Confessio Amantis, unfinished (no text for most of Book V nor any for Book VIII, about the equivalent of 12,000 lines in all).

London, s.xv, first quarter.

Contents

(ff. 1ra–130vb) Confessio Amantis Prologue 1–VII.3683

Prologue (fol. 1ra–7va); Book I (fol. 7va–27va); Book II (fol. 27va–48ra); Book III (fol. 48ra–64ra); Book IV (fol. 64ra–85ra), half of 85ra and all of 85v being blank, there following a blank and a numbered blank fol. 86 (stub remaining); Book V begins imperfect (fol. 87ra), the lacuna in the text having run from V.1–1442, neither foliated nor counted in the collation, followed by four leaves fols 87ra–90vb with text of V.1443–2149, fols 91–92 blank, fols 93–94 cut out, stubs remaining, and a lacuna in the text from V.2150–7844end; Book VI (fol. 95ra–108va); Book VII (fol. 108vb) breaks off at VII.3683, fol. 130vb, therefore lacking 3684–5438end; Book VIII is absent. A number of single lines were omitted early in the copying, and blanks left. On three occasions long passages were omitted, with loss of text at V.1–1442, V.2150–7844 and VII.3684–5438end, plus all of Book VIII, these lacunae not accounted for by lost leaves and not represented in the collation. There may have been problems in the acquisition of copy or in the organisation of production, or a patron may have died (the planned illustration and decoration was never carried out). For the omission of I.161, with ‘Iohn Gowere’ named, see the description of Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 693, in this Catalogue.

NB the last quire, fols 127ra–130vb, was written by the same hand as the rest of the MS but in a bolder script and with more pen-line decoration on ascenders than elsewhere in the MS. These four leaves are also thicker and stiffer than others in the MS. They were formerly misbound, as was quire xiii.

Text: Ic (Macaulay [ed.], Works, II.cl), sigil D. Macaulay’s description of the MS is out-of-date, since it has been rebound since his time and the foliation corrected.