FLORARIUM BARTHOLOMAEI AND OTHER TEXTS.

Sion L40.2/L15

FLORARIUM BARTHOLOMAEI AND OTHER TEXTS.

1447

The 'Florarium Bartholomaei' by John Mirfield (d. 1407), and other texts. Copied in Swine, East Riding of Yorkshire, by John Hebyn, in 1447. ff. 1r-164v. 'Florarium Bartholomaei', an abbreviated version of the religious encyclopaedia covering the health of the spirit, Abstinentia to Usura, by John Mirfield, also known as John of Mirfield or Johannes de Mirfield (d. 1407), a priest and chaplain of the Hospital of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, London. On John Mirfield see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and P. H.-S. Hartley and H. R. Aldridge, 'Johannes de Mirfeld of St Bartholomew's, Smithfield: his life and works' (1936). Cf. the catalogue description of British Library MS. Royal 7 F. xi, which quotes the couplet 'Ad Ihesus incipies ...' giving the clue to the author's name. Begins (f. 1r); 'Ad Ihesus incipies ... Gracias ago gracie largitori ...'. Ends (f. 163r): '... regnum et imperium per infinita seculorum secula Amen ita fiat. Explicit quoddam memoriale Florarii Bartholomei per quodlibet capitulum in modico a quodam licet indigno perstrictum. altissimo collaudato'. Probably three leaves are missing after f. 69 and two after f. 86. The chapters are numbered up to 175 in the table on ff. 163-164v, but not in the text. At f. 164v is the scribe's inscription: 'M. cum quater .C. anno domini simul .x. et. Primo namque die Mensis Julii sibi cesset. Anno domini Millesimo CCCCmo .xl vii. Amen quod Johannes hebyn Diaconus'. Mirfield died 1407, so could not have completed the Florarium in 1410 as the scribe thought (see P. H.-S. Hartley and H. R. Aldridge, pp. 102-3, who suggest Hebyn may have miscopied an Arabic '4' as the Roman numeral 'x'). ff. 164v-185v. Hic incipiunt Diffiniciones virtutum. per diuersa capitula. Virtus est habitus mentis bene constitute ... vel suspense et cetera. Explicit hic tractus iam per compendia tactus. Amen'. ff. 185v-195v. Mixed prose and verse, all in one hand, including: (a) f. 186r-v. 'Cur mundus militat ... mundum conte(m)pnere. Explicit hic ritmus' (b) ff. 186v-187r. 'Dum mortem cogito ... vado mori' (c) ff. 187r-189r. 'De Miseria Condicionis humane Quere ritmum sequentem. Post tempus horridum ... adimplet sacculos' (d) ff. 189r-190r, 192v-193r. 107 lines of verse in forty divisions of from one to ten lines: at the end 'Explicit liber', but benedictions and prayers in the same hand continue to f. 195v and end there imperfectly (e) in spaces remaining blank after the lines of verse on ff. 186-90, verses on St. George, 'Debita milicie statuuntur prelia quinque ...' (7 lines, f. 188v) and verses 'In senium vergo ...'. (2 lines, f. 189). (a, b). 40 and 30 lines of verse: H. Walther, 'Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris Latinorum', Carmina Medii Aevi Posterioris Latina, i (Göttingen, 1959), nos. 3934, 4907. (c). The first 128 lines of a poem of 148 lines printed by M. Esposito in English Historical Review xxxii (1917), 402. (d). Verses concerned mainly with death: 1. Si vis gaudere. cristo sine fine placere ... (4). 2. Quantus erit fructus dum dixerit ipse venite ... (3: cf. H. Walther, 'Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters', Carmina Medii Aevi Posterioris Latina, ii, 5 vols. (Göttingen, 1963-7), no. 23647). 3. Prauorum demon caput est eiusque maligni ... (3). 4. Mors necat absque mora necis cum venerit hora ... (2). 5. Regia magestas ... (4: Walther, Initia, no. 16501b). 6. Extolli prauos permittit summa potestas ... (2). 7. Inter res certas nichil est incertius hora ... (3). 8. Quid mundi flores quid prosunt eius honores ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 25097). 9. Mors cunctis dura ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 15124). 10. Mors resecat ... (2: Walther, Initia, no. 11271). 11. Quis redimit cum mors perimit quia federa nuncquam ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 25436). 12. Die homo mortalis die ... (3: Walther, Initia, no. 4358). 13. Cum tumulum cernis ... (4: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 4555, has the first two lines: the third and fourth are Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 32162.) 14. Est locus indignis ... (2: Walther, Initia, no. 5724). 15. Quanto dignior es. per genus aut per honores ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 23585). 16. In me cognosce ... (4: Walther, Initia, no. 8989). 17. Non poteris melius vnquam caro viua domari . . . (2). 18. Si vis morte mori consenti carnis amori ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 29403). 19. Non homo securus hodie vel eras moriturus ... (2). 20. Die homo quid speres ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 5559). 21. Vir videas ... (4: Walther, Initia, no. 20431). 22. Colloquia visus ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 2956). 23. Dum quid habere putor ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 6676). 24. Est puer incultus ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 7820). 25. Dum puer ens crescit et non crescendo pauescit ... (2). 26. Mors tua ... (2: Walther, Initia, no. 11275). 27. Ve michi nascenti ... (2: Walther, Initia, no. 19974). 28. Diues ait ... (5: Walther, Initia, no. 4614). 29. Cristus homo cristus ... (4: Walther, Initia, no. 2770). 30. Detur honor patri prelato presbiteroque ... (3). 31. Non tibi sit venter ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 18609). 32. O diues diues ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 19451). 33. Inconstans animus ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 12214). 34. Si vitare velis venerem loca tempora vita ... (4: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 29437). 35. Si quadam virtute nites ne despice quemquam ... (2: Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 28892). 36. ff. 192v-3 Hic iacet in tumulo corpus scogan ecce Iohannis / Sit tibi pro speculo letus fuit eius in annis ... (10). These verses seem to be evidence for the existence of John Scogan in the 15th century: cf. DNB 37. Cum perit interius sacer actus irreuerenter ... (2). 38. Ignitum pectus ignea verba dabit ... (3). 39. Aggrediamur opus melior fortuna sequetur. Gracia principiis semper respondet honestis (Walther, Sprichwörter, nos. 720, 10423). Amen. ita fiat. (e). 'In senium vergo ...' is nearly as H. Walther, Sprichwörter, no. 467, lines 1, 2. At f. 193r is the scribe's inscription: 'Nunc finem feci penitet me si male scripci Amen quod Johannes hebynum (sic) de swynum, clericus. Explicit liber'. Swine is near Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Sion L40.2/L13-15 were given to Sion College by the same donor in 1664; Sion L40.2/L14 and L15 both have a provenance from the East Riding of Yorkshire, near to Kingston upon Hull. See also Description field.

Latin

195 ff.

Open

Written in Swine, East Riding of Yorkshire, by John Hebyn (see ff. 164v and 193r) in 1447. According to the Sion College Benefactors' Register, John Bradshaw, Rector of St. George's, Botolph Lane, London, gave Sion L40.2/L13-15 in 1664 (Sion L40.2/E64, p. 85). Recorded by John Spencer with the pre-Fire of London shelfmark Y19 (Sion L40.2/E169). Recorded at Sion College in Edward Bernard, 'Catalogi Manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae' (Oxford, 1697), vol 2, no. 4080. Transferred from Sion College to Lambeth Palace Library, 1996.

Leather binding 221 x 158 mm., early 19th cent (as in Sion L40.2/L4, 13-14). Parchment and paper leaves, mixed. 212 x 140 mm. Written space c. 175 x 120 mm. 31-35 long lines. Foliated 1-48, 48*, 49-133, 133*, 134-95. Collation: 1-2(24); 3(24) wants 23, 24 after f. 69; 4(24) wants 1 before f. 70 and 19, 20 after f. 86: a small fragment of 4(19) remains; 5-8(24); 9 ten (ff. 186-95). Written in cursive anglicana. Initials: (i) f. 1, 3-line, red; (ii) 2-line, not entered. Secundo folio 'homo quod'.