CLOSED TODAY

Tickets

Manuscripts

Piers Plowman : [manuscript]

1 of 232
Description
ff. 1-106v; ff. 107-108v blank. [William Langland] Piers Plowman. Incipit: In a somer sesoun whan softe was þe sonne/ y shope me into shroudes as y a shep were. Explicit: And seende me hap and hele til y haue Peres plouhman/ And sethe he gradde aftur grace tyl y gan awake. English. IMEV 1459; C text, i group; ff. 60 and 61 reversed in binding. R. W. Chambers, "The Manuscripts of Piers Plowman in the Huntington Library and their Value for Fixing the Text of the Poem," HLB 8 (1935) 1-25; Piers Plowman: The Huntington Library MX (HM 143) reproduced in Photostat with Introduction by R. W. Chambers and Technical Examination by R. B. Haselden and H. C. Schulz (Huntington Library 1936); D. Pearsall, ed., Piers Plowman by William Langland: An Edition of the C-text (London 1978) from this manuscript with variant readings from others. ff. ii-iii verso. [Geoffrey Chaucer] Troilus and Criseyde. Incipit: //So whan thys Calkas knewe by kalkulynge/ And eke by onswere of this Appollo. Explicit: Of other sekenesse lest men of hym wende/ That the hoote fir of loue hym brende//. English. Two non-continuous leaves representing leaves 2 and 7 of a gathering of 8 leaves of a lost manuscript, and containing 20 stanzas: f. ii recto-verso: //So whan thys Calkas knewe by kalkulynge/ And eke by onswere of this Appollo . . . And under efte gan hem whielen bothe/ After hire cours ay whil that they were wrothe//; f. iii recto-verso: // And to the god of loue thus sayde he/ With pitous vois o lord now youres is . . . Of other sekenesse lest men of hym wende/ That the hoote fir of loue hym brende//. IMEV 3327; R. K. Root, ed., The Book of Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer (Princeton 1926) 1:71-140 and 1:421-490; M. B. Parkes and R. Beadle, Geoffrey Chaucer, Poetical Works: a facsimile of Cambridge University Library MS Gg.4.27 (Cambridge 1980-81) 3:65 note 94 referring to this manuscript. Assigned Date: s. XVin.
Type
Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date
[between 1385 and 1415]
Call number
mssHM 143
Creator
Langland, William (1330?-1400?)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance
Written at the end of the fourteenth century in England, and localizable by its dialect to southwestern Worcestershire (Malvern Wells or Upton area). A fifteenth-century owner recopied the first 4 lines of the poem on f. 108; another wrote on f. 107v: "Ihesu ihesu ihesu for thyn holy name to be me ihesus." "Dan John redbery," s. XV/XVI, signed his name on f. 108; another early owner, s. XVI or XVII, John Russell signs his name with a monogram flourish on f. i verso and f. 107v. Belonged to the Sotheby family by the late seventeenth century; signature of James Sotheby (d. 1720) on f. ii and on f. 1; on f. ii the numbers "Y666" (or D666?) and "80." Armorial bookplate of C. W. H. Sotheby on the front pastedown; Col. H. G. Sotheby sale, Sotheby's, 24 July 1924, lot 129 with plate of f. 1 to A. S. W. Rosenbach. Acquired by Henry E. Huntington in 1924.
Restrictions
RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time.
Dimensions
189 x 253 mm
Associated people
Chaucer, Geoffrey, (-1400.)
Associated organization
Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Find out more
View in the Huntington Digital Library(Opens in new tab)
View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

You might also be interested in

  • Image not available

    Piers Plowman : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    ff. 1-89v. [William Langland] Piers Plowman. Incipit: In a somere seyson whan softe was þe sonne/ y shop into shrobbis as y shepherde were. Explicit: And sende me hap and hele til ich haue peers ploughman/ And suthe he gradde after grace til ich gan awake. Hic explicit passus secundus de dobest. Explicit peeres plouheman scriptum per Thomam Dankastre. Rubric: Hic incipit Visio Willelmi de petro ploughman. English. IMEV 1459; C text, p group; see R. W. Chambers, "The Manuscripts of Piers Plowman in the Huntington Library and their Value for Fixing the Text of the Poem," HLB 8 (1935) 1-25; J. A. W. Bennett, "A New Collation of a Piers Plowman Manuscript (HM 137)," Medium Aevum 17 (1948) 21-31; T. D. Whitaker, ed., Visio Willi de Petro Plouhman (London 1813) from this manuscript; W. W. Skeat, ed., The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman by William Langland. EETS os 54 (London 1873) with this manuscript as the base text, described on pp. xix-xxiv; D. Pearsall, ed., Piers Plowman by William Langland: An Edition of the C-Text (London 1978) using HM 143 as the base manuscript.

