d'Amour: and it may be that the so-called Stimulus Conscientiæ, of which the Prick of Conscience is the avowed translation, may be traced originally to Grosseteste. But the other French work, the Manuel des péchés, also translated by Mannyng and called the Handlyng Synne, is now generally considered to be the work of William de Wadington. The two English treatises more especially assigned to Grosseteste-viz. the Prick of Conscience and the Tract on the Lord's Prayer-are almost certainly both the work of Richard Rolle of Hampole. It has not been definitely ascertained that Grosseteste wrote anything in English except a few sermons, and perhaps a translation of Walter of Henley's Book of Husbandry. We may therefore exclude Grosseteste from the authorship of these two short poems. The author of the Prick of Conscience or of the Handlyng Synne are far more likely, both being known as praçtised writers of English verse. How Another contemporary English writer is the author of the Ayenbite of Inwyt, or Remorse of Conscience, who composed his work, as he tells us, out of the Somme des Vices et de Virtues-sometimes called, but not correctly, La Somme le Roi and Le Miroir du Monde. near these are to the Mirrour de la Vie, the Mirrour of Lyfe now standing on the flyleaf of the MS. before us! Le Somme des Vices, &c., was originally composed in 1279 for Philip Augustus of France by Friar Lorens, a Dominican. The Ayenbite was composed in 1340 by Dan Michel of Northgate, Canterbury. Perhaps the final test of authorship will have to rest on the evidence of dialect. Hampole wrote in Northumbrian, Mannyng in Lincoln or Middle English, Michel in Kentish. On the whole the spelling inclines apparently to the Northern dialect, which would attach it to Hampole. £ 8. d. THE GILL PSALTER. PSALTERIUM DAVIDIS AD USUM SARISBURIENSEM (cum Sanctus, Hymnis, Credo, Precibus, etc.) una cum Calendario. Sm. folio, ENGLISH MS. ON VELLUM, 115 leaves, finely written in Gothic characters in red and black, with musical notes, long lines, the text of the Psalms having 23 lines to the page; 9 pages having VERY FINELY DECORATED AND ILLUMINATED BORDERS and LARGE INITIALS of rich flower scroll-work of characteristic English style, many ornamental pen-leiters with marginal decorations, and hundreds of initials painted in red and blue; in a sixteenth century English binding of black morocco gilt, gilt edges Sac. XIV-XV 260 0 0 AN INTERESTING AND WELL-PRESERVED MANUSCRIPT, WITH HANDSOME ARTISTIC DECORATION. : The MS. begins with the Calendar beautifully written in the usual English Gothic of the middle of the 15th century, in black and red the initials KL in blue, with red penwork, and paragraph marks of the same kind. The Calendar is in full form, viz. 5 columns. 1. The Golden number or Epact; 2. Dominical letter; 3. Roman notation; 4. Ditto; 5. Names of Festivals, etc. In the last the greater Festivals are red, the rest black. Indeed, the Calendar is one of the completest, and contains the notification of everything necessary to the services of the Church, and moreover, in several vacant places has been filled in with entries in a somewhat later cursive hand relating to the Obits of members of the families of Gill and Sturdy. The erasure on the Nonas or 5th Jan. is of the name of St. Thomas of Canterbury, whose Octave occurred on this day. We shall find it similarly erased on Dec. 29 and July 7. Other commemorations of St. Thomas (and by the same rule every allusion to popery, as the Catholic Faith was bitterly called by the Reformers), is in like manner either erased or cancelled: the Octave of St. Sylvester, 7th Jan. (and 31st Dec.) for example. On the 16th Jan. the entry was originally Sci Marcelli [pape et] martyris. The entry on 7th Jan. after the erasure Anno dñi millesio iiijco xlvo do lita b," whatever the erasure may have been, is an error as to the Dominical Letter, which for 1445 was c, not b. Note that at the end of Jan. the full holidays are recorded, on which no work was to be done, viz. Epiphany, St. Vincent's Day, and the Conversion of St. Paul. In this Calendar the holidays of each month are literally redletter days, free from " omnibus operibus "-all works. It is one of the exceptional few that are worth attention as containing occasional notes of historical importance: e.g., on May 25th is a note that on this day was laid the foundation