On the basis of palaeographical evidence, C.E. Wright dates the MS c. 1380, a date roughly corresponding to that of the "end of the fourteenth-century" suggested both in the Herbert Catalogue and the Register.¹

B. Material and size

The MS is vellum measuring approximately 28-28.5cm. x 20.2-21cm. The quire containing Robert of Sicily measures 28cm. x 21cm.

The MS is comprised of ii + 95 folios in 12 quires of 4 bifolia, or 8 leaves, each. Note: 1 leaf is missing from quire #11, the penultimate quire, not the last gathering as Guddat-Figge observes (186). The final quire containing Robert of Sicily is complete. Collation has been a matter of some debate with Idelle Sullens supporting her conjecture that the entire codex may have been rebound based on evidence that Robert of Sicily "is in a different hand and begins a new gathering."² While the former has been confirmed, the latter, as has also been noted by A.S.G. Edwards, is incorrect: Robert of Sicily has been included in order to complete the final quire.³

Folios are numbered in pencil by a later hand. Remnants of signatures appear on 21 folios from ff. 19 to 83 in the hand of Scribe 1. Changes in the signatures appear to correspond roughly to the quires. None of the scribes employs catchwords.

The vellum is darkened about the edges from use, but generally the MS is in good condition. The last leaf which contains the Clementine Mass, is darkened and stained; much of the text is obscured but legible.

The title of item 1[ f. 1r], Here bygynne†h the boke †at men clepyn yn frenshe manuele peche..., Handlyng Synne, is in red ink as are running titles throughout this text. The text is set off by a 3-line, 2.5cm. golden initial from which the purple pen-flourish decoration has all but completely faded. Elaborate purple flourishes inside the initial and alongside the text are visible at four major divisions dealing with the seven deadly sins [f. 20v]; sacrilege [f. 57r]; the seven sacraments [f. 63r]; and shrift [f. 75r]. Further divisions within these sections such as enumerated commandments and types of sin are indicated by 3-line, 2cm. blue initials decorated with red flourishes. The subdivisions of shrift are indicated in red. Each tale is introduced by a marginal note "A tale" in the same hand. The first letter of a verse is usually touched with red, although this is not consistent throughout and becomes more sporadic in the section on shrift. The explicit "here endy† manuel peche" is in red.

Item 2 [f. 84r], Here begynne† medytacyuns of †e soper of oure lorde Jhesu, is set off with a 3-line golden initial with purple flourish. After a preface, the text begins with "Now of †e soper of oure lorde..." in red, set off by a 2-line blue intial decorated with elaborate red flourishes. In this work, the first letter of every verse is touched in red. In a section titled "the four†e poynt of †e soper," there are 5 blue paraph markers indicating the subdivisions within this point.

Item 3 [f. 92r], Robert of Sicily, was clearly intended to be titled--which it is not--and decorated with 3-line intials at five points in the text:

In each case space is allocated and the appropriate initial is noted for the MS decorator whose task is never taken up.

Three distinct hands can be distinguished:

All three hands have been indentified as Anglicana Formata (Guddat-Figge 186). The inking is consistent from scribe 1 to scribe 2. By contrast, however, the hand appears smaller and more compressed. A thinner duct facilitates the consistent flourishes that achieve a more refined, calligraphic hand. Scribe 3 is set apart by a larger, more vertical and more rounded hand as we might expect with a Latin text.

Distinctive palaeographical features in Robert of Sicily include the following:

Three forms of lower-case [r] can be distinguished--the long-tailed after o and b, the 2-form, and the short or continental form. The continental form predominates, often in combination with letter-forms in which the shoulder of the [r] all but disappears in the approach and connecting strokes leaving an ambiguous u-shaped remnant. The presence of the continental [r] would, according to Wright, place Robert of Sicily later than 1400, although we recall that he claims a 1380⁴ date. The scribe employs two forms of [s] , the long form and the short, double compartment form predominantly in medial and initial positions respectively. The [e] tends to be open in initial and medial positions, but appears consistently as the closed form in the terminal position. Early in the text the scribe seems somewhat tentative about his use of the yogh: it appears as a mere squiggle but gradually takes on a more "confident" shape.

The [y] is almost always dotted when equivalent to the later [i]; and [i] , of course, represents [j]. The scribe consistently extends the descender of [h] below the line to avoid confusion with [b], but is a good deal less considerate in distinguishing between [u] and [v]: in the initial position a looped approach stroke and left slanting minim help aid in distinguishing what otherwise is the very nearly identical formation of the two letters. The ascender of [h] is consistently crossed in combination with [t]. Standard abbreviations such as the crossed [p] and apostrophe-curl are employed, but determining some abbreviations and the presence of a final [e] is made more difficult by "otiose"calligraphic hairline flourishes particularly on the lift-offs of [r], [g], [h], [f], [d], and [t].

