{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Binding", "value": "

Brown leather over wooden boards with five raised bands on the spine, with a gold-stamped title \"Devotiones\" and classmark \"Ii.6.43\", by W.H. Smith and Son, at London in November 1958 (see the inscription on the front pastedown<\/a>).<\/p>

Binding height: 125mm; width: 90mm; depth: 35mm.<\/p>

There are marks of what may have been a chain staple attached to a previous binding on the lower edges of ff. i-2<\/a>.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "

Sir Thomas Knyvett (1539-1618): Knyvett's shelfmark is inscribed on f. 159v<\/a> (with off-set on f. 160v<\/a>): \"Sed. 64\". Not identified in McKitterick (1978), p. 164 (MS 64).<\/p>

Thomas Knyvett (1596-1658): grandson of Sir Thomas Knyvett 1539-1618, inherited this manuscript together with Knyvett's collection. See McKitterick (1978), pp. 33-34..<\/p>

John Knyvett (1623-1673): great-grandson of Sir Thomas Knyvett 1539-1618 and son of Thomas Knyvett (1596-1658), inherited this manuscript together with Knyvett's collection. See McKitterick (1978), p. 36 .<\/p>

Thomas Knyvett (d. 1693): great-great-grandson of Sir Thomas Knyvett 1539-1618 and son of John Knyvett (1623-1673), inherited this manuscript together with Knyvett's collection. Thomas died without heir and the Knyvett library was fragmented after his death: 57 of Knyvett's manuscripts had been acquired by John Moore [see below] by 1698. See McKitterick (1978), p. 37.<\/p>

John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Ely: no. 199 (also inscribed in the manuscript on f. 1r<\/a> and f. 2v<\/a>) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ<\/i> (c. 1697).<\/p>" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Codex: ii + 3 + 144 | 15 + ii leaves." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "Wellcome" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

This devotional manuscript is a composite volume that consists of two parts. Although both parts were produced separately from one and another, it is likely that the second part was copied with a view to complement the first part.<\/p>

The manuscript's first part (ff. 3r-145v<\/a>) begins with a collection of catechetical teachings in Middle English prose (ff. 3r-18v<\/a>) and is followed by a large collection of devotional instructions and prayers in Middle English and Latin prose and verse (ff. 19r-143r<\/a>). This part was copied by seven scribes. While Margaret Connolly (2009) dates the manuscript broadly to the 15th century, Ann Eljenholm Nichols (2014) dates it to c. 1425.<\/p>

The manuscript's second part (ff. 146r-157v<\/a>) contains prayers and protective amulets in English and Latin and medical recipes in English. The texts were copied by two scribes probably in the late 15th or early 16th century.<\/p>

The first part contains a unique Middle English visionary account about a nun from Hampole Priory, West Yorkshire, who is visited by the soul of her brother, a knight who had died after he had been mortally wounded in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 (ff. 80v-81v<\/a>). In the vision, her brother gives her a letter on which are written six psalms and prayers with which she can save him from Purgatory if she performs them for his soul for twenty consecutive days. Although scholars have previously considered this work an authentic text from Hampole Priory (see Harley (1989) and Connolly (2010)), near-identical 15th-century texts in Middle Dutch and Middle German prayer books suggest that it is a translation of a Continental exemplum instead. Since none of the Continental versions situate the events of the vision at Hampole Priory or even in England, it appears that the English translator reworked the narrative specifically to promote the nunnery\u2019s intercessory prayers among potential lay benefactors (Drieshen (2022)).<\/p>

Dr Clarck Drieshen
Project Cataloguer
Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries<\/p>" }, { "label": "Former Owner(s)", "value": "Knyvett, Thomas Sir, 1539-1618; Knyvett, Thomas, 1596-1658; Knyvett, John, 1623-1673; Knyvett, Thomas, d. 1693; Moore, John, 1646-1714" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Devotions" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries" }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "

This collation deviates from the collations given in unpublished descriptions by H.L. Pink and M.R. James, who consider Quire 4 a quinternion with one leaf (the 10th leaf, according to Pink) cancelled. However, the fact that Quire 4's second leaf features the signature \"1d\", suggests that the quire is a quaternion with an added leaf at the beginning.<\/p>