208. EPISTLE OF OTHEA. H. 5
Vellum, 11.25 x 8, ff. 61 + 4, 28 lines to a full page. 15th cent. (first half), well written.
Old binding, brown stamped leather over boards. The only stamp is a sort of flower with four elongated petals.
Collation : 2 flyleaves (1 stuck to cover), 18 - 78 (wants 8) 88 (wants 1, 2), 2 flyleaves.
The book has been in the possession of the family of Bremschet (Bramshott) in the Isle of Wight. Besides many other scribbles in which their name occurs, the following are interesting :
On flyleaf at the beginning a Latin prayer, very badly spelt, of Emelena Bremschet.
At the end (f. 60b) nearly two pages of English on the Five Sorrows of the Virgin :
I fynde and rede by holy mennes wrytyng that after
owre ladyes assumpcyon seynt John the euangeleste desyred to see that blessyd
lady
-and worssupe her wt
her dere sone Ihesu att eche of these v sorowis wt a pater noster
and hyr deuotely wt an aue marya.
Amen. Bremschet scripcit.
Entries of births, in English, with names of godparents, viz.:
Jone Bremshet, att Alcton castell, on sencion
day, 2 Hen. VII. (Godparents) My lady
grey and mastres roo and the abbate of boxley.
Dorothe, att London,
11 Aug., 4 Hen. VII…sir rychard lakyn, Alis lakyn, mastres chamberlayne, Elenor
Mustian.
Hary, at Chelsey, 16
June, 9 Hen. VII…my lady of northumbyrlond, sir charlis somerset, Jhon Bedyll,
master browne chanon of paulis.
(In Latin.) George, son of William and Emelena B., at
Merston, 6 Aug. 1488
…Nic. Gowshell, Mag. Ric. Maket vicar of godishell
…soror mea Agnes Leey.
Edward, 23 Jan., 7
Hen. VII…Abbot of Waltham, Sir John Fescu, maistra Walsche, selerinus de
waltam.
Elizabeth, 7 Mar., 8
Hen. VII…Regina Elyzabet, domina Jervese, domina Anna Percy, dominus vrmud (?)
camerarinus Regine.
Lawrence, iv. Aug.,
10 Hen. VII…dame Jane Bowyman (?)…the veker of carisbroke, master Hall and the
veker of shorwell.
Grace…at Newcherche,
St Rufeys day…the veker of Newcherche, Masterys genchard, Jone Yve.
Antony, att Merston,
8 Nov., 13 Hen. 7…the vekery of godyshyll, the vekery of arreton, Annys long.
John…att merston, 20
Dec., 15 Hen. 7, the godmodyr hawles and odyr.
Contents :
The Epistle of Othea (from
the French of Christine de Pisan1).
Prolouge of the
pistell Othea . . . . f. 1
Praisyng be to god at this begynnyng
in alle my wordes and soo
folowyng.
(The translator to Humphrey,
Duke of Buckingham : +1460)
…
Please you
ryght hi{gh} Prince to take of this thyng
The poure effecte of my litell
connyng.
Here beginneth the pistell
of Othea the Goddes the whiche sent it
to Hector whan he was xv. yere of age . . . 2b
Othea of prudens named
Goddes
That settith good hertis in
wurthynes
Each section of the text (in
verse) is followed by Glose and Allegorie,
in prose, and each Allegorie ends with a rubricated text
from the
Bible in Latin.
The poem (Texte)
ends f. 60b :
ffor a womman lerned Augustus
To be worshipid and taught him
{th}us.
The Allegorie
end 61a :
but how myche he can not.
To {th}is purpos {th}e wise man seith.
vio cao.
The illustration of the book has been begun in very good style by an English artist, but soon ceases, and no spaces are left for pictures. Those that are completed are as follow :
f. 1.
Dedication. The translator (L.),
a beardless man in blue tunic and red hose and cloak, kneels and presents his
book to the Duke of Buckingham, beardless, in red gown and blue hat, seated on
a chair covered with a yellow-red cloth : attendants on R. and on L.
two others ; the scene is an enclosure with low pink parapet and pavement of
green and black.
This page is bordered partially.
f. 2a.
Figures in grisaille. Othea,
half-length, in pink cloud on R. hands the sealed Epistle to Hector, a
boy in long coat. Three tall bearded
men in hats on L. On R. a
tree with a shield on it sable, two lions rampant or face to
face.
f. 5a.