With the exception of the Clementine Mass, the text is presented in two columns of 38 lines each. Margins are 1.5 cm. top; 4.5 cm. bottom; and 3 cm. side so that the script fills most of the leaf. Pricking is prominent, and the leaves are carefully lined. In items 1 and 2 the couplets are bracketed in red. Overall, the MS appears to have been carefully planned, if not completely executed.

Occasionally hatchmarks + in the bottom margin indicate that a line of verse has been omitted. Due to the general care taken by the scribes, few scribal corrections appear in the margins. On f. 27v a scribble in black ink is indecipherable. A large X that marks the lower left margin of f. 51v col. a seems inexplicable until one notes that this section of Handlyng Synne takes up the subject of lechery. The form [Ihe] or Jhesu is discernible in the upper right margin of f. 77r; the text surrounding it has been erased. A rectangularly-enclosed cross appears a few inches below this inscription. In the top right corner of f. 83v [Be it kn__n all men by] has been inscribed, then erased. As what appears to be a reading aid, "shrifte" is written in the top margin of f. 84r col. a and is repeated--in similar ink but a different hand--over column b.

The provenance of Harley 1701 is unknown, but the Atlas, basing its linguistic profile on F.J. Furnivall's 1901 edition of Handlyng Synne⁵ enables us to posit an informed speculation. The linguistic profile places the MS in Buckinghamshire and more specifically, in the projection of the county that borders on the counties of Bedford and Hertford in the more immediate vicinity of the modern town of Ivinghoe, situated between Dunstable to the north in Bedfordshire and Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire) to the south⁶. It should be noted that Robert of Sicily generally conforms to this linguistic profile.

Taking into account the exclusively religious contents of the manuscript (see G below)--most especially the liturgical element in the Latin mass--we ought to consider the possibility of monastic provenance. Certainly both lay and monastic communities would have benefited from the instructive matter and enlightening exempla offered by MS Harley 1701 (Guddat-Figge 187). But more convincing is the fact that dialectal evidence supports monastic provenance: within a six to twelve mile radius of Ivinghoe were no fewer than four religious houses and a hospital encompassing the influence and connections of three orders.

Eight miles to the south in Aylesbury, the Franciscan house founded in 1387 was in the custody of Oxford ⁷. Two hospitals founded at the time of Henry I, one dedicated to St. Leonard for the care of lepers and the other, dedicated to St. John the Baptist for the care of the poor, aged, and sick were united in 1384 (Knowles 252). Approximately six miles away in neighboring Bedfordshire, the Dominican house founded in 1259 shared visitation with Cambridge (Knowles 184). Also in Dunstable, a priory of Augustinian Canons founded on Christmas, 1131, retained dependencies in Bradbourne and Ruxox. Also following the rule of St. Augustine, the order of Bonshommes at Ashford to the south, founded in 1283, prospered under the generous endowment the Black Prince (Knowles 179). And in Woburn, some twelve miles to the north, the Cistercian Abbey founded in 1145 was forced to disband at one point due to poverty but returned to prosperity to become one of the greater abbeys. The mother house for Woburn was Fountains Abbey (Knowles 118).

All of these religious houses remained active, although not without fluctuations in membership, until the general dissolution in 1538. Considering the relative density and diversity of monastic activity in the region, it is reasonable to assume that one or more houses were actively engaged in producing books. In her recent edition of Handlyng Synne, Idelle Sullens strengthens the claim for monastic provenance. She notes that annotations in the Bodley MS 415 version of Handlyng Synne identify it as a product of the library and scriptorium of the College of Bonhommes at Ashridge, Buckinghamshire. Based on dialectal and decorative similarities, she argues that the Bodley MS, the Folger MS V.b236, and the Harley 1701 versions of Handlyng Synne were produced in the same scriptorium ⁸. We are not necessarily limited to an Ashridge provenance, however. An Ashridge provenance, although a bit south of the locale designated in the Atlas , does not preclude the possibilty that the manuscript or its exemplar found its way to the Augustinian house in Dunstable, or that the scribe traveled between these or any other religious houses. It is not unlikely that in various stages of production exemplars, scribes, and decorators--not to mention the manuscript itself--may have circulated among scriptoria. Somewhere along the line, the decorator did not catch up with the final booklet or quire of BL Harley 1701.

BL Harley 1701 was compiled as a religious miscellany.

The MS includes four items:

The MS includes four items:

It is the Clementine Mass that appears in every respect to be an afterthought. The selection of Robert of Sicily was not based on its brevity alone but on its merit as a particularly apt and complementary exemplum. Of the tales illustrating pride, the first of the deadly sins in Handlyng Synne --the "Hypocritical Monk," the "Proud Lady," and the "Backbiting Monk"-- none appears to examine or illuminate the narrator's commentary on this fundamental disobedience to the spiritual father as directly or effectively as Robert of Sicily. The Old Testament figure of Nebuchadnezzar is given a somewhat different treatment in the romance, the emphasis being more on his personal penance and redemption than on the significance of his dreams and the role of Daniel. Not unexpectedly, the two works share a number of stock phrases: the description of King Robert echoes Brunne's figure of Balthazar, the exemplum of sacrilege who also was "a kyng of grete powere // Yn hys tyme was none hys pere" ( ll. 9347-48), and the tenuousness of Robert's position is expressed under the heading of Pride: "To day ys hegh, te morwe ys lowe" (l. 3100)⁹. In its "handlyng of synne," then, Robert of Sicily fills out the manuscript thematically as well as physically, providing a concise, dramatic synthesis of the themes treated in the major text.

