SPECULUM CHRISTIANI, ETC.

MRJ number
176
College classmark
G.8

   Vellum, 8.375 x 5.25, ff. 74, 25, 32, etc. lines to a page.  15th cent., well written.  Vellum wrapper.

   Donor, T. C. S.                                                                                 2 fo. acceptus.

   Collation : a8 b8 c gone d8 (wants 1, 8) e8 – h8 i4 k8 l8.

 

   Contents :

         1.    Speculum Christiani usually attributed to John Watton but

                   here to Philip Spencer.

                Inc. tract. qui dicitur Speculum Christiani        .               .               .         f.    1

                Ieronimus.  In principio cuiuslibet operis.

                With the usual English passages.  Diagrams of ladders on f. 25b.

                Ends 49b : Omnia consilia tua in ipso permaneant.  Deo gr.

                Expl. tract. qui dicitur. Spec. Christ. per Philippum de Spencer

                   compilatum cuius anime propicietur deus.

        2.     lerne I rede {th}e howe thy bedde made sall be             .               .               49b

                When {th}e chaumbre of {th}’ soule thurgh confession es clenssed

                    - in {th}e whyche es Jhesu so mot it bee.  Amen.

        3.     On negligence in Psalmody                .               .               .               .               52

                Dolenter refero quod plures sacerdotes et alii

                    -retribucionem hereditatis. Quam nobis concedat, etc.

                     ui. et reg.  Amen.

        4.     Quoniam karissime in huius uia uite fugientis dies nostri             .               55

                (Hampole’s Speculum Peccatoris?)

                    -nouissima prudenter prouideas.

        5.     (Adam Carthusiensis, scala caeli.)  Cum die quadam corporali

                   manuum labore ocupatus                .               .               .               .               61b

                    -Sponsus iste nobilis est.  Amen (bis).

        6.     Poenitentia Adae .               .               .               .               .               .               67

                Factum est cum expulsi essent Adam et uxor eius eua

                Ends imperfectly with the words of Eve:

                Pater uester et ego transgressi sumus preceptum domini dei

                   dixit nobis michael archangelus propter preuaricaciones

                   uestras

                Ed. by W. Meyer, Abh. d. Bayr. Akad...Philol.-philos. Kl. xiv 3,

                   1878, p. 185.

Manuscript extra information

Negative microfilm in St John's College Library.

This MS. was used by G. Holmstedt in his edition of 'Speculum Christiani', Early English Text Society, o. s. 182 (1933), cxiii ff.

For part 2 see P. S. Joliffe, A Check List of the Middle English Prose writing of Spiritual Guidance (Toronto, 1974), 114, and A. I. Doyle, '"Lectulus noster floridus": An allegory of the penitent soul', in R. G. Newhauser and J. A. Alford (eds), Literature and Religion in the later Middle Ages: Philological Studies in Honour of Siegfried Wenzel (Binghamton, N. Y., 1994), 179-90, copy in St John's College Library.

For part 6 see the following:

J - P. Pettorelli, 'La Vie Latine D'Adam et Éve.  Analyse de la Tradition Manuscrite', Apocrypha 10 (1999), 195-296.

M. E. B. Halford, 'The Apocrypha: vita Adae et Evae.  Some comments on the manuscript tradition', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 82:4 (1981), copy in St John's College Library.

A. C. Dunstan, 'The Middle High German "Adam and Eve" by Lutwin and Eve Latin "Vita Adae et Evae", Modern Language Review 24 (1929), 191-9.

J. H. Mozley, 'The "Vita Adae"', The Journal of Ideological Studies 30 (1929), 121-49.