of the new Church of Sarum in the year 1300. [It may be thought that this is a reference to the New Cathedral founded by Richard Poore A.D. 1220. The date given by the chroniclers was the Day of St. Vitalis, viz. the 4th of the calends of May (28th April). The present Cathedral-the New Church of Sarum-was completed by Bp. Giles de Bridport, Sept. 30th, 1258.] The obituary notice on Sept. 10 is at least fifty years later than the text-probably more. Robert Gille died this day in 1448 (which was a Leap Year and F the Doml. Letter for the part of it after St. Matthias. Hence the note). The Family of Gille or Gyll belonged to co. Herts. On October 20th mention is made of the death of John Sturdy in the year 1452, which was a Leap Year, with two Dominical letters: B for the part before St. Matthias's Day and A for the rest of the year. See pedigree of the Gylls in Lipscombe's Hist. of Bucks, iv, 606, and Collect. Topogr., viii, Berry's Herts, etc., but I find no notice of this Robert or of the Sturdys. The Psalter consists of the whole Book of Psalms from 1st to 150th, and is followed by Canticles, the Athanasian Creed, and Te Deum, with Hymns, etc. The handwriting of the Psalms seems to be somewhat older than that of the Calendar and the musical supplement. This earlier hand, however, continued from about 1380 till soon after the commencement of the 15th century; the later hand from c. 1420 to the end of the century. The copyist is not always accurate in his spelling nor has he been very careful to avoid errors of omission, repetition or erasure. In the very first line he spells abiit, abbiit, and at top of fol. 8 v. leaves out the word misericordie. Lower down on same page he writes ora for ossa and erases it. On fol. 12 he writes superavi for speravi. In other cases he has numerous erasures. He was clearly not thinking of what he wrote; but perhaps his worst mistake is on fol. 18 in the first line of Psalm 23 which he has not corrected: where he says, "Dominus regit me et nichil mihi (m) dederit" instead of "deerit," i.e." he will have given me nothing," instead of "I shall want nothing." Neither is he very particular in the distribution of capital letters-sometimes putting a large one to a verse in the midst of a psalm. But he is very ingenious in his scheme for keeping all the initials of the larger sort to the left margin where they can be flourished by the illuminator, e. g. Paratum, fol. 78 v. on fol. 78 Legem pone is put before the last three words of the preceding Psalm. This clearly shows that it was the writer's device for keeping the large initials to the left margin. £ From the preponderance of names of Benedictine Saints in the Calendar and Litany one would be inclined to believe the MS. to have been executed for the private use of some monk or, perhaps, Abbot of that Order. Following the Psalter, etc. come the portions added by the second writer, including the musical portion of the Burial Service— as the Dirge which was sung when the body was laid in the Church on the eve before burial. Then the portion sung after Mass, and lastly that sung at the graveside. On comparison of this MS. with others of about its own age, the closest resemblance is found to three now in the British Museum, viz. 2 A 18, sometimes called the Grandison MS.; 2 B 8 and 2 B 10, both Psalters. Now 2 B 8, fortunately for our comparison, happens to be dated, being written at the instance of the Princess Joan of Kent, mother of Richard II, by brother John Semour, a Franciscan, A.D. 1380. By comparison with these MSS. the present Psalter is shewn to be of about the same age. It is not impossible that the locality of its origin was the scriptoriam of the Abbey of Westminster. All the pedigrees of the Gyll or Gille Families begin later than the date of the Notes in this MS., so that we cannot gain any clue. The name Robert occurs chiefly in the branch, several of whose members were the Keepers of the Royal Lions in the Tower of London, but we cannot say with certainty. Inside the 1st cover is a cusped bookplate with inscription J. A. Carrington Chancellor of the Diocese of Exeter: containing figure of St. Peter (with keys and book) under a Gothic arch between two pillars, on the one on the right of the Apostle a shield with arms of the bishopric of Exeter, on the other an episcopal mitre, and below the arms of Carrington of Devonshire. These arms, plus a mullet in sinister chief, shew this stamp to have been then used by the third son of the Chancellor, his father being still alive. 