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Detailed record for Royal 1 C VIII
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| Part 1 |
ff. 1-372v |
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| Title |
Wycliffite Bible, in the later version |
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| Origin |
England, S. E. (London?) |
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| Date |
1st quarter of the 15th century |
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| Language |
England |
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| Script |
Gothic |
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| Decoration |
1 miniature of John writing his Gospel, at the beginning of John (f. 325v). Foliate initials in rose and blue on gold grounds, with full or partial borders with foliate, vine, and interlace decoration, at the beginning of some biblical books (ff. 2, 62v, 139, 79, 118v, 139, 147, 158, 167, 300, 309, 315, 325v, 333, 353v, 363v, 367v). 'Champ' initials in gold, blue, and rose, with penwork extensions with flowers and vines, at the beginning of other biblical books. Small initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
380 x 250 (280 x 185), in two columns |
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| Part 2 |
f. 1-1v |
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| Author |
John Purvey |
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| Title |
Prologue to the Wycliffite Bible, in the later version (imperfect) |
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| Origin |
England |
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| Date |
c. 1485-1509 |
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| Language |
English |
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| Script |
Gothic |
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| Decoration |
1 initial in blue on gold ground, with a red rose, and a full border with red and white Tudor roses, acanthus leaves branches, the royal arms of England and the heraldic badge of the Beauforts. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
380 x 250 (250 x 170), in two columns |
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| Official foliation |
ff. 372 (+ 1 unfoliated medieval parchment leaf at the end, 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 1 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Fore-edge gauffered in trellis pattern. |
| Provenance |
Henry VII (b. 1457, d.1509), king of England and lord of Ireland: his arms (f. 1), with his mother's, Margaret Beaufort's (b. 1443, d.1509) heraldic badge, a portcullis with chains, which became his device.
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number partially erased: 'no...'; included in the list of book at the Richmond Palace of 1535, no. 19.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Includes the prologue by John Purvey, imperfect; the text starts 'Five and twenti bookis', and ends 'descendant in infernum viventes'.
Catchwords and bifolium signatures. Some pointing hands in the margins, sometimes with annotations (e.g., f. 265). |
| Select bibliography |
The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal Books, in the Earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his Followers, ed. by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, 4 vols (Oxford: University Press, 1850), I, pp. xxxv, xxxvi, xxxvii, xxxix-xl.
E. M. Thompson, Wycliffe Exhibition in the King’s Library (London: Clowes and Sons, 1884), no. 33.
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), I, p. 15.
Sven L. Fristedt, 'The Dating of the Earliest Manuscript of the Wycliffite Bible', Stockholm Studies in Modern Philology, New Series 1 (1960), 79-85 (pp. 79, 83, 85).
Sven L. Fristedt, The Wycliffe Bible, 2 vols (Stockhom: Almquist & Wiksell, 1953-1969, Part I: The Principal Problems Connected with Forshall and Madden's Edition, Stockholm Studies in English, 4, I, pp. 17, 19, pl. III.
Henry Hargreaves, 'The Vernacular Scriptures: The Wycliffite Versions', in The Cambridge History of the Bible, 2 vols, ed. by G. W. H. Lampe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), II: The West from the Fathers to the Reformation, pp. 387-415 (p. 388).
Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Richard III’s Books: Ideals and Reality in the Life and Library of a Medieval Prince (Stroud, Gloucestershire, Sutton, 1997), p. 45 n. 25.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues 7 (London: British Library, 2000), H1.19, pl. 6a.
James P. Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives, preface by David Starkey (London: British Library, 2004), pl. 37.
Mary Dove, The First English Bible: The Text and Context of the Wycliffite Versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 17, 44, 88, 91, 96, 106, 120, 127, 141, 149, 150, 155, 156, 165, 183, 186, 187, 199, 210, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 248-49, 250, 265, 266, fig. 6.
Kathleen L. Scott, Tradition and Innovation in Later Medieval English Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 38.
Kathleen L. Scott, 'Manuscripts for Henry VII, his Household and Family', in The Cambridge Illuminations: The Conference Papers, ed. by Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller, 2007), pp. 279-86 (p. 282). |
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Part 1
ff. 1-372v |
| Wycliffite Bible, in the later version |
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f. 2
Decorated initial with border |
f. 58
Pen-flourished initial |
f. 92
Pen-flourished initials |
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f. 154
Decorated initial |
f. 300
Foliate initial |
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Part 2
f. 1-1v |
| John Purvey Prologue to the Wycliffite Bible, in the later version (imperfect) |
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f. 1
Decorated initial with full border and royal arms |
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