Corpus Christi College : Text on royal governance, and pseudo-Augustine, De XII abusiuis saeculi (excerpt)

Corpus Christi College

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 412 (hereafter CCCC MS 412) came to Corpus Christi College Cambridge as part of the donation of printed books and manuscripts made in 1574 by Matthew Parker (1504-1575), archbishop of Canterbury. The core part of CCCC MS 412 comprises 77 leaves (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(15);return false;'>1r-77v</a>) of instructional Latin literature. Folios <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(15);return false;'>1r-77r</a> bear a copy of an anonymous text sometimes attributed to Durand de Champagne known as <i>De informatione principum</i>. This is followed on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(167);return false;'>77r-77v</a> by a short extract from pseudo-Augustine's <i>De duodecim abusionum gradibus</i> known as <i>De XII abusiuis saeculi</i>. CCCC MS 412 is a composite volume and it is possible that folios <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>i-iv</a> and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(169);return false;'>v-viii</a> were already bound with folios 1-77 at the time of Parker's gift to Corpus Christi College, since a partially erased medieval signiature with a distinctive flourish on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(175);return false;'>viii recto</a> also appears in simplified form on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(168);return false;'>77v</a>. However, the signator is unidentified and undated and so this may reflect a change to the structure of the volume that postdates Parker's donation. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The first four medieval endleaves in the volume (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>i-iv</a>) contain the <i>Articuli Cleri</i> enacted in 1316, followed by some brief legal notes on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(14);return false;'>iv verso</a>; both were copied in the same hand and the legal notes are signed by an Edmund Poplay, who mentioned a connection to an unspecified university ('studia quindecim annorum que habuit in hac uniuersitate in facultate arcium') and recorded the date of a legal action as 12 June 1489 ('Hec gracia concessa et confirmata est anno domini millesimo cccc^o lxxxxix mensia Jun. xii^mo'). The biographical information that Poplay recorded in his notes on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(14);return false;'>iv verso</a> allows him to be identified as the Edmund Poplay (Popley) of the Diocese of York, who was ordained as a deacon in 1484 and was Principal of Beef Hall in Oxford c. 1496-1497. There is no codicological evidence for or against the union of Parts 1 and 2 in 1489 (Poplay's notes in Part 1 and <i>De informatione principum</i> in Part 2), so it is not possible to determine if Poplay was the owner of ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(15);return false;'>1r-77v</a>, or if their composite arrangement occured later. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Sarah Gilbert<br /> Project Cataloguer<br /> Curious Cures Project, Cambridge University Library</p>