Item Summary

Gower's poem using the confression of an ageing lover to a chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems.

Descriptive Information

Title
[Confessio amantis]
Call Number
Garrett MS. 136
Identifier
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/qb98mk56w
Publisher
[England], [between 1400 and 1425]
Language
Middle English
Date Created
1400-1425
Extent
191 leaves : parchment ; 233 x 158 (184 x 130) mm bound to 245 x 174 mm.
Provenance
Unknown early provenance. Various unidentified dealer's markings appear on fols. [i]v and [ii]r. Owned by Rev. Henry Drury who may have acquired it from the bookseller Thomas Norton Longman. Purchased by bookseller Thomas Thorpe for Sir Thomas Phillips. Sold from his collection in 1899 by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge to Bernard Quaritch, who sold it to Robert Garrett on 1 October 1905. His gift to the Princeton University Library, 1942.
Source Acquisition
Gift Robert Garrett, Princeton Class of 1897, 1942.
References
Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 1, pages 313-315.
Rights Statement
No Known Copyright
Notes
Incipit: “Torpior(!) obes(!) sensus scola parua labor minimusque Causant quo minimus ipse minora canam. Qua tamen engisti lingua canit insula bruti Anglica cauente(!) metra iuuante loquar. Ossibus ergo carens qua conterit ossa loquelis; Absit et interpres stet procul oro malus. Incipit Prologus. Of hem þat wryten vs tofore, þe bokes dwelle and we þerefore, be tau3t of þat wat writen þo…”
Explicit: [book 8]: “Where resteþ loue and al pes, Oure joy may be endeles. Amen Amen Amen. Explicit iste liber."
Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Collation: Parchment ; fol. ii (paper) + 191 + ii (paper) ; modern foliation in pencil.
Layout: 36-42 lines in two columns ; lightly frame-ruled in brown ink.
Decoration: The prologue and books 1-8 open with a 2- to 6-line blue initial with red penwork. Divisions within books marked with similar 1- to 2-line initials.
Binding Note
Later binding. England, early 19th century. Diced Russia leather of tan color over pasteboard, rebacked. Blind-stamped and gold-tooled decorative edging on covers. Gold-stamped decoration on spine. Brown paper pastedowns and flyleaves. Gilt edges.

Discovery Information

Subject
Christian poetry, English (Middle)
Love poetry, English (Middle)
Christian ethics—Poetry—Early works to 1800
Courtly love—Poetry—Early works to 1800
Manuscripts, English (Middle)—England
Manuscripts, English (Middle)—New Jersey—Princeton
decorated initials
illuminated manuscripts
Poetry
Parchment (Paper)
Blind tooled bindings
Gold tooled bindings
Gilt edges

Physical Characteristics

File Count
394

Institutional Information

Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Mediterranean Manuscripts
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/3d55f8d2-f52c-4180-8188-2e4828def98c/manifest