Forewarned and Forearmed: Contents of BL, Cotton MS. Titus A. XXV, ff. 94-105
M R Geldof
The early catalogues of Sir Robert Cotton’s library were never comprehensive and later generations of keepers and cataloguers were content to use incomplete or vague descriptions for lesser works in succeeding catalogues.1 Until very recently, many of the Cotton volumes that did not attract much scholarly interest have been known only from those incomplete descriptions. This is particularly common for the many composite volumes assembled from unrelated booklets. British Library, Cotton MS. Titus A. XXV (hereafter Titus) is just such a volume. We know a great deal about the provenance of one item in this volume from the twelfth century (Annals of the Irish monastery of Boyle, ff. 2r-35v), and a partial copy of the Historia Regum Britanniae (ff. 106r-117v).2 But the fourth item in the volume, a paper gathering of twelve leaves, was described in the earliest catalogues as ‘versus quidam Latini, exesis et evanescentibus characteribus, in charta’; a certain verse in Latin, of worn and faded characters, on paper.3 This gathering is certainly a challenge for anyone to read as it is worn and soiled, having remained unbound for a considerable time. Its contents have not gone entirely unnoticed by scholars, but it has not been fully described previously. This brief article will go some way to fulfilling that need and in doing so, it will draw attention to a curious and subtly suggesting collection of mid- fifteenth century texts, some of which appears unique amongst late medieval English literature. The six items in Titus were collated and bound by the keepers of Sir Robert Cotton’s library before the first written description was made around 1639, although it lists only the annals of the monastery of Boyle.4 The next full description appeared in the catalogue of 1696, edited by Thomas Smith. It is from Smith that we have any description of ff. 94-105 and it is also the description attached to Titus, and until recently, it was the description found in the British Library automated catalogue.5 An improved description is still incomplete, as will be clear in the detailed description of the fourth booklet:
1 Colin G. C. Tite, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library (London, 2003); see also Colin G. C. Tite and James P. Carley, ‘Sir Robert Cotton as Collector of Manuscripts and the Question of Dismemberment: British Library MSS Royal 13 D. I and Cotton Otho D. VIII’, The Library, 6th Series, xiv, no. 2 (1992), pp. 94–9. 2 Martin A. Freeman, ‘The Annals in Cotton Titus A. XXV’, Revue Celtique, xli-xliv (1925-7), pp. 301–30, 283–305, 358–84, 336–61; H. L. D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts, vol. i (London, 1883), p. 244; The volume has modern pencil foliation that begins with f. 2, the first leaf of the annals of Boyle, and this is continued through the fourth booklet, which is the numbering used in all recent citations of its content. 3 Thomas Smith (ed.), Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Cottonianae (Oxford, 1696), p. 124; see also Thomas Smith, Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library (Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Cottonianae) reprinted from Sir Robert Harley’s copy, annotated by Humfrey Wanley, togethe with documents relating to the fire of 1731, ed. C. G. C. Tite (Cambridge, 1984). Hooper’s 1777 catalogue repeats the descriptions from Smith, but since Hooper arranged the descriptions by topic, author, and source, the inconclusive content of item four is omitted; Sam Hooper, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library to which are added Many Emendations and Additions with an Appendix Containing an Account of the Damage Sustained by the Fire in 1731... (London, 1777). 4 London, British Library, Additional MS. 36682, f. 201. 5 Smith, p. 124.
