Details

Subject(s)

• Christian poetry, English (Middle) [Browse]
• Love poetry, English (Middle) [Browse]
• Christian ethics—Poetry—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Courtly love—Poetry—Early works to 1800 [Browse]
• Manuscripts, English (Middle)—England [Browse]
• Manuscripts, English (Middle)—New Jersey—Princeton [Browse]

Former owner

• Drury, Henry, 1778-1841 [Browse]
• Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872 [Browse]
• Garrett, Robert, 1875-1961 [Browse]

Bookseller

• Longman, Thomas Norton, 1771-1842 [Browse]
• Thorpe, Thomas, 1791-1851 [Browse]
• Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge [Browse]
• Bernard Quaritch (Firm) [Browse]

Donor

• Garrett, Robert, 1875-1961 [Browse]

Related name

• Princeton University. Library. Manuscript. Garrett MS. 136 [Browse]

Library of Congress genre(s)

• Poetry [Browse]

Rare books genre

• Blind tooled bindings [Browse]
• Gold tooled bindings [Browse]
• Gilt edges [Browse]
• Parchment (Paper) [Browse]

Getty AAT genre

• decorated initials [Browse]
• illuminated manuscripts [Browse]

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

Later binding. 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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