Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2022 John Hurt Fisher Award from the John Gower Society First comprehensive catalogue of the manuscripts of one of the most important medieval works, with full descriptions of their features. The Confessio Amantis is John Gower's major work in English, written around the time that his acquaintance Geoffrey Chaucer was writing the Canterbury Tales. Extant manuscripts are numerous. At the end of the nineteenth century G. C. Macaulay had described the forty manuscripts then known to survive in the introduction to his edition, but some of these descriptions were very brief, and of course the other nine of whose existence he was then unaware were not included. This descriptive catalogue of all of the surviving manuscripts containing the Confessio is the first work to bring together extensive detailed descriptions of its forty-nine complete manuscripts and numerous fragments and excerpts; it will enable scholars of Middle English literature and manuscript studies to compare features across the corpus of surviving manuscripts or read detailed descriptions of individual manuscripts. Each description in this catalogue covers the manuscript's contents, artwork, physical qualities such as size, material, collation, foliation, etc., as well as additions by later users and provenance. There is also a lengthy introduction giving an overview of the corpus, and appendices for reference to the current whereabouts of the manuscripts, fragments and excerpts, and listing Gower's Latin and French works that appear in some of the manuscripts. Eight colour illustrations provide context for discussions of the miniatures and illuminated borders of some manuscripts.
Table of ContentsIntroduction MANUSCRIPTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 1. Cambridge, University Library MS. Dd.8.19 2. Cambridge, University Library MS. Mm.2.21 3. Cambridge, Pembroke College MS. 307 4. Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College MS. 63 5. Cambridge, St Catharine's College MS. 7 6. Cambridge, St John's College MS. B.12 7. Cambridge, Trinity College MS. R.3.2 8. Glasgow University Library, Hunterian MS. 7 9. London, British Library MS. Additional 12043 10. London, British Library MS. Additional 22139 11. London, British Library MS. Egerton 913 12. London, British Library MS. Egerton 1991 13. London, British Library MS. Harley 3490 14. London, British Library MS. Harley 3869 15. London, British Library MS. Harley 7184 16. London, British Library MS. Royal 18.C.xxii 17. London, British Library MS. Stowe 950 18. London, College of Arms MS. Arundel 45 19. London, Society of Antiquaries MS. 134 20. Manchester, Chetham's Library MS. 6696 21. Nottingham, University Library, Middleton Collection MS. WLC/LM/8 22. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Arch. Selden B.11 23. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 35 24. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Bodley 294 25. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Bodley 693 26. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Bodley 902 27. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Fairfax 3 28. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Hatton 51 29. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Laud Misc. 609 30. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Lyell 31 31. Oxford, Christ Church MS. 148 32. Oxford, Corpus Christi College MS. 67 33. Oxford, Magdalen College MS. Lat. 213 34. Oxford, New College MS. 266 35. Oxford, New College MS. 326 36. Oxford, Wadham College MS. 13 MANUSCRIPTS IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE 37. Cologny, Switzerland, Martin Bodmer MS. CB 178 38. olim Marquess of Bute 85 (now in a private collection in Europe) MANUSCRIPTS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 39. Chicago, IL, Newberry Library MS. +33.5 40. New Haven, CT, Yale University, Beinecke Library, Osborn MS. fa. 1 41. New York, NY, Columbia University Library MS. Plimpton 265 42. New York, NY, Pierpont Morgan Museum and Library MS. M.125 43. New York, NY, Pierpont Morgan Museum and Library MS. M.126 44. New York, NY, Pierpont Morgan Museum and Library MS. M.690 45. Philadelphia, PA, Rosenbach Museum and Library MS. 1083/29 46. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University, Firestone Library MS. Garrett 136 47. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University, Firestone Library MS. Taylor 5 48. San Marino, CA, Henry E. Huntington Library MS. EL 26 A 17 49. Washington, DC, Folger Shakespeare Library MS. SM.1 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
