[Confessio amantis].

Author
Gower, John, 1325?-1408 [Browse]
Format
Manuscript, Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
[London, England?] ; [between 1400 and 1425]
Description
194 leaves : parchment, illustrations ; 384 x 260 (265-275 x 170) mm bound to 398 x 280 mm.

Details

Subject(s)
Former owner
Bookseller
Donor
Related name
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: "Torpor hebes sensus scola parua labor minimusque Causant quo minimus ipse minora canam. Qua tum Engisti lingua canit insula bruti anglica carmente metra iuuante loquar ..."
  • Explicit: "Explicit iste liber qui transeat obsecro liber, vt sine liuore vigeat lectoris in ore ... Carminus athleta Satirus tibi siue Poeta, Sit laus completa quo gloria stat sine meta."
  • Ms. codex.
  • Title supplied by cataloger.
  • Table of contents for books 1-7 added on flyleaf i verso. Folios 187r-194v contain a number of ballads and poems.
  • Collation: Parchment ; fol. i (marbled paper) + ii + 194 + i (marbled paper) ; foliation in ink re-starting at the opening of each book ; modern foliation in pencil.
  • Layout: 46 lines per page in two columns ; ruled.
  • Description: Running titles.
  • Decoration: Prologue opens with a framed 13-line column initial of Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of precious metals with a now-illegible banderole to the right, and a demi-vinet border of orange, blue, and ochre flowers with branching from gold and blue bar in the left margin (fol. 1r). An old man in blue seated on a canopied pedestal on the right. Opening initial of the prologue historiated with a young man in blue pointing to bookshelves (fol. 1r). Books open with large initials in gold, red, blue and white with border similar to fol. 1r, other sections with smaller, less ornate blue and red colored intials.
  • Origin: Probably written in London in the early part of the 15th century.
Binding note
Later binding. England, 18th century. Parchment over pasteboard, with gold tooling; sewn on 5 cords; endbands with secondary sewing in blue and tan; spine gilt with 5 stamps.
Language note
Middle English;
Script
Anglicana formata.
Provenance
Early provenance is unknown. In the 16th century owned by Johannes Saxeus. Purchased in 1803 by Richard Heber. Sold from his collection by Robert Harding Evans in 1836 to Sir Thomas Phillipps. A.S.W. Rosenbach purchased the manuscript in 1923 from Phillipps' grandson. Acquired by John F. Fleming who sold it in 1956 to Robert H. Taylor. His bequest to the Princeton University Library, 1985.
Source acquisition
Gift of Robert H. Taylor.
References
Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 1, pages 411-415.
Other format(s)
Also available in an electronic version.
Place name(s)
England London
Title on spine
  • Gower ms.
OCLC
1423077889
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