[Confessio amantis]

Author
Gower, John, 1325?-1408 [Browse]
Format
Manuscript, Book
Language
  • Middle English (1100-1500)
  • Latin
Published/​Created
[England], [between 1400 and 1425]
Description
191 leaves : parchment ; 233 x 158 (184 x 130) mm bound to 245 x 174 mm.

Availability

Available Online

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Special Collections - Manuscripts Garrett MS. 136 Browse related items Reading Room Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Former owner
    Bookseller
    Donor
    Library of Congress genre(s)
    Rare books genre
    Getty AAT genre
    Summary note
    Gower's poem using the confression of an ageing lover to a chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems.
    Notes
    • Incipit: “Torpior(!) obes(!) sensus scola parua labor minimusque Causant quo minimus ipse minora canam. Qua tamen engisti lingua canit insula bruti Anglica cauente(!) metra iuuante loquar. Ossibus ergo carens qua conterit ossa loquelis; Absit et interpres stet procul oro malus. Incipit Prologus. Of hem þat wryten vs tofore, þe bokes dwelle and we þerefore, be tau3t of þat wat writen þo…”
    • Explicit: [book 8]: “Where resteþ loue and al pes, Oure joy may be endeles. Amen Amen Amen. Explicit iste liber."
    • Ms. codex.
    • Title supplied by cataloger.
    • Collation: Parchment ; fol. ii (paper) + 191 + ii (paper) ; modern foliation in pencil.
    • Layout: 36-42 lines in two columns ; lightly frame-ruled in brown ink.
    • Decoration: The prologue and books 1-8 open with a 2- to 6-line blue initial with red penwork. Divisions within books marked with similar 1- to 2-line initials.
    Binding note
    England, early 19th century. Diced Russia leather of tan color over pasteboard, rebacked. Blind-stamped and gold-tooled decorative edging on covers. Gold-stamped decoration on spine. Brown paper pastedowns and flyleaves. Gilt edges.
    Language note
    Middle English; prefatory matter in Latin;
    Script
    Anglicana formata.
    Provenance
    Unknown early provenance. Various unidentified dealer's markings appear on fols. [i]v and [ii]r. Owned by Rev. Henry Drury who may have acquired it from the bookseller Thomas Norton Longman. Purchased by bookseller Thomas Thorpe for Sir Thomas Phillips. Sold from his collection in 1899 by Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge to Bernard Quaritch, who sold it to Robert Garrett on 1 October 1905. His gift to the Princeton University Library, 1942.
    Source acquisition
    Gift Robert Garrett, Princeton Class of 1897, 1942.
    References
    Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 1, pages 313-315.
    Other format(s)
    Also available in an electronic version.
    Place name(s)
    England.
    Other title(s)
    Gower's Confessio amantis
    OCLC
    1099489325
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