Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Descriptions of Individual Manuscripts
- Manuscripts in the United Kingdom
- Manuscripts in Continental Europe
- Manuscripts in the United States of America
- Appendix I Summary List of Manuscripts, with date, lines missing, other contents and note of Macaulay’s classification; with Fragments (brief descriptions) and Extracts listed at the end
- Appendix II Manuscript Sigla used by Macaulay, in alphabetical order
- Appendix III Gower’s Latin Addenda to the Confessio and other pieces, not by Gower, that appear in Confessio Manuscripts
- Works Cited
- Index of Manuscripts
- General Index
- Volumes Already Published
- PlateSection
13 - London, British Library, MS Harley 3490
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Descriptions of Individual Manuscripts
- Manuscripts in the United Kingdom
- Manuscripts in Continental Europe
- Manuscripts in the United States of America
- Appendix I Summary List of Manuscripts, with date, lines missing, other contents and note of Macaulay’s classification; with Fragments (brief descriptions) and Extracts listed at the end
- Appendix II Manuscript Sigla used by Macaulay, in alphabetical order
- Appendix III Gower’s Latin Addenda to the Confessio and other pieces, not by Gower, that appear in Confessio Manuscripts
- Works Cited
- Index of Manuscripts
- General Index
- Volumes Already Published
- PlateSection
Summary
Confessio Amantis (lacks ending) preceded by the Speculum Religiosorum of Edmund of Abingdon
Oxford, 1450–60
Contents
1
(fols 1ra–6vb) The Speculum Religiosorum of Edmund of Abingdon (St Edmund of Abingdon, archbishop of Canterbury 1234–40, buried at Pontigny).
(After table of contents and chapter heading for first chapter:) Videte vocacionem vestram &c. Verbum hoc apostoli < > propter nostram dilectionem amari propter nostram humilitatem ad celos mereamur exaltari. | Amen.
Explicit Speculum beati Edmundi de pontiniaco.
Helen P. Forshaw, S.H.C.J. (ed.), Edmund of Abingdon, Speculum Religiosorum and Speculum Ecclesie, Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi, III (London, 1973). The Speculum, a treatise for religious on the spiritual life of prayer and contemplation, is an unexpected companion for the Confessio. It was written by the same scribe and decorated by the same artist as the Confessio, and presumably Sir Edmund Rede (see PROVENANCE, below) asked for it to be included. Forshaw (ed., Speculum, 4) suggests that the Speculum was ‘chosen to fill up the first gathering’.
Fol. 7 (last leaf of first quire) blank, except for later inscription (see ADDITIONS, below).
2
(fols 8ra–215vb) Confessio Amantis Prol. 1–VIII.3062*
Torpor hebes sensus scola parua minimusque [sic: ‘labor’ is omitted after ‘parua’], etc. (6 lines of Latin verse). Of hem that wryten vs before < > I haue it made for thilke same.
Prologue (fol. 8ra); Book I (fol. 13vb); Book II (fol. 33ra); Book III (fol. 54ra); Book IV (Latin, fol. 71ra, English, fol. 71rb); Book V (fol. 94vb); Book VI (fol. 146ra); Book VII (fol. 161va); Book VIII (Latin, fol. 196va, English, fol. 196vb) wants 3063*–3114*.
The text ends abruptly at VIII.3062*, two-thirds of the way down the first column of fol. 215v, without explicit or explanation. Some fifty-two lines are missing, presumably through loss of leaf in an exemplar, though the line with which the text concludes (with the commonly attested variant as]for) makes a satisfactory ending in itself.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Descriptive Catalogue of the English Manuscripts of John Gower's Confessio Amantis , pp. 100 - 109Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021