75 THOMAS OCCLEVE or HOCCLEVE (1370-1454?) DE REGIMINE PRINCIPUM, in English seven-line stanzas. Small folio, FINE MS. ON VEllum, with illuminated initials; in the original oak boards (covered with blue paper in the last century) About 1440-50 40 0 0 EXTREMELY RARE. MSS. of Hoccleve are only to be sought for in great public collections like the British Museum. This volume is not perfect, but is a very fine example of English calligraphy about the middle of the fifteenth century. It has also the peculiarity of being marked with signatures exactly in the style adopted afterwards in printed books. Two leaves are missing at the beginning; the first that is here begins thus And whan this stormy nyt was overgone And day gan in at my wyndowe to prie I roos me up for bote fonde I none In my unresty bed lenger to lye As he that was barein of thouştis glade. There are altogether 528 stanzas of the De Regimine Principum,-the work in which the main particulars of Occleve's life have to be sought for. On the twentyseventh leaf, there are stanzas in praise of "mi Maister Chaucer flour of elloquence," and of "my maister Gower." 76 HOCCLEVE. Another copy of the same work, complete. Pa. 1: Augustinus Volve vitam. . Pa. 4: Explicit Tabula super Egidium de Regimine Principum. Pa. 5: Hokcleffe. Mewsing vppon the resteles by synes | Whiche that this troble worlde hath ay in honde |.. Pa. 165: of heuen blesse that ys endeles | The whiche you bringe the antone of pees. Amen Amen. Explicit Hockclene sup Egidium de Regimine Principum vt supra. O lytle boke who. . Thy word.. Pa. 166: Alle naked safe thy kertylle bare also . . and for thy goode herte he be notte foo. To the that seist off louys feruence. . know yst he whom nothing is hidde ffro. 77 Small folio, MS. ON PAPER, 83 leaves in a current hand, varying in number of lines to the page (26, 30, 42, 44) with rubrications; brown morocco, from Lord Ashburnham's collection, with a note on the leaf inside the cover by Dr. Richard Farmer About 1465-70 28 0 0 Poems by Thomas Hoccleve never before printed, selected from a 1796 78 JOHN LYDGATE (about 1375 to 1460) JOHN BOCHAS, THE FALLE OF PRINCES [TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE BY JOHN LYDGATE]. Fol. 1: He þat whilom dide his diligence The boke of Bochas in frensh to translate | Out of latyn he callid was Laurence | The tyme truly remembred and pe date | Yere when kyng John þrouz his mortal fate Was prisoner broust to his regioun | When he first gan on þis translacioun 0 18 0 Folio, MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, 209 leaves, written in double columns in a beautiful small angular (charter) hand, with floreated initials; in russia binding, from the libraries of Heber and Sir Thomas Phillipps About 1440 115 0 0 This grand English Manuscript is of the author's own time, and is supposed to be one of the finest existing copies of Lydgate's most famous work. At the end of the first book there is a note in the handwriting of Richard Reeds recording his possession, and that the book had cost him fifty shillings (about 1540-50). At the end of the third and beginning of the fourth book, a blank 66 space of two pages is left unwritten on, so that between the last stanza The last page or two of the book contain matter which does not 79 LYDGATE, THE FALL OF PRINCES. Folio, MS. ON PAPER, 206 leaves, in a charter hand, with painted capitals; wanting the first prologue to the work, and also the second last leaf, but containing the 144 stanzas (Books III, IV) which are missing in the vellum copy above; in the original oak boards backed with calf, from the Farmer, Heber, and Phillipps collections About 1470 40 0 0 80 LYDGATE. Title: Here begynneth the boke of Iohan Bochas, discryuing Small folio, 224 leaves, printed in double columns; with eleven wood- 1527 50 0 O The signatures are as follows: a, A—X, AA-PP, all in sixes, except PP which has eight leaves. 