University of Pennsylvania, Oversize Ms. Codex 198
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Metadata
- DS ID:
- DS1450
- Shelfmark:
- Oversize Ms. Codex 198
- Title:
- A Myrour to lewde men and wymmen.
- Place:
- England
- Date:
- [between 1400 and 1450]
- Language:
- Middle English, with some Latin notations
- Physical Description:
- Extent: 167 leaves : parchment, color illustrations ; 261 x 183 (177 x 95) bound to 270 x 200 mm
- Former Owner(s):
- Betham, William, Sir, 1779-1853
Newcastle, Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham Clinton, Duke of, 1785-1851
Newcastle, Henry Pelham-Clinton, Duke of, 1864-1928
- Note:
- Layout: Written in 30 long lines; ruled in ink.
Manuscript is fragile, with evidence of earlier repairs, in some places the ink has faded somewhat.
Title is taken from folio 1v, "...and may be cleped a myrour to lewed men and wymen in whiche þei may see God." Note regarding the title on [ii]v is in a later hand.
Foliation: Parchment, iii (modern paper) + 167 + iii (modern paper); [1-167]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto; leaf between f. 136 and f. 137 has been cut out.
Ms. codex.
Origin: Written in England in the first half of the 15th century (Stover); date 1544 appears in a marginal note, f. 167v.
Decoration: Illuminated border on f. 1r in blue, magenta, green, and gold; with 91 illuminated initials in blue, gold, and magenta throughout text; also illustrated with 11 delicate pen-and-ink drawings in the margin, depicting seven eyes opposite the seven "cleer sightes" for attaining the virtue of equity (f. 48r-v), a moneybag for avarice (f. 62r), a fish being hooked (f. 95r), and a worm...
Binding: 18th-century calf, with paper endleaves contemporary with the binding, three in front and three in back. Spine has been rebacked and boards reattached.
Script: Written in an Anglicana script, in a single hand. Some additional marginal notes are in 17th- to 19th-century hands.
Appears in Thomas Thorpe's 1830 catalog, no. 13952, and 1832 catalog, no. 831.
Sold by Chas. J. Sawyer Ltd. (London), 1949.
Formerly owned by Sir William Betham; sold at auction as part of his library by R. H. Evans in 1830, lot 441, to Thomas Thorpe.
Sold at auction in the third portion of the Clumber library of the late seventh Duke of Newcastle at Sotheby's, 6 Dec. 1937, lot 957, to a representative for Chas. J. Sawyer Ltd. (inscription in Rosenbach copy of sale catalog).
Probably purchased by Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham Clinton, fourth Duke of Newcastle, in the 19th century, for his library at Clumber in Worksop (preface to Sotheby's catalog of the first portion of the sale of the library of the seventh Duke of Newcastle); owned by the dukes of Newcastle through Henry Pelham-Clinton, seventh Duke of Newcastle. - Keyword:
- Institutional Record:
- https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9924864283503681
- IIIF Manifest:
- https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/phalt/iiif/2/81431-p31z41v03/manifest
- Holding Institution:
