Item Summary

Religious verse in rhyming couplets.

Descriptive Information

Title
The prick of conscience.
Call Number
Garrett MS. 138
Identifier
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/4t64gs18g
Publisher
[Herefordshire?, England], [between 1400 and 1425]
Language
Middle English
Date Created
1400-1425
Format
Manuscript
Extent
130 leaves : parchment ; 280 x 188 (190 x 115 mm) bound to 295 x 197 mm.
Provenance
Early and intermediate provenance unknown. Later in the library of Edward Vernon Utterson. Sold at Sotheby's, London in 1852 and acquired by Joseph Brooks Yates and passed through his family to James Yates and Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), who probably received it from his mother, Mrs. Samuel Henry Thompson. Sold from his collection at Sotheby's, London, on 3 June 1905 and acquired by the bookseller Bernard Quarich. Robert Garrett, Class of 1897, purchased the manuscript from Quaritch on 1 October 1905 and placed it on deposit in the Princeton University Library (no. 1445). His gift to the Library in 1942.
Source Acquisition
Gift; of Robert Garrett, Princeton Class of 1897, 1942.
References
Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, pages 317-319.
Ricci, S. de. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, volume 1, page 892.
Rights Statement
Copyright Not Evaluated
Notes
Incipit: "Here bigynnet þe boke whiche is iclepid þe prick of conscience þe whiche ys dyuised in vii parties. The first party is of þe bigynnyng of mannes lif ..."
Explicit: "To þe whiche place he vs alle bryng, Þat for oure loue made al thyng. Amen. Qui scripsit carmen sit benedictus. Amen."
Ms. codex.
Title from incipit.
Attributed to Richard Rolle of Hampole and other authors. Fore-edge tabs created by cutting and folding the outer edge of the page. Title also on spine. Faint inscriptions on upper pastedown and fol. [i]a.
Collation: Parchment ; fol. i (later paper) + 130 + ii (later paper) ; catchwords ; modern foliation in pencil.
Layout: 30 lines per page ; ruled.
Decoration: 2- to 5-line initials in blue with red penwork open major sections. Minor divisions marked with alternating red and blue 1-line initials. Penwork forming a bird and faces (fol. 7r).
Origin: Written in England (possibly Herefordshire) in the early 15th century.
Binding Note
Later binding. England, early 19th century. Brown tree calf over pasteboards. Gilt-tooling along edges and on spine. Rebacked. Multi-colored endbands.

Discovery Information

Subject
English poetry—Middle English, 1100-1500—Early works to 1800
Christian life—Early works to 1800
Theological anthropology—Christianity—Early works to 1800
Manuscripts, English (Middle)—New Jersey—Princeton

Physical Characteristics

File Count
270

Institutional Information

Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Mediterranean Manuscripts
IIIF Manifest URL

https://figgy.princeton.edu/concern/scanned_resources/f111a415-b016-4e18-9dc3-59d2a931b38d/manifest