1 eBLJ 2014, Article 3 Forewarned and Forearmed: Contents of BL, Cotton MS. Titus A. XXV, ff. 94-105 ff. 2-35, Chronicle of Boyle Abbey, 13th c. ff. 36-71, John of Hildesheim, Historia trium regum, early 15th c.6 ff. 72-93, Ludolphus, De itinere (imperfect), mid-15th c.7 ff. 94-105, Prophesy of John of Bridlington, which is dated here to the second half of the 15th c.8 ff. 106-117, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britannie (imperfect), from the late 13th to early 14th c. ff. 118-139, described only as ‘a collection of documents’ now, and in Smith as ‘Formulae obligationum, acquietantiarum, & testamentorum &c. Latine, & Gallice.’9
The first mention of this copy of the ersusV Propheciales, most commonly attributed to John of Bridlington, appeared in in Julia C. Crick’s catalogue of surviving manuscripts containing the Historia Regum Britannie.10 The Bridlington verse, originally composed in reference to Edward II in1349-50, appears in its earliest versions paired with a commentary composed by John Erghom in 1363-4 but in the Titus copy there is only the verse, and the chapter titles which are crammed into the margins.11 Because its political commentary was ‘couched in a dense carapace of obscure verbal and numerological symbolism’ it was easily adapted to other political contexts once the commentary was removed.12 Although there is no comprehensive hand-list other than the one included in Micheal Curley’s 1973 thesis, the Titus copy is not among them.13 Neither does it appear in later studies of Bridlington’s work by Curley and others. Crick correctly gives the extent of the Bridlington verses as ff. 94-104, and mentions some of the contents of the final leaf; ‘an extract from Urban V,Agni Dei’, and ‘verses and recipes in various hands in Latin and English.’14 Given that it took this long for the Bridlington text to come to the attention of scholars, it is perhaps no surprise that even Crick’s detailed description missed (or chose not to mention) two of the verses from f. 105r, each noted without reference to the others or the Bridlington text. R. H. Robbins transcribed a six-line verse in Middle English (f. 105v, transcribed below) for volume five of A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500.15 One other item from f. 105rv, perhaps the most curious not only for its content and rarity but for its unintuitive inclusion
6 C. Horstmann (ed.), The Three Kings of Cologne (London, 1886). Described in Smith as ‘Fabulosus liber de tribus Regibus Coloniensibus, veteri lingua Anglicana’, p. 124. 7 G. A. Neumann (ed.), ‘Ludolphus de Sudheim: De Itinere Terre Sancte’, in Archives de l’Orient Latin, vol. ii (Paris, 1881). Smith: ‘Via nova diversarum regionum proprietatum declarativa, dispositio terrae sanctae, per Ludolphum, qui Palaestinam adiit, A.D. 1336, & per quinquennium ibi moratus est’, p. 124. 8 Thomas Wright (ed.), Political Poems and Songs Relating to English History Composed During the Period From the Accession of Edw. III to That of Ric. III (London, 1859), vol. i, pp. 123-215; Michael J. Curley, ‘Versus Propheciales, Prophecia Johannis Bridlingtoniensis (The Prophecy of John of Bridlington): an Edition’ (unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Chicago, 1973). 9 Smith, p. 124. 10 Julia C. Crick, The ‘Historia Regum Britannie ‘of Geoffrey of Monmouth, iii: A Supplementary Catalogue of Manuscripts (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 93-4. My thanks to the anonymous reviewer who pointed out this reference, somehow missed during the research for this paper. 11 On the poem, and its political context see P. Meyvaert, ‘John Erghome and the Vaticinium Roberti Bridlington’, Speculum, li (1966), pp. 656–64; Curley, ‘Versus Propheciales’, Michael J. Curley, ‘Fifteenth-Century Glosses on the Prophecy of John of Bridlington: A Text, its Meaning and its Purpose’, Mediaeval Studies, lvi (1984), pp. 321–39; A. G. Rigg, ‘John of Bridlington’s Prophecy: A New Look’, Speculum, lxiii (1988), pp. 596–613. 12 Rigg, ‘John of Bridlington’s Prophecy’, p. 596. 13 Curley, ‘Fifteenth-Century Glosses’. 14 Crick, A Supplementary Catalogue, pp. 93-4. This copy of Bridlington is also listed in Lesley A. Coote, Prophecy and Public Affairs in Later Medieval England (Woodbridge, 2000), p. 260. 15 Rossell Hope Robbins, ‘Poems Dealing with Contemporary Conditions’, in A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, vol. v (New Haven, CT, 1975), pp. 1385–1536.
