Anglo-Norman French, c.1250-1300. 171 ff
The volume contains two Anglo-Norman French texts bound together, both in the same hand. The entire book is written in double columns of 42 lines. Throughout the text are decorated four-line capitals in red and blue penwork extending into the borders with a six-line initial A at the opening of the 'Mirur'.
Dating is based on the most recent catalogue description: second half of the 13th century (Reference: The Wollaton Medieval Manuscripts).
The first of the texts is an incomplete copy of the Anglo-Norman French text 'Le Manuel des Péchés' by William of Waddington (here given as Waldingdune). William of Waddington (in the West Riding) composed his 'Handbook of Sins' c.1220-1240 to instruct the laity in their preparation for Confession. It gives advice on the consequences of sin and advocates living a moral life, using examples taken from the Bible, the lives of the saints, and other well-known stories. The first 2,181 lines of this text are missing. Robert Manning's 'Handlyng Synne' is an English verse https://mss-cat.nottingham.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=WLC%2fLM%2f4adaptation of this text, written in 1303.
The second of the texts is a copy of the Mirur, described under WLC/LM/3.
Image shows f. 100r
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View zoomable images of the following folios from WLC/LM/4, together with transcriptions and translations of selected parts of the text, on our Wives, Widows and Wimples online learning resource:
Further Reading
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Historical Manuscript Commission, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton Preserved at Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, compiled by W. H. Stevenson (London:, 1911),pp. 220-1.
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Thorlac Turville-Petre and Dorothy Johnston, Image & Text: Medieval Manuscripts at the University of Nottingham (Nottingham: Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham Arts Centre, 1996), p. 10.
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Catalogue description by R. Hanna, in Ralph Hanna and Thorlac Turville-Petre (eds), The Wollaton Medieval Manuscripts: Texts, Owners and Readers (Boydell and Brewer, 2010)
Published edition: F. J. Furnivall, (ed.). Robert of Brunne's handlyng synne, and its French original. 2 vols (Early English Text Society, Original Series, 119, 123). 1901; 1903. The text of the French original is not from WLC/LM/4, but from another manuscript.
Secondary literature:
- E. J. Arnould, Le Manuel des péchés (Paris, 1940), p. 393.
- Ruth J. Dean and Maureen B.M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature: a guide to texts and manuscripts (Anglo-Norman Text Society Occasional Publications Series, 3) (London, 1999), no. 635, pp. 349-351