A fine illuminated manuscript of the Myrrour of the Blessed Lyf of Jesu Christ, a translation by Nicholas Love of Pseudo-Bonaventura's Meditationes vitae Christi.
Contents: Myrrour of the Blessed Lyf of Jesu Christ, a translation by Nicholas Love of the Meditationes vitae Christi. Edition of Lawrence F. Powell, (1908): see Bibliography below. The text begins imperfectly 'and euery age an euery dignite' (Powell, p. 8 line 5) and ends on f. 136v, 'with outen endinge amen' (as Powell), after which it continues on f. 137 with two paragraphs, 'And for als moche as þat blessid and worthy feste of þe precious sacrament... of alle false lollardes. Thus endith the contemplacion... nowe and euere wt outen ende Amen', and on f. 137r and v in red ink, 'Memorandum quod circa annum... (as in MS. 94, f. 2) Explicit speculum vite cristi conplete'. In the second of the two paragraphs on f. 137 the reader is advised to pick and choose as suits him rather than keep to the Monday-Sunday divisions of the text.
A leaf is missing after f. 90v, which ends 'grace inwardly' (Powell, p. 214 line 7); f. 91 begins 'the fairest the wisest' (p. 216 line 28). A further leaf is missing after f. 126v, which ends 'of þe holy' (p. 299 line 5); f. 127 begins 'haue mynde of' (p. 302 line 13). ff. 138-140v were left blank.
Script: Gothic cursive anglicana formata. Written space: 188 x 130 mm. 2 columns, 35 lines.
Secundo folio: n/a (the first quire is lacking the first and second leaves).
Decoration: There are good 5-line initials in blue and pink with white penwork on a burnished gold ground with elaborate floral infill and elaborate foliate border extensions terminating in acanthus, ivy and holly leaves and bezants, at the beginning of the sections for Tuesday (f. 26r), Wednesday (f. 37v) and Thursday (f. 56r). Numerous 3-line gilded initials on blue and pink grounds with foliate extensions.
Other features: In the blank spaces on ff. 137v-138 are recorded the births of the children of Thomas Roberts of Willesden, Middlesex (d. 1 January 1542); Alan Horde of Ewell, Surrey (d. 16 August 1553); and Edmund Horde; 16th-century legal hands.
Description derived from N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 416. By permission of Oxford University Press.