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
39 - Chicago, IL, Newberry Library, MS +33.5
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, with Latin addenda; begins at I.3305, twenty-two leaves missing in all; later books much disordered due to misbinding.
s.xv, second half.
Contents
1
(fols 1ra–110ra) Confessio Amantis, I.3305–VIII.3114*end
In [……..] eke also | Pride is the cause of all woe < > Oure Ioie may be endless
Prologue lost; Book I, beginning at fol. 1ra, has only 3305–3446end; Book II (fol. 1va); Book III (fol. 16ra); Book IV (fol. 27rb); Book V (fol. 41vb); Book VI (fol. 73ra) lacks four leaves after fol. 73, in quire xii, with loss of VI.264–1306; Book VII (fol. 93rb); Book VIII (fol. 91vb) lacks one leaf after fol. 103, in quire xvii, with loss of VIII.2566–2833. There is considerable confusion from Book V (quire xi) onwards, with leaves missing and many leaves displaced, the page-numbering meanwhile proceeding consecutively without regard to missing leaves or text (see Collation, under PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION, below). This explains, amongst other things, why Book VIII appears to precede Book VII.
Macaulay was able to inspect the MS when it was sent from Castle Howard for his use (ed., Works, II.cli). He gave it a sigil (Hd) but did not make a full collation. He noted some textual similarities with Bodleian, MS Laud 609, and assigned it to his recension Ic.
For further information about the following Latin and French addenda that Gower caused to be added to MSS of the Confessio, see Appendix III.
2
(fol. 110ra) ‘Explicit iste liber’
Explicit iste liber < > stet pagina grata Britannis (earlier four-line version)
Like rest of addenda, in black ink with red bracketing or
underlining.
Macaulay (ed.), Works, III.478.
3
(fol. 110ra) ‘Quam cinxere freta’
Quam cinxere freta < > quo gloria stat sine meta
Preceded by rubric beginning ‘Epistola super huius operis’
Macaulay (ed.), Works, III.479.
4
(fol. 110ra–rb) ‘Quia vnusquisque’
Quia vnusquisque < > specialiter sortitus est (the later version)
Macaulay (ed.), Works, III.479.
Illustration
No surviving illustration.
Decoration
Decorated initials for each book and for text-divisions within books are all alternating two-line red and blue initials, plain without flourishing.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Descriptive Catalogue of the English Manuscripts of John Gower's Confessio Amantis , pp. 273 - 277Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021