2 eBLJ 2014, Article 3 Forewarned and Forearmed: Contents of BL, Cotton MS. Titus A. XXV, ff. 94-105 here, was actually the first item recognized and mentioned in print. A keen-eyed cataloguer at the British Museum noticed it while writing the description of another item, donated to the Museum in 1917. British Library, Additional MS. 39564 is a small vellum roll containing prose instruction on the use of the two-hand sword, which along with BL, Harley MS. 3542, ff. 82r-85r, and the twenty-two line text on f. 105rv of Titus represent the entirety of Middle English instruction in the use of personal arms.16 In all fairness to the earliest cataloguers of Titus, the poor condition of the text does make for a challenging read. The gathering is heavily soiled and the hand is a careless secretary, of questionable legibility, even under ideal circumstances. The booklet is a single gathering of twelve paper leaves in small quarto (11 x 20 cm) with a watermark in the style of a bull, similar, but not matched, to examples from German paper-makers active between 1430 and 1480.17 Based on the condition of the outer leaves, it likely spent a considerable time unbound and they are heavily soiled. Holes, now patched, have caused loss of text to the first four leaves and the last. It was spared any substantive damage from the 1731 fire at Ashburnham House.18 The leaves are neither ruled or lined, although there may be some faint marginal pricking. This lack of clear guides leads to some sloping and crowding of the text where lines that are over-long spill into the margins or are further abbreviated by the scribe who would rather compress the text into illegibility than break one line into two. There are no signs of correction, decoration, or annotation. There is a small marginal illustration in the shape of a musical notation at the foot of f. 96v but otherwise there is no content other than the works themselves. The hand suggests a date for composition in the mid-fifteenth century and its similarity to small commonplace booklets for private use, such as Cambridge, St John’s College, MS S.54, the work of several copyists in the second half of the fifteenth century.
Contents of ff. 94-105
The Titus copy of Bridlington’s verses is complete, with the chapter headings reduced to barely legible marginal entries. The absence of the prose gloss is typical of mid-fifteenth century copies. There is no concordance of text variants for Bridlington’s verse prophecy but a comparison with Wright’s edition, mostly compiled from fourteenth-century copies, shows a few differences that may be significant. Chapter headings are mostly illegible, squeezed into the margins. There is no critical concordance of Bridlington but several differences are clear from a comparison with Wright, which is based on the earlier fourteenth-century copies, most paired with the prose gloss. Versions found without the gloss are most common in the fifteenth century.19 The Titus copy does show several differences when compared with Wright, mostly consistent with the later variants with added lines mentioned by Curley.
16 Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1916-1920 (London, 1933), p. 46; Harley MS. 3542 was partly transcribed in Thomas Wright and J. O. Halliwell-Phillips (eds.), Reliquiæ Antiquæ: Scraps From Ancient Manuscripts, Illustrating Chiefly Early English Literature and the English Language, 2 vols (London, 1845),vol. i, pp. 308-9; an imperfect transcription of the entire text appeared in Alfred Hutton, The Sword and the Centuries or Old Sword Play and Old Sword Ways (London, 1901), pp. 36-40; the instructions in Cotton MS.Titus A. XXV, ff. 105rv were first published in a critical edition in M. R. Geldof, Strokes‘ of Ij Hand Swerde: a Brief Instruction in the Use of Personal Arms’, Opuscula, i, 2 (2011), pp. 1–9, http://opuscula. synergiesprairies.ca/ojs/index.php/opuscula/ article/view/16; all three manuscripts are edited in M. R. Geldof, ‘Þe Herte Þe Fote Þe Eye to Accorde: Procedural Writing and Three Middle English Manuscripts of Martial Instruction’ (unpublished MA dissertation, Saskatoon, 2011). 17 A very close example is Piccard 85965. 18 Hooper, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library, pp. xii-xiv. 19 Wright (ed.), Political Poems, pp. 123-215; for issues with this edition, and the extra lines found in other copies see Curley, ‘Fifteenth-Century Glosses’.
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There are perhaps another half dozen lines in Titus not found in Wright or Curley. Given the state of the manuscript and the difficulty in reading accurately, I will limit myself to an indication of where the extra lines are. Any attempt I may make towards a fuller transcription would be far too prone to error. There are three extra lines following ‘Anterioris facta ...’ (f. 95r, line 70-73), the first line beginning ‘Rex omnium regiorum ...’. Seven lines not noted in Curley appear in chapter three following ‘Attamen est sana ...’ (f. 97r, lines 216-224). A large hole in f. 97v has removed text from the lower half of the leaf, but one extra line at the bottom does not appear to match Wright or Curley and the first line at the head of f. 97v is also new, and begins ‘Omnius salvat ...’. More careful scrutiny will reward readers with additional text, some of which may be significant for the study of Bridlington’s fifteenth-century revival. Bridlington’s verses end in the middle of f. 104v, leaving the last leaf in the gathering free for other texts and the scribe has packed that space with five short texts in Latin and Middle English. Croft recognized the first item on f. 105r as a variant of theAgnus Dei, believed to be from the letter from Urban V to the Byzantine Emperor John dating from 1362.20 The transcriptions here are cautious and illegible characters are set between angle brackets. Brevigraphs are expanded in italics. Speculative readings are set between square brackets.
