IN THE OPPOSITE, OR NORTH, WING.
A large glass case containing a series of MSS. executed by English scribes, arranged chronologically, so as to exhibit the progress and development of the arts of caligraphy and illuminating in England.
This case was added by the present Librarian three or four years ago. The following are its contents:—
1. King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of the treatise De cura pastorali of Pope Gregory the Great, being the copy sent by the King to Werfrith, Bishop of Worcester.
Given by Lord Hatton; see p. [100].
2. A beautiful Latin Psalter of the tenth century, written in Anglo-Saxon characters, with an interlinear translation, and decorated with grotesque initial letters.
Junius MS. 37. The volume is frequently called Codex Vossianus, from its having been in the possession of Isaac Voss, who gave it to Junius. Facsimiles are given by Professor Westwood, in his Palæographia Sacra, and in his new and splendid book of Fac-similes of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS[381].
3. The Four Gospels, in Latin, written in Anglo-Saxon characters, about the beginning of the eleventh century.
Noticed in Westwood's Miniatures, &c. (ut supra), p. 123.
It appears to have belonged to the abbey at Barking, a gift of tithes at Laleseie, by Adam, son of Leomar de Cochefeld, being entered on a leaf at the end by order of the abbess Ælfgiva. Now numbered Bodl. 155.
4. The famous Anglo-Saxon metrical paraphrase of parts of Genesis, Exodus, Daniel, &c. by Cædmon[382]; illustrated, as far as Abraham's journey into Egypt, with a very curious series of drawings.
The MS. is considered to have been written about A.D. 1000. The latest description of the volume is in Westwood's magnificent book of Fac-similes. See p. [102].
5. The Psalter, Canticles, &c., in Latin, with a Calendar; written in the first half of the eleventh century.
Noticed in Westwood's Miniatures and Ornaments, &c., p. 122. Douce, 296.
6. A twelfth-century volume containing, besides various historical works, a Bestiary, or Natural History of Beasts, illustrated with very curious drawings.
Given by Archbp. Laud.
7. A Bestiary of the beginning of the thirteenth century, enriched with many very curious paintings upon a ground of brilliant gold.
Ashmole, 1511.
8. Another Bestiary, of slightly later date, illuminated in the same manner.
Bodl. 764.
9. The Apocalypse, illustrated in a series of very curious drawings, lightly coloured. Executed about 1250.
These illuminations have been pronounced by Mr. Coxe, to be, with little or no doubt, executed by the same hand as those of MS. Ee. III. 59. in the University Library, Cambridge, a volume which contains a Life of Edward the Confessor, in French verse, and which was printed in 1858, under the editorship of H. R. Luard, M.A., in the series of Chronicles published under the authority of the Master of the Rolls. In this Life is found a particular description of Westminster Abbey, which is not elsewhere met with, and it is consequently inferred that the writer was a monk of that church. And in the course of the restorations which are now being carried on in the Chapter House (which was built about 1250), a series of mural paintings, illustrating the history of St. John, has been brought to light, one of which is a representation similar to that in the Bodley MS. of St. John 'ante portam Latinam,' and in both cases the cauldron bears the same inscription of 'Dolium ferventis olei.'
10. A Primer, written about the middle of the fourteenth century.
The arms of Edw. III (England 1 and 4, France 2 and 3) are painted on the first leaf. One of Rawlinson's MSS.
11. A beautiful Psalter, which belonged to Peterborough Cathedral.
'Psalterium fratris Walteri de Rouceby,' followed by the Canticles, Athanasian Creed, Litany, &c. A Calendar is prefixed, with Peterborough obits, from which it appears that Rouceby died May 4, 1341. A series of nineteen miniatures, illustrating the life of our Blessed Lord and of the Virgin Mary, precedes the Psalter. The arms of Edward III appear at the head of Ps. i. One of Bp. Barlow's MSS.; in 1604 it belonged to one John Harborne.
12. A Psalter, with Canticles, Hymns, &c., written in the latter half of the fourteenth century.
Apparently one of Rawlinson's MSS.
13. 'Ye Dreme of Pilgrimage of ye Soule, translated out of French [of G. Guilevile] into Inglissh, with somwhat of addicions of ye translatour, ye zeere of our Lord, 1400.' Illustrated with curious coloured drawings.
