn c. 1440, and extant in a number of MSS. See Promptorium Parvulorum, ed. A. L. Mayhew (London, 1908).
P.R. Robinson, Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c.737-1600 in Cambridge libraries (Cambridge, 1988) vol. I, p. 87, no. 303; vol. II pl. 231 (fol. 29v).
R. Beadle, 'Dated and datable manuscripts in Cambridge libraries', English manuscript studies 1100-1700 3 (1992), 240-242.
D. Wakelin, 'The carol in writing: three anthologies from fifteenth-century Norfolk', Journal of the Early Book Society 9 (2006), 25-49.
J. Bellis & V. Bridges, '"What shalt thou do when thou hast an english to make into Latin?": the proverb collection of Cambridge, St. John's College, MS F.26', Studies in philology 112, 1 (2015) , 68-92.