[f. 105r] Balsamus & munda cera cum crismatis vnda Conficiunt Agnum quod Do tibi mundus magnum ffonte velut natum per mistica sanctificatum Prognans servatur sue do pertus liberatur ffulgura desursum depellet & omne malignum Portatus munde salvat de fluctibus undae Pecatum frangit ut Christus sanguine & Angit Sua cons<-->t Agnus / dicte destinet vo<-->s Morte <->pertina sancte <-> <---> et prima S<--- > eum <- > P<--> pro minima quidem baleus <-->gia <--->21
The item immediately after this is damaged by a hole in the leaf. Water damage, soiling and the particularly casual hand of the scribe make this almost impossible to make out. There are eight lines of text, only parts of which are at all legible, but not enough to identify it. The first word of the first line appears to begin ‘V’ and the second and third words are ‘tres quatre’. The fifth line may begin with ‘Cent mille’ and given the insertion throughout the verse of small numbers above certain words, this could be one of the many obscure political poems couched in numerological symbolism. The third entry, thankfully free of serious damage and composed with some care by the scribe, appears at first glance to be a Middle English poem or ‘recipe’ as suggested by Croft. While it does have the marginal brackets common to poetry it is rendered in prose and while it has the same procedural structure of recipe texts, it is a recipe for a performance.22 There are three stanzas, the first two under one title. The third begins at the head of f. 105v with another title.23
20 Paul Post, ‘Religious Popular Culture and Liturgy’, Questions Liturgiques / Studies in Liturgy, lxxix (1998), pp. 14–58. 21 Damage to the centre of this leaf and soiling make the transcriptions of the final lines speculative. 22 For similar recipe texts see Martti Mäkinen, ‘Herbal Recipes and Recipes in Herbals – Intertextuality in Early English Medical Writing’, in Irma Taavitsainen and Päivi Pahta (eds.), Medical and Scientific Writing in Late Medieval English (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 144-73. 23 This differs slightly from the first edition in Geldof, Strokes‘ of Ij Hand Swerd’, mostly in minor differences in transcription. Important differences are at line 9 where ‘þan þan’ was first read as ‘þa þa’ and at line 12 where ‘euer’ was read as ‘on’.
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Strokez off ij hand swerde a ffyrste a rownde for the waste sengyll wt a fune Also a quarter wt a fune. A rake sengyll wt a fune A dowbull rownde a dowbyll rake with a nawke. A quarter & a rake & a wype with a spryng vydyng with the lyfte hand. wt a quarter wt a fune skypyng with a wype. Than a quarter & breke a fune atte þe ryght shulder wt a rabecke a Than þe chase ffyrst a dowbyll rownde wt a bakke fune and a fore fune rennyng wt a rabette þan þan rowndez voydyng with a reste a þan a bakke fune to the
[f. 105v] Stroekez atte þe ij hand staffe The fyrst pointe is a florysh about the fynger þe nexte florysh is abowte þe hande And thanne iij quarteres And a rownde and ii rakes & ij funes iij quarteres closede staffe A j rounde war hym your armes be hynde & than ij hawkes for þe wrong syde
This is the shortest of the three known texts of Middle English instruction in the use of personal arms and like the others it uses this linear strategy that reads more like a dance choreography than instructions in combat. It is, in fact, very similar to dance choreography which survives in a few rare examples from early in the sixteenth century, some of which are associated with London’s Inns of Court.24 It is worth mentioning that the ‘staff ’ used in the third stanza is not necessarily the quarter-staff of popular medieval fiction but is likely in reference to a general type of staff weapon, as distinct from the sword.25 Of the last two items on f. 105v, the first is nine lines of Latin verse, partly damaged by the hole and patch although less severely than the recto.
Gens Normannorum concensu fulta priorum Intras Anglorum cras onant eo coronum Pax erit illiorum brevis et huis longa suorum Loss< > gens et gens ense priorum Anglia < > decorata leonis Regibus < > [a]nita coronis Centum cum deno popullis p< >at u< >
24 David R. Wilson, ‘Dancing in the Inns of Court’, Historical Dance, ii: 5 (1987), pp. 3–16; ‘Performing the Gresley Dances: The View From the Floor’, Historical Dance, iii: 6 (1999), pp. 29–32, and Jennifer Nevlie, ‘Dance Steps and Music in the Gresley Manuscript’, Historical Dance, iii, 6 (1999), pp. 2–19. 25 John Waldman, Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe: The Evolution of European Staff Weapons between 1200 and 1650 (Leiden, 2005).