81 LYDGATE'S FALL OF PRINCES. Title: A TREATISE excellent and compēdious, shewing and declaring, in maner of Tragedye, the falles of sondry. most notable Princes and Princesses . translated into our English and Vulgare tong, by Dan John Lidgate. . Ends on leaf 228. Leaf 229 (marked CCxx): The daunce of Machabree. . made by thaforesayde Dan John Lydgate.. Leaf 234:.. Imprinted at London_in Fletestrete within Temple barre. by Richard Tottel, the . x. day of September in the yeare of our Lorde. 1554 ... Small folio, woodcuts, a little wormed towards the end; calf gilt 1554 10 10 0 82 LYDGATE'S SIEGE OF TROY. Title wanting. Leaf 2: Tabula. The table or rubrysshe of the Content. . On the reverse: . . Here after foloweth the Troye boke, otherwyse called the Sege of Troye, Translated by Iohn Lydgate monke of the Monastery of Bury, And Emprynted at the cōmaudement of oure Soueraygne Lorde the kynge Henry the . viij. By Richarde Pynson, prynter vnto his most noble gra-ce. The yere of our Lorde god a. M.CCCCC. and. xiij. Leaf 3: The Prologue of the Translatoure. in facsimile. Leaves 161, 162 with which the book ends are in facsimile. Small folio, 162 leaves printed in double columns, with many woodcuts; red morocco extra, from the Grenville library 1513 90 0 0 First Edition of Lydgate's Troy book, based upon Guido Columna and finished by him in the year 1420. This is one of the rarest of old English books; only four perfect copies being known to be extant. COLLATION: 2 leaves; A-Z and A-C in sixes; D in four leaves. 83 HUGH OF CAMPDEN, about 1400. The history of kyng Boccus z Sydracke how he confoundyd his lerned men.. Also his answeris to the questions of wysdome.. translatyd by Hugo of Caumpeden out of frenche into Englyshe. At end: FINIS. Thus endeth the hystory and questyōs of Kyng Boccus and Sydracke. Prynted at London by Thomas Godfray. At the coste and charge of dan Robert Saltwode moke of saynt Austens at Cantorbury. Cum priuilegio regali. On the reverse the woodcut arms of St. Augustine's. Small 4to. not quite perfect as described below; hf. bd. uncut The missing leaves are A1 (the title supplied in MS.), A3 and 4, sheets D-F (twelve leaves); sheet P (four leaves); Q2 and Q3; R1, R4, T2, T3, C2, C3, G four leaves, Q four leaves, part of S2. The age of Hugh of Campden has not been ascertained, but the language of this first edition seems to be of the late fourteenth century rewritten or respelt in the fifteenth. John Twyne was the editor; Thomas Godfray the printer flourished about 1530. Only some four or five copies of the book are known to be extant. 84 N. N., about 1450. LYF OF SEYNT IEROM, and other pieces, in one volume. Small 4to. MS. of 56 leaves about 50 lines to the page, written in Sion Monastery at Sheen, somewhat waterstained and torn; calf, with the bookplate of Richard Towneley 1702 About 1460 CONTENTS: De modo Psallendi, in Latin, page 1; The Vertues of the Masse, in English verse, pp. 2-6; An Exhortation on the same subject, in English prose, pp. 6-8; Here begynnyth the prologe ynto the lyf of Seynt Ierom drawen ynto Englysh . . of the legende aurea vnto the hygh pryncesse Margarete Duchesse of Clarence by Syr N. N. brothir and prest of the monastery of Syon the which is comynly callyd Shene.. In English prose, pp. 9-42; exhortation in English with a reference to the book composed by Gower, pp. 42-43; Medys and Grace of the Masse, in English verse, beginning" That blyssyd childe yn Bethlem born," pp. 43-54; Exhortation on the same, in English prose, pp. 54-69; Tabula super Dialogos Gregorii in Latin, pp. 71-83; General and Special Confession, in English prose, pp. 84-100; Sorowes of our blissed Lady, English prose, pp. 100-101; Observations on Confession, in Latin, pp. 101-111. On the margin of p. 5 is a birth-record," Mr. Holmes of the Gard born at Lyrpole in Lankashyre 1539." 