Mirror of the Life of Christ

A very imperfect copy of the Lyif of Christ, or Myrrour of the Blessed Lyf of Jesu Christ, a translation by Nicholas Love of Pseudo-Bonaventura's Meditationes vitae Christi, dating from the beginning of the 15th century. This manuscript begins in chapter 32 of the Life and ends in chapter 55, with ten leaves between these points also missing (Ker). Inserted are notes by J.J. Green, cuttings and correspondence relating to the manuscript, including letters to Green from Walter Skeat (1835-1912), philologist; Lawrence F. Powell (1881-1975), literary scholar and librarian; and Rendell Harris, 1891-1920.

Contents: Lyif of Christ, or 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 first words are in chapter 32, 'as þei diden we mowe' (Powell, p. 155 line 11), and the last are in chapter 55, 'medicine ayens swiche' (Powell, p. 274 line 12; f. 50 is damaged). The ten leaves missing between these points are equivalent to twenty pages of the Roxburghe Club edition: (1) f. 1v ends 'souereynly euer' (p. 157 line 21) and f. 2r begins 'of vertues' (p. 159 line 22); (2-4) f. 6v ends 'þer with þei' (p. 169 line 8) and f. 7r begins 'but wheþer' (p. 175 line 4); (5-6) f. 12v ends 'in þat preciowse' (p. 186 line 28) and f. 13r begins 'he cam nyh' (p. 190 line 22); (7) f. 24v ends 'and his preci', followed by the catchword 'owse blood' (p. 215 line 16) and f. 25r begins 'al his inward' (p. 217 line 23); (8) f. 44v ends 'of þin fowleste' (p. 256 line 18) and f. 45r begins 'but a litel' (p. 258 line 13); (9) f. 45v ends 'And so' (p. 260 line 11) and f. 46r begins 'restre. where þat' (p. 262 line 9); (10) f. 49v ends 'wiþ us in ma' (p. 270 line 12) and f. 50 begins 'and þe disciples' (p. 272 line 12).

Script: Gothic textura. Written space: 170 x 110 mm. 31 long lines. Ruling in red ink.

Secundo folio: as þei diden (f. 1r).

Decoration: 3-line initials in blue ink with red penwork flourishes on ff. 1r, 5r, 6v (obliterated), 10v, 11v, 14r, 16r, 30r, 32v, 34v, 37r, 38v, 40r, 41v, 43v, 48v, 50r, 50v (torn off); 2-line initials in blue ink with red penwork flourishes on ff. 22v, 26r, 28v, 47r.

Other features: The upper margins contain chapter numbers and running titles in red: ff. 1-24v, 'Die iouis'; ff. 25r-44v, 'Die ueneris'; f. 45r-v, 'Die sabbati'; ff. 46r-48v, 'Die dominica'.

Inserted among the preliminary leaves are letters to J.J. Green from Walter Skeat (1835-1912), philologist, 21 April 1891; (James) Rendel Harris, biblical scholar and palaeographer, 5 June 1908; and Lawrence F. Powell (1881-1975), literary scholar and librarian, 11 August 1911 and 19 December 1920. Green's own notes on the manuscript are on ff. iv, ii, vi-viiiv (dated 26-27 November 1920), and on ff. 51-2 (dated 2 December 1920).

Description derived from N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 426. By permission of Oxford University Press.

The Meditationes vitae Christi, or Meditation on the Life of Christ, was believed to have been written by the famous 13th-century Franciscan John Bonaventura but more recent scholarship has now attributed it to a little-known 14th-century Italian Franciscan, Johannes de Caulibus. A devotional life of Christ, intended to be used for meditation, the original work was immensely popular all over Europe and was rendered into the vernacular of most European countries. The text emphasises Christ's human nature, and the author frequently appeals to the reader's immediate experience to make the Biblical narrative more directly present. The overall structure of the work sets the meditation over the seven days of the week and apportioned at canonical hours of the day. The translation by Nicholas Love, Myrrour of the Blessed Lyf of Jesu Christ, saw some alteration of the Latin text for his early 15th-century audience, with his introduction making it clear that he was writing for a secular readership. He retained the structure but rearranged and abridged much of the material. He includes a paraphrase of Paul's Epistle to clarify his motives, and possibly protect himself from confusion with Lollard demands for access to Holy Scriptures without priestly control.

Little is know of Love himself, though it appears that he was the prior of Mount Grace, a Carthusian monastery in Yorkshire, as a 'Dom Nicholas Love' is recorded in 1410. Nonetheless his precise dates are unknown with only a suggestion of a 1427 death.

Purchased by the John Rylands Library from Mrs Elizabeth Green, widow of Joseph Green, on 17 January 1927 for £10. Accession no. R61717.

(1) Henry Thomas Wake (c.1832-1914), Quaker bookseller of Fritchley, Derbyshire. Henry Thomas Wake appears in Bulmer's History, topography and directory of Derbyshire (1895) as an antiquarian bookseller. Biographical dates are derived from online census and civil registration records. Purchased from him by J.J. Green for about £5 in c.1891, according to an inscription on f. i.

(2) Joseph Joshua Green (1854-1921), collector and antiquary.

The UMLholds other manuscripts of the Mirror of the Life of Christ: see English MS 94 and English MS 98.

W.N.M. Beckett, 'Love, Nicholas (d. 1423/4)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/53111.

Carl Horstmann (ed.), Yorkshire writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole and his followers (London and New York: 1896).

N.R. (Neil Ripley) Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 426.

G.A. (Godfrey Allen) Lester, The index of Middle English prose. Handlist 2, a handlist of manuscripts containing Middle English prose in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester and Chetham's Library, Manchester (Cambridge: Brewer, 1985), p. 63.

Lawrence F. Powell (ed.), The Mirrour of the blessed lyf of Jesu Christ: a translation of the Latin work entitled Meditationes Vitae Christi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908).

Kenneth Sisam, 'Skeat, Walter William (1835-1912)', rev. Charlotte Brewer, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/36116.