Later Version Wycliffe New Testament

Later Wycliffite version of the New Testament, with a calendar of Epistles and Gospels, and prefaces to the Gospels.

Contents: (1) ff. 4-12, 'Here bigynneþ þe calender of pistlis and gosp[els] þat ben red bi al þe ȝer in þe chirche after þe vse of Salisbery.' Forshall and Madden, iv. 683-98, but the text here and in Eng. MSS 76, 78, 80 and 91 differs substantially from theirs, which goes with the earlier Wycliffite version. A table for the common of saints is not provided here or in Eng. MSS 76, 78, 80 and 91: cf. Forshall and Madden, p. 696, footnote. The commemorations are those in Eng. 76, but they come before the proper of saints. The word 'pope' has been blotted out; so too the name of St Thomas at 29 December and 7 July. ff. 3r and 12v are left blank.

(2) (a) ff. 13-15, 'Seynt austyn seiþ in þe secunde book of cristen doctryne... be more holpen.' (b) ff. 15-16, 'Oure lord ihesu crist verri god and verri man seiþ in þe gospel... for þe lawe. amen. ihesu for þi merci.' Printed hence by Rev. J[onathan] T[yers] Barrett D.D. (see Bibliography below). Both (a) and (b) are prefaces to the Gospels.

(3) ff. 16-266v, New Testament in the later Wycliffite version. Forshall and Madden, no. 158. They note that this copy is the basis of the text in Scholz and Tregelles's English Hexapla edition of the New Testament (see Bibliography below). There are the usual prologues. Fairly frequent omissions by homoeoteleuton have been supplied neatly in the margins. ff. 267-268v are left blank.

Script: Gothic textura. Written space: 122 x 80 mm. 2 columns, 36 lines.

Secundo folio: adversariis (f. 14).

Decoration: There are a 7-line initial at the beginning of Matthew (f. 16v) and a 6-line initial at the beginning of Mark (f. 47v), pink and blue with white penwork and floral infill on burnished gold grounds, and with foliate extensions; at the beginning of the other books are 4- or 5-line initials of burnished gold on pink and blue grounds with white penwork and foliate extensions; numerous 3-line initials in blue ink with red penwork infill and flourishes.

Description derived from N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 404-5. By permission of Oxford University Press.

Purchased by Mrs Enriqueta Rylands from Henry Yates Thompson in 1897, and later transferred to the John Rylands Library. Accession no. R4991.

(1) Early inscriptions: 'This booke [...] my moder (?) iiiil vis viiid And hit wisse (?) and holy mon [...] And hit was overseyn And redd by doctor Thomas Ebbrall and Doctor Yve or þt my moder bought hit', f. 267v, 15th/16th century. 'Carvyle', f. 2v, 15th/16th century. 'Mr edgcombs booke', f. 2v, 16th century. Thomas Eborall (d. 1471), master of Whittington College, London, and his successor William Ive (d. 1486).

(2) John Picard/Pickard/Pickerde, Rector of Pluckley, Kent. 'John Picard pastour of pluckleye'. He noted on f. 268v that he had 'bene at pluckleye thes 30 yeares I praise god and as muche synce as the thirde of Aprill 1598. The 20 daye of June nowe'. Pickard died in 1616 according to Hasted's History and topographical survey of the county of Kent (1797-1801), vol. 7, p. 477 (see Bibliography below). See also the articles by Francis Haslewood (especially p. 89) and Peter Clark listed in the Bibliography.

(3) J.T. Barrett [Rev. Jonathan Tyers Barrett, admitted Peterhouse, Cambridge, 1801, D.D. 1821, Prebendary of St Paul's, 1825, Rector of Attleborough, 1839-51, died 1851 aged 66: see Venn in Bibliography below]. Inscription on f. i.

(4) Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex. His sale on 31 July 1844, lot 432.

(5) Lea Wilson, F.S.A., Wycliffe scholar. Described by him in his Bibles, Testaments, Psalms, etc. (1845), p. 139 (see Bibliography below).

(6) Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham. Appendix no. 20.

(7) Henry Yates Thompson. He purchased the Ashburnham Appendix in May 1897 and almost immediately resold the manuscript to Mrs Rylands.

J.T. (Jonathan Tyers) Barrett, 'Two prologues by Wiclif...', The Christian remembrancer; or the churchman's biblical, ecclesiastical & literary miscellany, vol. 6 (1824), pp. 547-50.

Peter Clark, 'The prophesying movement in Kentish towns during the 1570s', Archaeologia Cantiana, vol. 93 (1977), pp. 81-90.

Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal books, in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1850), vol. 1, MS no.158.

Francis Haslewood, 'The rectors of Pluckley, Kent, for upwards of six hundred years', Archaeologia Cantiana, vol. 22 (1897), pp. 85-101.

Edward Hasted, The history and topographical survey of the county of Kent (Canterbury: printed by W. Bristow, 1797-1801).

N.R. (Neil Ripley) Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 404-5.

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), pp. 4-6.

J. Martin Augustin Scholz and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (eds), The English Hexapla: exhibiting the six important English translations of the New Testament Scriptures (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1841).

John Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses: a biographical list of all known students, graduates and holders of office at the University of Cambridge, from the earliest times to 1900, part 2 (1752-1900), volume 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940), p. 168: entry for J.T. Barrett.

Lea Wilson, Bibles, Testaments, Psalms and other books of the Holy Scriptures in English in the collection of Lea Wilson, esq, F.S.A., etc. (London: printed at Chiswick by Charles Whittingham, 1845).