57 CICERO. ORATIONES. MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER, 223 leaves, finely written in Italian cursive characters, long lines, 33 to a full page, ornamental pen initial letters, etc.DE ORATORE ET DE CLARIS ET ILLUSTRIBUS ORATORIBUS, MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER, 158 leaves, written in small bâtarde cursive Gothic letters, double columns, of 40 lines; the first page decorated with a miniature head of Cicero, and a floral border (several ll. damaged by damp, etc.) In 1 vol., sm. folio, half bound Saec. XV 21 0 0 In the centre of the lower border is a shield gu, with two tau crosses in saltire or; intertwined with the stems supported by two nude fair-haired damsels ppr. The portrait is not unlike that of Cosmo de' Medici. 58 FLORUS (L. A.). Factorum Memorabilium ab urbe condita usque ad tempora Caesaris Augusti libri IV— SEXTI RUFI abbreviatura secundum librorum ordinem ex T. Livio Patavino Sm. folio, MS. ON VELLUM, 163 leaves, finely written in Roman letter, 24 long lines to the full page, with red rubrics; the first page surrounded by a rich DECORATIVE BORDER with five large circular historiated MINIATURES, and smaller ones with heads of emperors, also a large initial P containing a bust of Caesar, with an emblazoned coat of arms in the lower portion of the border; 215 finely painted and £ . FLORUS (L. A.). FACTORUM MEMORABILIUM LIBRI IV, etc., continued :— illuminated ornamental initials, with marginal decorations, some extended; in a contemporary Venetian binding of oaken boards, with blind-stamped ornamental frame and centre ornaments, gilt and gauffred edges Saec. XV 210 0 : This MS. contains the Epitomes of Roman History-both assigned by Salmasius and other critics since his time to Florus-but here attributed 1. to L. Annæus Florus, a writer who is supposed to have flourished under Trajan, and 2. Sextus Ruffus, of whom still less is known. Finely written in the elegant Roman hand so often seen in the MSS. of the Florentine school of illuminators, and in those executed for the Spanish kings of Naples-evidently by a professionel copyist for some Italian nobleman whose arms are ornately painted at foot of the first page. This page has a richly illuminated border containing portrait circlets and scenes from Roman history. In this border is part of an initial A to the summary title Anacephaleosis Septem Regum, etc.; and also a large initial P to the text. ** This MS. is not only curious, and of course rare, as being a MS., but is itself a MS. of great rarity, being a late medieval or rather renaissance transcript of a very unusual author. Indeed it has been thought that the name Florus is merely conjectural, and that the work is really one by Annæus Seneca, the philosopher and tutor of Nero. But this may pass as not proven." A fairly good printed text of this author is that of Cl. Salmasius, published by the Elzevirs in 1638, the readings of which are largely adopted by the later and more critical editors, such as Duker and Rupertus. We may therefore use Salmasius (Ed. 1674) as our reference in glancing through the present MS. But first let us notice the embellishments. Along the top are three fanciful heads, perhaps intended by the illuminator to represent the Author, Our Saviour, and Romulus. Down the inner border are more heads, which we are unable to identify as actual portraits, but are evidently intended as such. Usually in such works the head in the great initial is meant for a portrait of the author of the book-the rest as characters in it. Thus the one above this initial may be Julius Cæsar, the one below, Hannibal. Those in the outer border are evidently three of the later Emperors and the scenes-two of them are clear enough-the two referring to the Twins-the wolf's head in the first and the group in the second being quite to the point. But the upper one, unless it refer to Hannibal and his father, and the battle scenes below, are not so clear. The armorials are on a field pale lozengy gules and or-a bend azure charged with three stars of eight points, within a bordure or, crest a helmet sa. with lambrequin of the charge. The three star bend is far too common in Italian heraldry to assign without overhauling