BL Harley 1701 is a religious miscellany which appears to have been planned and executed in different stages, changing scribes and perhaps locations. Although modest, the manuscript reflects care in almost every aspect of its design, a quality that suggests that its incomplete state--both quantitatively and artistically--is due more to a glitch in the system or its management than to carelessness on the part of the artisan or scribe. The fact that decoration consistent with items 1 and 2 is planned, albeit never executed, in Robert of Sicily suggests that the romance was added a relatively short time later. There is no indication that the quire was left unattended for a long period of time or that it circulated independently--it contained, after all, a conclusion of item 2. With its elaborate rubrication and rhetorical subdivisions, the manuscript appears specifically designed for the pulpit; its modest size, however, does not preclude private reading. The inclusion of a Latin liturgical item supports a clerical provenance without necessarily excluding a lay audience. A monastic provenance in a region populated with religious houses (see E above), several of which maintained official connections among themselves or with greater or dependent houses, suggests the possibility of a provincial network that would facilitate both the production and transmission of manuscripts.

Nothing definite can be ascertained regarding the manuscript's early history. On the verso of the fly-leaf, in the upper right-hand corner is written: [Thys booke was written in Anno dom__ 1303], a reference no doubt to the dating of Brunne's translation of Handlyng Synne. On f. 1r after the title in the top margin, [In domine] is written in brown ink, in a different hand; the bottom margin bears another inscription [1303] enclosed in a rectangle. While these later inscriptions help establish the dating for Brunne's translation, they shed little light on the compilation of the codex as a whole.

Based on a transaction involving another group of Harleian manuscripts that was purchased by Robert Harley in 1710 through the Bishop of Chester acting on behalf of a Randle Holme, the last male survivor of a family of heraldic painters in Chester, C.E. Wright deduces that the acquisition of the group of manuscripts containing Harley 1701 must have occurred before 1710¹⁰. These manuscripts were a gift to Robert Harley from Col Henry Worley, d. 1747, a member of the Appuldurcome family from the Isle of Wight¹¹. Worsley, owned Harley MSS 1585-1747¹², a group of manuscripts Wanley began to catalogue in his Catalogus Brevior--now BL MS Additional 45705--in December 1712. ¹³

1 C.E. Wright, English Vernacular Hands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Centuries, Oxford Palaeographical Handbooks (1960; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969) 12 (facsimile of f. 12v) and 13. See also H.L. D. Ward and J.A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols. (1883-1910); London, 1961) 3: 303.

2 Idelle Sullens, ed., Robert Mannyng of Brunne "Handlyng Synne," Medieval and Renaissance Texts & Studies 14 (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1983) xxviii.

3 A.S.G. Edwards, "The Contexts of the Vernon Romances," Studies in the Vernon MS, ed. Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1990) 163n21.

4 Wright xv. Wright bases his dating of the MS on forms in Handlyng Synne.

5 F.J. Furnivall, ed. Robert of Brunne’s "Handlyng Synne" and its French Original, EETS os 119,123 (1901-03; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubneer, 1973). See citation for Atlas note 6 below.

6 See specifically I: 110 of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieaveal English, eds. A.McIntosh, M.L. Samuels, and Michael Benskin (Aberdeen: Aberdeen UP, 1986) which notes the sample for analysis. See also the Linguistic Profile 6630; II: 14-15; Grid 495 218 Buckinghamshire; IV: 327,333 and Map 5 338.

7 David Knowles and R. Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses in England and Wales (London: Longmans, Green, 1953) 189.

8 Sullens, xxii - iii and xlii note18, argues a date of 1400. See also H.C. Schultz, "The Monastic Library and Scriptorium at Ashridge," Huntington Library Quarterly 1 (1937-38): 305-11.

9 Furnivall, 16-171, 109, and 193, respectively. These passages correspond to l. 9355 and l. 2995 in the Sullens edition.

10 C.E. Wright and Ruth Wright, The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, I: 1715-23 (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1966) xx. See also C.E. Wright, "Portrait of a Bibliophile vii[sic] Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, 1689-1741," The Book Collector 11 (1962): 161.

11 Wright, Diary, xix.

12 See C.E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani:: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum, British Museum Bicentenary Publications 3 (London, 1972) 361--verified in Wanley’s hand in the Catalogus Brevior preceding 1585 and after 1747.

13 Wright, Diary, xix.