Othea in cloud on R. as before touches the works of an elaborate
clock in a pink framework on pink base, which stands in C. It has bell and hammer at top and 3 weights:
the emblems of the Evangelists in the spandrels of the face. The works drawn with care. On L. kneel a beardless man, two
women, another beardless man. Behind
them a rock with trees. Figures in
grisaille.
f. 6a.
On L. Hercules in plate and mail, with lion-skin over it, holds
chain attached to neck of Cerberus (single-headed) breathing fire, and smites
him with club. On R. two knights
in plate and mail (Theseus and Pirithous) fight two devils in the mouth of a
cave among flames. Somewhat defaced :
the warriors in grisaille. See Pl. 108
in Catalogue of Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, 1908. The MS. is no. 157 in the Catalogue.
f. 8. On L.
a bearded king (Minos) with sword on canopied throne : a gowned councillor on
either side. Before him two men in
linen drawers only, their hands bound with cords. Two men behind them, one with club. Figures in grisaille.
f. 9. On L.
Percivalle (Perseus) in plate armour on Pegasus, who has red wings : Perseus
has plain gold shield and a short scythe raised in his hand. Below him is the head of a great toothed
fish emerging from the water. On R.
a rock in the sea, on which kneels Andromeda crowned. Figures in grisaille. See
Pl. XV in Collegium D. Joh. Evang. 1911.
These are extremely fine pictures and unusual both in subject and treatment.
On a flyleaf at end is a scribe's note : vi payentis (i.e. paintings) ii. c. champis. vi, iii. c. paragraffis v.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Negative microfilm in St John's College Library.
The version is by Stephen Scrope, and was edited in 1904 by Dr G.F. Warner for the Roxburghe Club. The preface and dedication here differ, but the text is the same.
There is one page of this MS. missing between pages 55 and
56.
See Bodleian MS. Landon Misc. 570 for an illustration of a similar clock to that of fol. 5r.
Three texts in the hand of the same scribe are in University
College, Oxford, MS. 85. They are in: M.S. Blayney (ed.), Fifteenth Century English Translations of Alain Chartier's Le Traite de l'esperance and Le Quadrilogue invectif (London, 1974); J.P. Genet (ed.), Four English Political Tracts of the Later Middle Ages (London, 1977).
J. Alexander, ‘William Abell "Lymnour" and 15th
century English illumination', Kunsthistorische Forschungen.Otto Pächt zu seinem 70. Geburtstag. eds
Artur Rosenauer and Gerold Weber (Salzburg, 1972)
C.F. Bühler (ed.), The Epistle of Othea (London,
1970).
A.I. Doyle & M.B. Parkes, 'The production of copies of the Canterbury Tales and the Confessio Amantis in the early fifteenth century'. In M.B. Parkes and A.G. Watson (eds.), Medieval scribes, manuscripts & libraries: essays presented to N.R. Ker (London, 1978) p.197 n.84 (re note of cost of decoration).
J.D. Gordon (ed.), The Epistle of Othea to Hector: a 'lytil bibell of knyghthod', edited from the Harleian manuscript 838 (Philadelphia, 1942) p. xxxi.
L. Jefferson, 'Two fifteenth-century manuscripts of the statutes of the Order of the Garter', English manuscript studies 1100-1700 5 (1995), 22.
Martine Meuwese, ‘Crossing borders: text and image in Arthurian manuscripts'. In B. Besamusca and F. Brandsma (eds.) Arthurian Literature XXIV: the European Dimensions of Arthurian Literature (D.S. Brewer, 2007) pp.157-177. See pp. 165-6; f.9r reproduced as fig. 12.
S. Partridge, 'A newly identified manuscript by the scribe of the New College Canterbury Tales', English manuscript studies 1100-1700 6 (1997), 233.
P.R. Robinson, Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c.737-1600 in Cambridge libraries (Cambridge, 1988) vol. I, p. 88, no. 308; vol. II pl. 244 (fol. 17).
O.E. Saunders, English Illumination (Paris, 1928), p. 119, plate 128.
F. Saxl and H. Meier, Catalogue of astrological and mythological illuminated manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages vol. 3 (London, 1953), 426, plate XVIII (fol. 9r).
F. Saxl and R. Wittkower, British art and the Mediterranean
(London, 1948), plate 34, 5 (fol. 9).
K.L. Scott, Later Gothic manuscripts, 1390-1490 (London, 1996).
Exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1908, no. 157.
Exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, English Medieval Art, catalogue no. 557 (London, 1930), plate 78.
Exhibited (f.9r) at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, from 26 July to 11 December 2005. See the exhibition catalogue: P. Binski and S. Panayotova (eds.), The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West (London: Harvey Miller, 2005) no. 126.