85 THE AUTHOR OF THE FERRUMBRAS, about 1450. ROMANCE OF THE SOWDON OF BABYLOYNE AND OF FERUMBRAS his sone who conquerede Rome And Kynge Charles off Ffraunce with xii Dosyperes toke the Sowdon in the feelde and smote of his heede. In English verse. Small folio, MS. ON VELLUM, 41 leaves with 42 lines to the page; hf. bd. from the libraries of Richard Farmer, George Steevens (1798), Octavius Gilchrist (1800), Richard Heber, and Sir Thomas Phillipps (1836) About 1460 80 0 0 Said to be the UNIQUE COPY of the work of an English poet in the time of Henry VI, beautifully written in a cursive hand and apparently complete with the exception of parts of a few lines on the second last page. 86 NORTH ENGLISH MIRACLE PLAYS ABOUT 1450. THE TOWNELEY MYSTERIES. A famous unique volume of Early English Mysteries or Miracle-Plays, supposed to have been written at Woodkirk, in Yorkshire, in the Cell of Augustinian or Black Canons, for the study of persons intending to take part in those Pageants at Wakefield, or at Woodkirk Fair, folio, MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, written in a bold hand with About 1450 700 0 0 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Processus Prophetarum, Pharao, Cæsar It is not known when this volume first came into the possession of the Towneley family. Their early connection with Yorkshire, as well as Lancashire, enables us to surmise that it may have formed part of the Towneley collection at a remote period, or that at least it was in the fine library formed by John Towneley, who died in 1607, whose great love for his books was evinced by the bindings in which he had them covered, all bearing his arms and motto. 87 SIR THOMAS MALLORY flor. 1450-70. THE MORT ARthur. The story of the most noble and worthy Kynge Arthur. . and also of Small folio, woodcuts; 13 leaves of Table wanting; having the title £ 1557 50 The earliest edition in my stock of the famous and brilliant story which has tinged the name of Mallory with a bright reflected light. He was by far the greatest English prose-writer of his time, and even for long afterwards. His skill was such that he converted the Arthur story into a book as genuinely English as the Bible was made by the writers of the sixteenth century. He finished his task in the year 1470 but seems to have worked upon French MS. of the thirteenth century, rather than on the compilations of the fourteenth and fifteenth. 88 MALLORY. The storye of the most noble and worthy Kynge Arthur, the which was the fyrst of the worthyes Chrysten, and also of hys noble and valyaunt knyghtes of the rounde Table. Newly imprynted and corrected. Under a woodcut: Imprynted at London by Thomas East. Small folio, wanting four leaves of text (L 3-6, M 4 and 5) otherwise perfect in red morocco extra, gilt edges (About 1570) 28 In this copy the table is preceded by Caxton's simple prologue which may still be read with interest. 8. 90 ARTHUR. The Byrth, Lyf, and Actes of Kyng Arthur; of his noble Knyghtes of the Rounde Table, Thachyeuyng of the Sane Greal; and in the end Le Mort Darthur, with introduction and notes by Southey, 2 vols. 4to. hf. morocco, uncut 1817 Thomas Malory, son of Sir John Malory, served under Beauchamp Earl of Warwick in France, and was in Calais when it was attacked by the Bergundians in 1423. He succeeded his father about 1435; was Knight of the Shire for Warwick in 1445; and died in 1470. These details are given in Dugdale's Warwickshire. 91 JOHN CAPGRAVE (died 1464) NOVA LEGENDA ANGLIE. Leaf 1 is an illustration of the Assembly of the Saints impressed on both sides of the leaf. Leaf 2: Prologus. SAncti patres.. Leaf 5: habitacula.. Presens volumen istud (vt videtur) non incongrue vocari potest (Noua legenda anglie). Tabula. . Leaf 6 has the end of the table on its obverse and a woodcut of the royal arms on the reverse. Leaf 7: De sancto Adriano . . Folio . i . . Leaf 340, numbered Folio. . cccxxxiiii. . has on its reverse the colophon: Explicit (Noua legēda anglie). Impressa lōdonias: i domo Winādi de Worde: comoratis ad signu solis: in vico nucupato (the flete strete). Anno dni. M.CCCCCxvi. . xxvii. die Februarii. . Leaf 341 obverse has the woodcut as appears on leaf 1; on the reverse is the Caxton woodcut imprint bearing the letters W C Small folio, fine copy in brown morocco, gilt edges 1516 36 00 The first leaf is a facsimile, but the impression of the same design on the last leaf is genuine. This copy belonged successively to William Maskell, Beresford Hope, and W. C. Borlase. 92 ANTHONY WOODVILLE, LORD RIVERS, 1442-1483. |