Chapter C: CORPUS CHRISTI COLL., OXF. 67 (Bern. Cat. i. 2. 1534). Confessio

Amantis_ with ‘Explicit’ (four lines), ‘Quam cinxere,’ and ‘Quia vnusquisque,’ after which ‘Deo Gracias.’ Parchment, large folio, ff. 209, of which three blank, in quires of 8 with catchwords: written in double column in a good hand of first quarter fifteenth cent. Latin summaries in text (red). Pages with complete borders at beginning of books (except Lib. i), and two very fair miniatures, f. 4 v^o Nebuchadnezzar’s Image, f. 9 v^o the Confession (priest laying stole on youthful penitent’s head). The book has lost four leaves, the second of the first quire (Prol. 144-301), the last of the 22nd and first of the 23rd (vii. 3137-3416), and the first of the 26th (viii. 1569-1727).

We find on the last leaf in a hand perhaps as early as the fifteenth cent. ‘Liber partinet Thomam Crispe Ciuem et Mercerium Londiniarum,’ and on the flyleaf at the beginning a device containing the same name, and also A. Crispe, F. Crispe, W. Rawson, Anne Rawson. ‘Augusten Crispe me Iure tenet’ is written on the first leaf of the text, and also ‘Liber Willelmi Rawson A^o. Dni 1580.’ Finally, ‘Liber C. C. C. Oxon. 1676.’ The device referred to above appears also in the decoration of the book both at the beginning and the end, but the manuscript must have been written much earlier than the time of Thomas Crispe.

This is a good copy of the unrevised group, having some
connexion, as we have seen above, with E, but less good
in spelling, especially as regards final _e_. For special
connexion with B, see i. 2234, iv. 359, &c. CL go specially
together apparently in some places, as Prol. 937 f., i.
94, 161, 165, 433, 916, but not throughout. There are some
corrections by erasure of final e, and a line supplied by a
different hand, vi. 1028. No punctuation.

R. REG. 18. C. xxii, Brit. Museum. _Confessio Amantis_ with ‘Explicit’ (six lines), ‘Quam cinxere’ and ‘Quia vnusquisque.’ Parchment, ff. 206, 14¼ × 3¾ in., in eights with catchwords: double column of 44 lines, well written, first quarter fifteenth cent. Latin in text (red). Floreated border of first page with miniature of the Confession in the initial O; also a miniature on f. 4 v^o of the Image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (hill with stone to left of picture), and half borders at beginning of books, except Lib. i.

Two blanks cut away at the end, from one of which is set off ‘This boke appertayneth vnto the Right Honorable the Ladie Margaret Strange’ (presumably the same whose name appears in M). The binding has ‘Lady Mary Strainge.’

A very fair MS. of its class and almost absolutely typical, but
gives distinctively revised readings in a few passages, as ii.
925, iv. 1342, v. 3145, viii. 1621. Omits vii. 2889-2916 and
some of the Latin summaries. The words ‘pope’ and ‘papacie’
are regularly erased, see especially f. 47. Spelling and metre
fairly good: no punctuation.