many folios of armorials, but there is no doubt of its being the "stemma" of the patron for whom the MS. was executed. The text begins as usual with the simple heading: "Lucii Annei Flori continentis libro iiijor factorum memorabilium ab urbe condita (A. U. C.) ad tempora Cesaris Augusti imperatoris liber primus foeliciter incipit.' Then the summary referring to the first age (i.e. of the seven Kings). Here we have then-a matter of great interest to the classical scholar-just the ordinary unsifted text of an uncritical and occasionally dozing or, at least, nodding copyist. We may therefore expect, as we certainly find, many verbal variations from the printed text: such, e. g. as viderentur for videantur; in Cesarem for usque *In add. MS. 26068 Brit. Mus. he is called the father of Lucan and brother of Seneca. This may be true. Cesarum, and now and then still more terrible differences.* The Books and chapters are on the whole identical, but not absolutely. The four great sections, or Books as they are called, are said to deal with the four ages of the Roman People-its infancy, youth, manhood and senility. Book I gives 7 chapters to the "infantia", then devotes the 8th to the "anacephaleosis " as he pompously, or, as one critic says, with floridity (not bad for Florus)-terms his summary. This book contains in the MS. 22 chapters (the last of which is cut up into 5 in the printed edition), the last bringing us to the end. of the nation's "secunda atas, quasi adolescentia". To Book 2 cap. 1 is attached a large and handsome initial D, with a neat floral stem and bracket. The Third Age begins with the story of the 1st Punic War. It is to this Epitome, rather than to Livy, that the best known stories from Roman History are due, such as the Twins and the Wolfs, the Battle of Lake Regillus, and others. In Book IV cap. 12 we have the terrible story of the despairing rage of the women of Tyrol who as their last resource dashed their infants on the ground and then flung them in the faces of the Roman soldiers. We have said that the second part of the MS. has been usually attributed to Florus, but here it is assigned to Sextus Rufus. The title generally given to the work of this latter author is Breviarium rerum gestarum populi Romani, said to have been drawn up by order of the Emperor Valens, or as mostly given, Valentinian. The Breviarium is said to be given as a supplement to Eutropius, who by direction of the same Emperor composed an epitome-still used as a school-book— from the founding of the city to the reign of Jovian. It was a favourite book in the Middle Ages, but it is probable that this and the one of Rufus were often confounded (see Eutropius, ed. by H. Verheyk, Leyden, 1793, 8vo., of which an old English translation exists with the original Latin by I. Clarke, York 1722, Svo., and others). None of the modern texts of course possess the interest of a MS. like the present, especially when we take into account the numerous initials, borders, etc. If it were only as affording the statement of the copyist that Rufus (and not Florus) was the author of the latter portion, it would prove that it has not been hitherto used by any modern editor or he must have noticed it. At any rate it shews that the two epitomes have not hitherto been collated so as to prove that this and the Breviarium are really the same work. With regard to the nearest style to this MS. it appears to be nearest akin to the Milanese imitation of French illumination, and to combine figure and foliage treatment similar to Bolognese illumination of the time of Marsilio Bolognese. As precipue for precibus (Bellum Samniticum). 59 HORAE BEATAE MARIAE VIRGINIS AD USUM PARISIENSEM. 8vo., MS. ON VELLUM, 252 leaves, finely written in Gothic characters, with 20 SPLENDID MINIATURES, each accompanied by A BEAUTIFUL BORDER in gold and colours, besides innumerable illuminated initial letters, with partial borders on many of the pages, lineendings etc.; dark blue morocco extra, by P. Lefebvre, gilt edges, with the arms of the Comte de Nedonchel (Tournai) on sides £ s. d. Early Saec. XV 750 0 0 A Parisian manuscript with miniatures and other artistic decoration of a very high order, and probably of great historic interest, for it may have been executed for KATHARINE OF FRANCE, AFTERWARDS WIFE OF KING HENRY V OF ENGLAND. The miniature accompanying the Office of the |