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There is a marginal note in the same hand, tucked into the gutter, of which only a few characters are legible. The first word is certainly ‘versus’ and probably heads a short contextual comment about the verse and its meaning. Leslie Coote identifies this piece with the wave of prophetic writing in the 1340s, and in this case, references the growing myth- history in support of Edward III’s claims to the French crown. Like most prophetic verse, it was easily adapted to later political events and remained relevant, thanks to its vagueness. The gens normannorum appears in several mid-fifteenth century collections in the company of Bridlington’s verses.26 The final item, which appeared in Robbins, is also a political verse, but more obscure and apparently unique to Titus. This reading differs slightly from that in Robbins, but the differences are not significant.
In may when myrth moves vpon lofte And the kelendes of Iune bene knyts all togeder27 And every sede opon erthe sawne in ther kynde And every bogh with his blomes blossome so fayre And m m off thre yeres ben com to an ende And cccc off a sweter be casset for ever28
Discussion
It is right to remember Derek Pearsall’s words of caution that it is ‘all too possible, to overestimate the activity of the controlling or guiding intelligence of the scribe-compiler in the making of late medieval English secular miscellanies.’29 In the absence of any provenance beyond the Cotton collection, or a more secure date than the later half of the fifteenth century, any theories about editorial motive are particularly speculative. There is nothing very remarkable about the selection of prophetic material, it is a representative mix common in collections which correspond with the turbulent period between the first crisis of Henry VI’s reign in the 1450s and into the first few years of Henry VII’s reign in the 1490s. The final poem on f. 105v is a tantalizing clue as to the date of composition and collection of the booklet. While the numerical formula at the end remains impenetrable, there are many political events in the fifteenth century to which the month of May could refer; the 1444 truce with France, Cade’s rebellion of 1450, the first battle of St Albans in 1455, the Yorkist defeat of the Lancastrians at Hexham in 1464, the brief accession of Edward V in 1483, and other important dates with more local significance. But it is unclear if this verse was a composition of the fifteenth century or, as with Bridlington and theGens normannorum, an earlier work, re-purposed for new political crisis. The inclusion of the three stanzas of instruction for the sword and staff is more curious. There are reasons for its inclusion based purely on structural similarity and length. Harley MS. 3542 is a collection of alchemical and medical recipes in Latin and Middle English, likely compiled in the first quarter of the fifteenth century and the only connection between its lessons and the rest of the works is their procedural structure. They also share a learned,
26 My thanks to L. Coote for helping identify this text. Other examples from fifteenth- century collections include London, Society of Antiquaries, MS. 47, f. 81v (c. 1461), London, British Library, Cotton MS. Vespasian E. VII, f. 86v (1461-2), Dublin, Trinity College, MS. 516, f. 39r (1461-74). The copy on f. 105r was checked against the Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 623, f. 86v (compiled after 1464), which is largely identical save for differences in abbreviations based on the choice of an anglicana over a cursive secretary hand. 27 Robbins, ‘Poems Dealing with Contemporary Conditions’, p. 1533, reads ‘knytt’. 28 Ibid., ‘sewter’. 29 Derek Pearsall, ‘The Whole Book: Late Medieval English Manuscript Miscellanies and Their Modern Interpreters’, in Stephen Kelly and John J. Thompson (eds.), Imagining the Book, Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, vii (Turnhout, 2005), pp. 17-29 (p. 29).
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Latinate reader with some interest in current political and social issues, typical of the late medieval English gentry. It is this group which is most likely to have generated the need for or interest in texts supplementing martial instruction. However, one would expect to see instructions in arms collected with more obvious companions such as those found in the contemporary chivalric grete bokes but none of the extant fight-texts come from the usual sources.30 It is tempting to imagine that the compiler’s concern over the current political insecurity made the connection between the intellectual guidance of the prophecies and the practical aid of the instruction, but it is perhaps more likely that the fight-text appears here simply because there was room and because it superficially resembled the verses. Certainly, a quick pass of the eye over the pages will miss their content, as they clearly did, until recently.
30 On this genre of gentry literature see Catherine Nall, Reading and War in Fifteenth-Century England: From Lydgate to Malory (Cambridge, 2012), pp. 11-47.
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