    mssHM 137

  • [Piers Plowman; Mandeville; Troilus; etc., middle of the 15th century]

    [Piers Plowman; Mandeville; Troilus; etc., middle of the 15th century]

    Manuscripts

    Collection of Middle English texts, comprised of Langland's Piers Plowman in the B-text with substantial readings from A and C; a defective version, subgroup B, of Mandeville's Travels; the Middle English poem Susannah; "The legend of the Three Kings" an excerpt from John of Hildesheim's Historia Trium Regum; Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde; and a translation of Peter Ceffons' Epistola Luciferi ad Cleros.

    mssHM 114

  • The clergy may not hold property : [manuscript]

    The clergy may not hold property : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    ff. 1-129. [The Clergy may not hold Property]. Incipit: Almiti god þe trinite fadir & sone & hooli goost boþe in þe oolde lawe & in þe newe haþ foundid his chirche vpon þre staatis. Explicit: þat wiþouten autorite of þe fadir of heuene ben plauntid in þe chirche: leste þou be disceyued bi her fals signes. Amen amen so mot it be. Deo Gracias. Rubric: In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti amen. Omnis plantacio quam non plantavit pater meus celestis eradicabitur Mat. XV. English. F. D. Matthew, ed., "The Clergy May Not Hold Property" in The English Works of Wyclif. EETS os 74 (London 1880) 359-404, from the "tract version" of London, Lambeth Palace 551. Here in the form of an extended sermon, also found in London, Brit. Lib., Egerton 2820, Cambridge University Library, Dd. 14.30(2) and Ff.6.2, a portion of which is printed by A. Hudson, ed., "Mendicancy" in Selections from English Wycliffite Writings (Cambridge 1978) 93-96, collating HM 503, ff. 109v-122v. Six leaves missing with loss of text after ff. 71, 79, 89 (2 leaves missing), 91, 116. f. 129v. [Love poem]. Incipit: Sche þat y loue alleþermoost & loþist to begile. Explicit: & y lay louesik in my bed y bed non oþer leche. English. IMEV 3098.5, the 6 lines here written as prose. R. L. Greene, "A Middle English Love Poem and the 'O-and-I' Refrain-phrase," Medium Aevum 30 (1961) 170-75. These verses added, s. XVmed/ex.

    mssHM 503

  • Northern homily cycle : [manuscript]

    Northern homily cycle : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    ff. 1-231v. [Northern homily cycle]. Incipit: //Narracio, A blak monk of an abby. Explicit: And vs and ham to blys lede. Amen./ Amen Amen I rede we syng/ For þare is Ioy without endyng/ Explicit/ þis boke wrot [end of line erased; in the 1930s tentatively read with the aid of a reagent:"William Thame"; now completely illegible]/ God kepe hym fro syn and schame/ And gyff hym þe grace so to spede/ þat he may haue heuyn to his mede/ I pray ȝow þat hyt may so be/ For hym say a pater noster and a Aue/ Celi regina sit scriptory medicina/ [2 lines erased]. English. Unexpanded version of the Northern Homily Cycle; see J. Small, English Metrical Homilies (Edinburgh 1862), M. Corbett,"An East-Midland Revision of the Northern Homily Cycle," Manuscripta 26 (1982) 100-07, and, for the expanded text, S. Nevanlinna, The Northern Homily Cycle: The Expanded Version in MSS Harley 4196 and Cotton Tiberius E. vii; I: from Advent to Septuagesima. Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki 38 (1972). Text here beginning defectively: ff. 1-202, Temporale from the third Sunday of Advent through the 25th Sunday after Trinity; ff. 202v-231, Sanctorale.

    mssHM 129

  • [Prose and poetry]: manuscript, [between 1475 and 1500]

    [Prose and poetry]: manuscript, [between 1475 and 1500]

    Manuscripts

    Poems and prose by Geoffrey Chaucer, John Lydgate and others. See Digital Scriptorium for full description.

    mssHM 140

  • Arma Christi roll : [manuscript]

    Arma Christi roll : [manuscript]

    Manuscripts

    [Arma Christi]: Incipit: The vernacul y honowr hym & the/ that the made thrugh his preute ... Explicit: and lest schall without hend/ Ihesu crist vs þethere send Amen.

    mssHM 26054