Confessio Amantis, lacking fourteen leaves.

s.xv, first quarter, very early.

Contents

(fols 2ra–204vb) Confessio Amantis, Prol. 137–VIII.2901

Prologue (fol. 2ra) lacks first leaf, with 1–136, and four leaves after fol. 7, with Prol. 1035–88end and Book I.1–482; Book I (fol. 8ra) lacks those four leaves at the beginning, with 1–482, and two leaves after fol. 19, with I.2366–2657; Book II (fol. 25ra); Book III (fol. 48ra); Book IV (fol. 66ra) lacks two leaves after fol. 66vb, with IV. 109–405; Book V (fol. 88ra); Book VII (fol. 152vb) has an added half-leaf after fol. 160 to accommodate 1188–1228 (see PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION, V) and lacks three leaves after fol. 188, with VII.5414–38end and VIII.1–417; Book VIII (fol. 189ra) lacks those three leaves at the beginning, with 1–417, and two leaves at the end, after the final leaf of the MS, fol. 204, with VIII.2901–end. The MS lacks fourteen leaves in all.

Text: this MS was not known to Macaulay. It belongs to his first recension.

Illustration

One small miniature on fol. 4vb, bottom of column, preceding Prol. 595 on fol. 5ra, illustrating Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the Image of Precious Metals: a square panel upon a background of red tiles with gold etching, in the centre a standing figure with arms partly spread, with head of gold, body of silver, and feet of clay (crossing the picture-frame, a feature noted in other miniatures of the image by Spriggs, ‘Unnoticed Bodleian Manuscripts’, 199 n. 1); figured rock formations occupy the right-hand side of the miniature.

Decoration

Seven floreate borders, gold, blue and red, at fols 4v (for picture of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream), 5ra (for the beginning of the Nebuchadnezzar story, Prol. 595), and at the beginnings of books II, III, IV, V and VII, fols 25r, 48r, 66r, 88r and 152v (Prologue and Books I and VIII begin imperfect, and the beginning of Book VI is marked only by an explicit/incipit).