{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Origin", "value": "First quarter of the 15th century (after 1410). England.

Among the list of 'Rejected Manuscripts' in P.R. Robinson, Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge libraries<\/i> (1988), p. 108. The date of 1410 given in the colophon is the date of the completion of Walton's translation, so provides only a terminus ante quem non rather than a specific date of production. For further information on the author, see: Douglas Gray, 'Walton, John', Oxford DNB<\/i> (2004) [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28655<\/a>].<\/p>" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "England." }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "

'Anne Preston': name inscribed in plummet on f. 54r<\/a>, with shorter forms or trials also to be found on ff. 24r<\/a>, 33v<\/a>, 79v<\/a> and 96r<\/a>. Perhaps Anne Paget, née Preston (d. 1587), wife of William Paget (1506-1563), 1st Baron Paget.<\/p>

One of the manuscripts of Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), Master of Emmanuel College.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Codex: ii + 112 + ii leaves. Dimensions height: 265 mm, width: 170 mm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "First quarter of the 15th century (after 1410)." }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.18" }, { "label": "Note(s)", "value": "Without translator's preface.; Rubrics at the beginning and end of books, and chapter headings, written in Latin. Chapter openings are accompanied by usually marginal glosses that provide the incipit from the Latin text." }, { "label": "Additions", "value": "

'Omnium est enim artifex omnem habeus uirtutem omnia prospiciens': added in a formal script by a 15th-century hand to the lower margin of f. 79v<\/a>. A quotation from the Bible (Sap 7:21 and 7:23), also used as an introit verse for Spiritus domini<\/i> (see Innocent Smith, 'Pentecost and the Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit in early Dominican Mass books', in Bible missals and the medieval Dominican liturgy<\/i>, Manuscripta Biblica 12 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2023), p. 106). <\/p>

Marginal annotations by a late 15th- / early 16th-century reader (ff. 20v<\/a>, 33v<\/a>). See Summary for further discussion.<\/p>

Finely drawn manicules added by a reader, pointing to specific stanzas (see, for example, ff. 28v<\/a>, 35r<\/a>, 43v<\/a>, 50r<\/a>, 68v<\/a>, 75r<\/a>, 80v<\/a> and 97v<\/a>).<\/p>" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Philosophy, medieval; Literature, Medieval--Translations into English" }, { "label": "Associated Name(s)", "value": "Gray; Paget, Anne, née Preston (d. 1587)" }, { "label": "Format", "value": "Codex" }, { "label": "Data Source(s)", "value": "This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library<\/i> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press)." }, { "label": "Language(s)", "value": "Middle English, with some paratext written in Latin" }, { "label": "Author(s)", "value": "John Walton" }, { "label": "Binding", "value": "

Full speckled calf with blind-tooled rectangular panel (?17th-century, probably after 1664 - see Acquisition). <\/p>

Rebacked by Gray of Cambridge, 1961.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Script", "value": "

Copied by a single hand in Anglicana formata<\/i>, with choice and formation of some letterforms influenced by Secretary<\/i>.<\/p>

The hand is clear and uniform with sparse linking between individual letters. The most common ligatures are: cr, th, ti, te, ht, st, ss, ge, ga, fu. <\/p>

The minims are formed by separate, vertical strokes, characteristic of Anglicana formata. Anglicana letterforms include a slightly truncated long r<\/b> and 8-shaped g<\/b> (but see below), w<\/b> with bows, d<\/b> with looped ascender, the initial and final position sigma-shaped s<\/b>, the extension of the shaft of t<\/b> above the head stroke; and closed v<\/b> with looped left ascender. Secretary influence is visible in the consistent use of single compartment a<\/b>, 2-shaped and short r<\/b> and open-tailed g<\/b>. Spikiness of lobes is not pronounced.<\/p><\/div><\/div>" }, { "label": "Excerpts", "value": "

Final Rubric:<\/b> 112v<\/a>: Explicit liber Boecii de consolacione philosophie de latino in anglicum translatus Anno domini Millesimo CCCCmo<\/sup> Xmo<\/sup>. Per Capellam Iohannem<\/div>" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.18 is an early 15th-century Middle English verse translation of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae<\/i> by John Walton, Canon of Oseney. The manuscript contains the prologue and all five books, but with a number of gaps in the text. De Consolatione Philosophiae<\/i> was written by Boethius in the 6th century as a dialogue between himself and the allegorical figure of Lady Philosophy. The many translations of Boethius's work into vernacular languages - including into Old English by King Alfred in the late 9th century, and into Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century - are a testament to the text's popularity and influence in the Middle Ages.<\/p>

According to Thomas Tanner, in his Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica<\/i>, John Walton was commissioned to produce the translation by Elizabeth Berkeley, daughter of Lord Thomas Berkeley. There are nineteen extant manuscripts containing Walton's translation, including another at Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 3573). In his 1927 edition, Mark Science traces the genealogy of the then fourteen known medieval manuscripts of Walton's translation. Science refers to MS Gg.4.18 as 'C', and classifies it as part of the B group. By conducting a comparative reading of errors across the fourteen manuscripts, Science identifies B as the group of manuscripts closest to the original translation. Other manuscripts in this group include Oxford, New College, MS 319. <\/p>

This copy of Walton's translation is lightly glossed and annotated with conventional forms of marginalia, written by the scribe himself, including corrections and nota bene<\/i> marks. Rubrics at the beginning and end of each book are written in Latin: for example, 'Explicit prologus' and 'Incipit liber boecii de consolacione philosophie' on f. 3v<\/a>. So, too, are the headings that mark the beginning of passages of prose / 'prosa' or metre / 'metrum' in the Latin original (the Middle English translation being written in verse throughout). The Latin incipits are furthermore reproduced alongside these headings. There appears, then, to have been an expectation that readers would possess enough Latin literacy at least to understand simple markers relating to the text's structure, but potentially also to be reading the Middle English translation as an accompaniment to the Latin original. <\/p>

Other, readerly marginalia are present, including two expressions of subjective engagement with the text in Book Two during the later 15th or early 16th century. On f. 20v<\/a>, against the line 'Me semeth well suche wordes myght she say' in Book Two, Prosa Two, the reader has added the comment 'very good Readynge'. Later, on f. 33v<\/a>, in Book Two, Metrum Six, against the line 'Thys Nero did þat Rome on fayr set', the reader has noted: 'Reade agayne'. The direct reference to the act of reading, the use of the imperative verb form and the expression of an opinion indicates a reader who was actively engaged with the text. The instruction to 'Reade agayne' might have arisen as a result of the complex discussion at this point between Boethius and Lady Philosophy on the question of whether whether good fortune is the cause rather than the reward of wickedness.<\/p>

Anni Haahr Henriksen
St. Catharine's College, 2018
<\/p>

Revisions and additions by
Dr James Freeman
Medieval Manuscripts Specialist
Cambridge University Library (2024)<\/p>" }, { "label": "Former Owner(s)", "value": "Holdsworth, Richard, 1590-1649" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "De consolatione philosophiae" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "Anni Haahr Henriksen (February 2018), Dr James Freeman, Medieval Manuscripts Specialist, Cambridge University Library (March 2024)" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Parchment (FHHF<\/i>)" }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "