Middle English Manuscripts : Later Version Wycliffe Bible

Middle English Manuscripts

The second volume of a two-volume Bible in the later Wycliffite version, beginning at Proverbs, preceded by a table of lessons, epistles and Gospels for the year according to the use of Salisbury. <p style='text-align: justify;'>(1) folios <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>1r-9r</a>, 'Heere bigynneþ a reule þt telleþ in whate chapiters of þe bible ȝe may fynde all þo pistles and þe gospels in al þe ȝer after Salisbery vs markid wt letteris of þe a.b.c at þe begynning and endiþ wt strikys.' Forshall and Madden, iv. 683-98, but the text here and in Eng. MSS 76, 77, 78 and 80 differs substantially from theirs, which goes with the earlier Wycliffite version. A table for the common of saints is not provided here or in Eng. MSS 76, 77, 78 and 80: cf. Forshall and Madden, p. 696, footnote. Commemorations precede the sanctoral, as in MS. Eng. 77. They differ from other Rylands copies by making no mention of Salus populi as part of the commemoration of brothers and sisters.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>(2) folios <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(21);return false;'>10r-272r</a>, The second volume of a Bible in the later Wycliffite version, beginning at Proverbs. There are the usual prologues throughout the New Testament, but in the Old Testament only at Isaiah and Baruch. From quire 11 (folios <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(165);return false;'>82r-89r</a>) onwards the outside leaves of every quire show offsetting from other outside leaves; for example, part of folio <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(477);return false;'>238r-289v</a> (start of quire 31) has offset onto folio <a dir='auto' href='' onclick='store.loadPage(180);return false;'>89v</a> (end of quire 11), except for the red ornament of the blue initial T.</p>