Confessio Amantis, a small paper MS.

London, mid-fifteenth century

Contents

(fols 1ra–167vb) Confessio Amantis, Prol. 1–VIII.1102

Prol. (fol. 1ra); Book I (fol. 7va) wants one leaf after fol. 7 (I.63–216); Book II (fol. 25ra); Book III (fol. 44ra); Book IV (fol. 59ra); Book V (fol. 79ra) wants two leaves after fol. 105 (V.5229–5594); Book VI (fol. 117vb); Book VII (fol. 131ra); Book VIII (fol. 161va) wants three leaves and at least a quire of eight after fol. 167 (VIII.1103–3114*).

One leaf lost, the last of quire i, after fol. 7, with I.63–216; the parchment leaf now numbered fol. 8 belongs to quire ii rather than quire i: it is slightly smaller than the paper leaves either side and thus not a match for fol. 1, and it bears the signature of ‘bj’ central in lower margin to match ‘b2’, ‘b3’, ‘b4’ and ‘b5’ on fols 9–12. However, fol. 8 is a singleton, the end of quire ii being marked by a catchword at fol. 16v, after the due eight leaves. Two leaves are lost after fol. 105 (not after fol. 116, as Macaulay states, followed in all subsequent descriptions), where the central bifolium of quire xiv is missing, with V.5229–5594. Just over 2000 lines are missing at the end of the poem after fol. 167 (VIII.1102–3114*), with loss of at least three leaves and one eight-leaf quire; the Latin last line (the first line of the accompanying Latin gloss) is scribbled over in both black and red.

Text collated by Macaulay (sigil Ar): recension Ic (Macaulay [ed.], Works, II.cli).

Illustration

None

Decoration

Decoration is quite simple, in blue and red, and incomplete. On fol. 1ra, the Prologue begins with an eight-line blue initial with red penwork flourishing. A blue letter with red flourishing of this sort marks the beginning of Books II (three-line), III (ten-line) and IV–VII (four-line), but Books I and VIII have only guide-letters for a one-line and a four-line initial respectively.