A precursor of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, with which it has been compared. It was printed by Caxton in 1483, and his edition was reprinted in 1859.
This MS. was given to the Library, apparently in Bodley's time, by Sir James Lee, Knt.
14. Commentary on the Passion of our B. Lord ('Scripta super totam
Passionem Christi a quatuor Evangelistis formatam'), by Michael de Massa, of the order of Augustinian Hermits.
Written (as a final colophon records) by Ralph de Medyltone at Ingham (Suffolk?), A.D. 1405, for Sir Miles de Stapiltone. A drawing of the Crucifixion at the beginning. Bodl. MS. 758.
15. 'The Mirroure of the Worlde, that some calleth Vice and Vertu;' translated from the Latin of Laurence the Frenchman (Laur. Gallus), and illustrated with some drawings of remarkable grace and spirit, supposed to be by some Flemish artist.
A MS. of the early part of the fifteenth century; on paper. Bodl. 283.
16. Horæ, formerly in the possession of Queen Mary I. See p. [42].
17. Treatise of Roger Bacon, 'de retardacione accidentium senectutis;' with two drawings. Middle of the fifteenth century. Bodl. MS. 211.
18. An English astrological Calendar, in six divisions, folded for the pocket; written in the latter half of the fourteenth century.
Extremely curious; contains prognostications of the weather, fatality of the seasons, &c., accompanied with innumerable figures of saints, illustrations of prognostics, the symbols found on the Runic Clog-Almanacks, the occupations of the several months, the signs of the Zodiac, and two quaint figures respectively labelled 'Harry ye Haywarde' with his dog 'Talbat,' and 'Peris ye Pyndare.' Formerly kept in a tin box. It contains the following note by T. Hearne: 'Oct. 17, 1719. This strange odd book (upon which I set a very great value, having never seen the like) was given me by the Rt. Reverend Father in God William [Fleetwood] Lord Bishop of Ely, to whom I am oblig'd upon many other accounts.'
19. An Historical Roll, upwards of thirteen feet long, showing the descent of the English Kings, from the expedition of Jason in search of the Golden Fleece to the accession of Edward I (1272). Formerly belonging to the Abbey of St. Mary at York.
Illustrated with representations of various scenes up to the landing of Brute in the Isle of Wight, and thenceforward with portraits of the monarchs.
20. Map of the Holy Land, on a paper roll, nearly seven feet long; written, apparently, in the first half of the fifteenth century.
In the Douce collection. Engraved in facsimile during the past year, 1867, for the Roxburghe Club, to illustrate the Itineraries of William Wey, which were edited by Rev. G. Williams, B.D., for the same Club, from Bodl. MS. 565, in 1857. The Map in many points agrees very closely with the latter, but contains also some discrepancies, and is somewhat earlier in date.
21. A Psalter, with the usual Canticles, Litany, &c.; written about the middle of the fourteenth century.
This magnificent volume was given by Robert de Ormesby, a monk of Norwich, to the choir of the Cathedral Church, 'ad jacendum coram Suppriore qui pro tempore fuerit inperpetuum.' It is illustrated with illuminations most beautifully executed,
but, at the same time, containing the most grotesque and profanely inappropriate figures, resembling those sometimes found on the Misereres of collegiate churches. It is bound in a large covering of sheepskin, which by overlapping the volume has no doubt greatly contributed to preserve its freshness and beauty of condition. A facsimile from one page is to be found in Shaw's Illuminated Ornaments, 1833, with a description by Sir F. Madden. It belongs to the Douce collection.
In a separate glass case adjoining the preceding (in which was formerly exhibited a fine specimen of the typography of the Royal Press at Berlin, in a German Bible given by the King of Prussia) is now displayed a fine Bible printed at Glasgow in 1862, in two folio volumes, and illustrated with very beautiful photographs by Frith, which was called the Queen's Bible from its being dedicated by permission to Her Majesty.
In a glass case in the adjoining window is a German Bible, printed in 1541, with texts on the fly-leaves in the handwriting of Luther and Melanchthon, whose signatures, although much defaced by some possessor, are still very legible. See p. [245].