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Confessio amantis

Title
Confessio amantis, [circa 1400].
Physical Description
201 f. ; 35 cm. x 27 cm.
Language
English, Middle (1100-1500)
Notes
There are red and blue 1-3 line initials at small and large paragraph breaks. Books II (f. 13r), V (76r), VI (125r), VII (140r), and VIII (175v) contain initials with full page demi-vignette borders in gold, red, blue, green, orange, and brown.
Rubrications at running titles, initials, Latin commentary.
Binding: yellow morocco on wooden boards, by Douglas Cockerell and Son, 1962.
Sir George Meyrick, Bart., who sold the manuscript after his father's death in 1960, said that the manuscript had been in his family's possession for over 100 years and that in 1775 the house was almost destroyed by fire. Many family papers were lost and perhaps it was then that the manuscript became damp and mildewed.
In Middle English, Latin and French.
Provenance
Ex libris Sir George Meyrick. Gift of James M. Osborn, 1961.
Summary
Manuscript on parchment in Anglicana (Scribes 1 and 2) and Secretary script (Scribe 3). The text is the third recension of the Confessio Amantis, written in 1392-1393.The manuscript was produced around 1400 or the beginning of the fifteenth century in the same manner as the other surviving manuscripts from this time, presumably under the author's supervision.
Also contained are the Latin and French poems "Explicit iste liber," "Epistola super huius," "Quam cinxere," "Traitie," "Carmen de variis in amore passionibus," and "Carmen super multiplici viciorum pestilencia."
Format
Archives or Manuscripts
Added to Catalog
June 14, 2010
References
John Gower, Confessio Amantis. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Cite as
John Gower, Confessio Amantis. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
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