17 - London, British Library, MS Stowe 950

Summary

Confessio Amantis, 20 leaves missing

London, s.xv, first quarter

Contents

(fols 2r–176v) Confessio Amantis I.166–VIII.2549

Ne hyde it nought for yif thou feynest < > Which hadden bee fortuned sore

Prologue missing; Book I wants 1–165, 2641–2791 (Macaulay, in a rare slip, has 2991); Book II (fol. 20vb) wants 2486–2645; Book III (fol. 41ra) wants 673–988; Book IV (fol. 55rb); Book V (fol. 76vb, English text, fol. 77ra) wants 3714–3897, 5832–6184; Book VI (fol. 118va); Book VII (fol. 132rb) wants 771–1111; Book VIII (fol. 161vb, English text, fol. 162ra) wants 2550–3114*end.

Seven leaves are lost at the beginning. A leaf is lost after fol. 16, with text of I.2641–2791; a leaf is lost after fol. 35 (II.2486–2645); two leaves after fol. 44 (III.673–988); a leaf after fol. 97 (V.3714–3897); two leaves after fol. 108 (V.5832–6184); two leaves after fol. 136 (VII.771–1111); and at least four leaves after fol. 176 (VIII.2550–3114*end). Text of VII.1309–1461 is omitted (1462 follows 1308 in mid-folio), presumably through loss of leaf in an exemplar. At fol. 138r a wavy line after VII.1308 may indicate recognition by the scribe or his supervisor that there is a hiatus in the copy.

Text: only partly collated by Macaulay (ed.), Works (sigil O): Ib.

Illustration

No illustration survives. No connection can be perceived between the loss of leaves and any plausibly imaginable programme of illustration.

Decoration

There are plain six-line pen-flourished initials, blue on red, at I.203 (fol. 2r) and at the beginning of Book II; there is a four-line initial, flourished but uncoloured, at the beginning of Book III, and three-line initials, flourished but uncoloured, introduce Books IV–VIII and some major text-divisions; two-line initials, flourished but uncoloured, introduce remaining major and some minor text-divisions; one-line initials, uncoloured and sometimes even unflourished, introduce remaining minor text-divisions and some Latin glosses. Sometimes, one-line initials are completely missed, and guide-letters are clearly visible, e.g. fols 3v (I.436), 14v (I.2262), 15r (Latin verses at I.2398), 65r (IV.1683), 153v (Latin gloss at VII.4027).