POEMS ON KALENDAR, ETC., ENGLISH

MRJ number
237
College classmark
L.10

Vellum, 7.125 x 5, ff. 21 + 1, 19 lines to a page.  15th cent.

Collation :  1 flyleaf, 1? (wants 1st and last and 1 after present 1st leaf; five left) 216.

Contents:

         1.    Flyleaf blank.

f. 1 in prose:

       Now {th}u man {th}at desyrest to haue {th}e complexyon, etc.

       Now lette vs begynne of Scorpyon, etc.

       Here begynneth {th}e mone of tolome, etc.

Ending imperfectly p. 2.

          2.   In verse: imperfect.  On the Days of the Moon.

                What dremys bene in alle manere     .               .               .         p.   3

                And othere {th}ynggys mo

                I schal {y}ow seyne by gode Reson

                What tyme is gode Sesowne

                Alle Thynge to done

                               

                And leuely y schal schew {y}ow

                Thys forseyde thyngys alle.

                The fyrst day of the mone  .               .               .               .               4

                God wyst what ys to done

                Adam that Day he made, etc.

A gap before p. 11.

At bottom of p. 12 is this note in red:

xiito dye lune ffuit natus princepus henricy ante deum m.cccc xximo

    Anno Rengni Regis henricy quinti post conquestum Anglie.

Ends  p. 32:

                So to doun whyll we bene here

                {TH}at we mow {th}orow hys mercy dede

                In heuen  haue a place.  Amen.

                      Explycyt Storya lune.

         3.    A Hymn principally on the Hours of the Passion.

                Ihesu ffor {th}yn precius blode        .               .               .               33

                {TH}at thow schedest for owre gode

                At {th}yn circumcision

                                          

                Be {th}y passyon graunt us grace

                In heuen blys to haue a place

                and Joy wt outen ende.  Pater.

Note on mutacio lune in Latin            .               .               .               .               38

         4.    Prognostics (of Esdras) from the day of the week on which

    New Year’s day falls        .               .               .               .               .               39

Beginning imperfectly in the Tuesday section:

                In {th}at {y}ere swowe (!) schal bee

                Bete heruest {y}e schal see

                Drye somer and dere whete

                                   

Ends p. 41:

                He bryng us to {th}e lyf of ly{gh}t

                Where euer ys joy and solas

                     Amen quod corby.

Manuscript extra information

Negative microfilm in St John's College Library.

Laurel Braswell, 'Popular Lunar Astrology in the Late Middle Ages', University of Ottowa Quarterly 48:187, 94.

I. Taavitsainen, Middle English Lunaires (Helsinki, 1988), pp. 64, 160, 181.

Laurel Means (ed.), Medieval Lunar Astrology (Lampeter, 1993), pp. 17, 81, 205-8, 112-47, 243-4.

Part 2, Storia Lune, is no. 4264 in Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, Index of Middle English Verse (New York, 1943).  Verses 1 - 22 of this copy are missing.  The complete version is in Bodleian MS. Douce 84.

For Part 3 see Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, Index of Middle English Verse (New York, 1943), item no. 1798: 'A prayer by the Seven Times Christ shed his Blood, linked as remedies against the Deadly Sins.'  This version has never been printed, but see Carleton Brown, Religious Lyrics of the Fifteenth Century (Oxford, 1939), pp. 218-19.

For Part 3 see D. Pezzini, 'Quattro poesie inedite Inglesi del Sec. xv sulle "Ore della Croce"', Instituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere Estratto dai Rendiconti, Classe di Lettere  Vol. III (1977).  Copy in St John's College Library.