Confessio Amantis, omitting nearly all Latin apparatus

A provincial centre (possibly Bath?), s.xv, middle to third quarter

Contents

(fols 1ra–207ra) Confessio Amantis, Prol. 1–VIII.3172 (end)

Prologue (fol. 1ra); Book I (fol. 8ra); Book II (fol. 29rb) wants two leaves after fol. 35 (the central bifolium of quire v) with loss of 1066–1377; Book III (fol. 49va, but explicit for Book II at bottom of 49rb); Book IV (fol. 66vb) with text disordered at fols 81–84 because of a mistake in binding whereby the central (fourth) bifolium of quire xi was exchanged with the third, with consequent misordering of leaves 3–6 of the quire, thus: 4 (fol. 81) IV.2685–2864, 3 (fol. 82) IV.2501–2684, 6 (fol. 83) IV.3049–3232, 5 (fol. 84) IV.2865–3048; Book V (fol. 89vb); Book VI (fol. 138vb); Book VII (fol. 153vb); Book VIII (fol. 187vb). The beginnings of Books V–VIII have no explicit/incipit in the text-column nor any space left. But explicits/incipits are added by the scribe in the margin, as if an afterthought, except for Book VII, where there is nothing to mark the beginning of a new book, the text continuing without a break, having begun on the last line of fol. 153vb.

Text: collated by Macaulay (sigil N2): Ia. Macaulay (ed., Works, II.cxli–ii) recognised a change in the script at the end of the first eight quires after fol. 62, and observed that up to that point the text is from one kind of exemplar (with the Lancastrian dedication at the beginning, Prol. 22), while the rest of the poem is from another (with the original conclusion).

Illustration

No illustrations.

Decoration

A four-line blue initial begins the Prologue (as also Books I–V), with red penwork flourishing and inside the letter a coat of arms, argent a lion rampant sable, charged on the shoulder with a martlet or (Mompesson: see PROVENANCE). At the beginning of Book I, to the left of the initial ‘I’ on folio 8ra, appears the same coat of arms, impaling a second, ermine a lion passant gardant gules (Drewe: see PROVENANCE).