Regiment of Princes

Description

Manuscript in Middle English in Anglicana Formata on parchment, copied by the 'Selden Scribe' [ex inf.: Professor Sebastian Sobecki] containing Thomas Hoccleve's ‘Regiment of Princes’. Marginal glosses in Latin. Probably written in London, based on the Anglicana Formata hand. Imperfect: Collation of perfect manuscript was presumably originally: A-M8,N2 (with N2 a final blank, probably now the rear flyleaf?). Contains lines 113 to line 4893, but with considerable imperfections: wanting opening two leaves (sigs A1-A2) containing lines 1-112; three leaves (sigs. A8 and B1-B2) containing lines 393-560; two leaves (sigs. B8 and C1) containing lines 841-952; two leaves (sigs. C7-C8) containing lines 1233-1344; one leaf (sig. E5) containing lines 2017-2072; one leaf (sig. E7) containing lines 2129-2184; one leaf (sig. G5) containing lines 2927-2982; two leaves (sigs. H2-H3) containing lines 3207-3318; one leaf (sig. J1) containing lines 3599-3654; one leaf (sig. J3) containing lines 3711-3766;
two leaves (sigs. J5-J6) containing lines 3823-3934; one leaf (sig. L5) containing lines 4726-4781; 11 leaves (sigs. L7-L8 and quires M-N) containing lines 4894-5463. The following leaves have had initials roughly excised with a knife: sigs. E8, F1, G6. Sigs. F3, F4 and K2 have been cut during the excision of initials, with portions of text wanting. Sig. L6 is torn with portions of text wanting. Sigs. E1, E2, E3, E4, E6, E8, F1, F2, F8, G7, G8 and H1-H4 have been cut during excision of initials, but without loss of text. Decoration: One major illuminated decorative initial on sig. H6v; remains of a second similar initial on sig. K2v; alternating small red/blue, blue/gold initials opening each verse; occasional larger initials (cf. sigs. C3r, F8r, F8v, G1v, H5r); marginal glosses in red ink, with small red and blue initials throughout. Contemporary signatures in red ink and catchwords in black ink. Annotations: Early MS to sig. A3r: Our English poet. Later MS to sig. A3r: Occleve’s
Complaint. MS at foot of sig. A3r: Phillipps MS 8267. A line missed by the original scribe has been added in a mid-fifteenth-century hand to sig. G4v. Ruled to form a text frame; pricking visible. Leaf size: 277 x 186 mm; text frame: 186 x 104 mm.


Referenced in: Private pleasures : illuminated manuscripts from Persia to Paris: the collection of Denys Spittle (Cambridge : Fitzwilliam Museum, [2007]) pp. 52-53. Potten, Edward, 'From Byzantium to Alberto Sangorski: Treasures from the Thomas Edward Watson Collection at the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds', The Book Collector, Autumn 2023, pp. 1-16 (pp. 8-10).

Features

Thirteenth-century wooden boards, sewn onto six double bands; original leather cover now wanting; the boards have been covered in the late eighteenth century with a series of blue printed paper wrappers originally used to wrap individual parts of a subscriber's copy of an edition of c.1790 of John Fleetwood’s 'The Life of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ', issued by the printer Alexander Hogg under the title 'The New and Complete Life of our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ' (for the Fleetwood edition see: English Short Title Catalogue T105808).

Provenance

Provenance: Sixteenth-century MS to sig. E4r: John Robbye a verye knave. Fifteenth- or sixteenth-century MSS to final blank flyleaf: John Robynsun hath; Dompnus fr[atr]is Thome Browne; Jhon wauker [i.e Walker?] ys a knave [...] syc dicit Robertus (?). The name gybbis (Gibbs?) is also repeated several times, alongside the word ‘Frater’. Seventeenth-century MS to sig. G6v: eastr pawson book [i.e.: Esther Pawson]. From the library of Richard Heber (1773-1833), sold as lot 1163 in: 'Bibliotheca Heberiana … February 10th ... 1836' ([London]: [R H Evans] 1836), there acquired by Thorpe for Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872) for £14. Listed in the catalogue of Sir Thomas Phillipps’ library: 'Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum in Bibliotheca d. Thomæ Phillipps, Bart.', no. 8267. Armorial bookplate on front pastedown: Thomas Edward Watson St. Mary's Lodge Newport Mon. [i.e.: Sir Thomas Edward Watson (1851-1921)], thence Sir Geoffrey Watson (1897-1961), Daphne Southwell [Watson]
(1907-1998); Stanley Denys Trevor Spittle (1920–2003). Accepted in lieu of Estate Duty by H M Government and allocated to Special Collections & Galleries at the University of Leeds Libraries, 2022.

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