Contents: The only known copy of the mystic, Margery Kempe's autobiography, telling of her life and travels in England and on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Santiago de Compostela. The original was dictated by her to a priest of Lynn and this is probably a copy made from the original, perhaps under Margery's supervision. Decoration: Initials in red with decoration, including human faces. Nomina sacra, marginal rubrics and highlighting in red.



Languages English

English, Middle

Physical Description Materials: Paper codex with parchment flyleaves.

Paper codex with parchment flyleaves. Dimensions: 215 x 140mm (text space: 140 x 85mm).

215 x 140mm (text space: 140 x 85mm). Foliation: ff. vii + 124 (ff. i and ii are modern pastedowns to an unfoliated modern parchment flyleaf at the beginning, ff. iii, iv and vii are medieval parchment flyleaves and ff. v and vi are parchment sewing guards).

ff. vii + 124 (ff. i and ii are modern pastedowns to an unfoliated modern parchment flyleaf at the beginning, ff. iii, iv and vii are medieval parchment flyleaves and ff. v and vi are parchment sewing guards). Collation: i12 (f. 1-12), ii14-1 (ff. 13-25), iii12-1(ff. 26-36), iv-xiii12 (ff. 37-96), ix12-2(ff. 97-106) x10 (ff. 107-116), xi8 (f. 117-124). Catchwords and leaf signatures.

i12 (f. 1-12), ii14-1 (ff. 13-25), iii12-1(ff. 26-36), iv-xiii12 (ff. 37-96), ix12-2(ff. 97-106) x10 (ff. 107-116), xi8 (f. 117-124). Catchwords and leaf signatures. Script: Gothic cursive.

Gothic cursive. Scribe: Salthows of Norfolk (colophon on f. 123r).

Salthows of Norfolk (colophon on f. 123r). Binding: Medieval binding of tawed parchment over bevelled wooden boards, with 2 clasps (missing). Former chemise kept separately as Add MS 61823*.

Ownership Origin: England, E. (East Anglia, ?King's Lynn). Provenance: Charterhouse of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mount Grace, Yorkshire: inscription on f. iv verso, 'liber mon[n]te gr[ac]e. this boke is of montegrace' in a hand of the fifteenth century. Perhaps acquired by the prior and mystic, John Norton, Carthusian author and prior (d. 1521/2), two references to him in red ink in the margins (ff. 33v and 51v; see Meech, Book of Margery Kempe (1940), p. xxxvi). A letter dated 1440 from Peter de Monte, papal diplomat and apostolic notary (b. c. 1400, d. 1457) to William Bogy, vicar of Soham, Cambridgeshire (active 1427–1442), has been used as a parchment flyleaf (f. vii). Henry Bowden (b. 1754): his bookplates with the Bowden family crest, symbol and motto on ff. i and ii. Remained in the collection of the Butler-Bowden family. William Erdeswick Ignatius Butler-Bowden (b. 1880, d. 1956), discovered in his collection at Southgate House, Chesterfield, and identified by Emily Hope Allen in 1934 (see his article in The Times, 30 September 1934, quoted in Kelliher 'Rediscovery of Margery Kempe' (1997), p. 260). Captain Maurice E. Butler Bowden (b. 1910, d. 1984): his sale, Sotheby's, London, 24 June 1980, lot 58. Bought by the British Library.

Bibliography The book of Margery Kempe, ed. by Sanford Brown Meech with notes and appendices by S. B. Meech and H. E. Allen, Early English Text Society Original Series, 212 (London : Oxford University Press, 1940).

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 132.

Roger Ellis, 'Margery Kempe's Scribes and the Miraculous Books', in Langland, the Mystics, and the Medieval English Religious Tradition, ed. by Helen Phillips (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990), pp. 161-76.

The British Library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, New Series 1976-1980, 2 vols (London: The British Library, 1995), I, pp. 285-86.

Hilton Kelliher, 'The Rediscovery of Margery Kempe, a footnote', Electronic British Library Journal (1997), article 19, 259-63, http://www.bl.uk/eblj/1997articles/pdf/article19.pdf [accessed 22.10.13].

Chris Fletcher, Roger Evans, and Sally Brown, 1000 Years of English Literature: A Treasury of Literary Manuscripts (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2003), pp. 36-37.

The book of Margery Kempe: an abridged translation, with an introduction and notes by Liz Herbert McAvoy (Cambridge : D.S. Brewer, 2003).

A Companion to The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. by John H. Arnold and Katherine J. Lewis (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004).

Jane Roberts, Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005), p. 233.

Marea Mitchell, The book of Margery Kempe : Scholarship, Community and Criticism (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2005).

Valentina Castagna, Re-reading Margery Kempe in the 21st century (Oxford : Peter Lang, 2011).

R.D. Fulk, An Introduction to Middle English Language and Texts (Ontario: Broadview Press, 2012), pp. 431-39.

D. Lavinsky, '"Speke to me be thowt": Affectivity, Incendium Amoris and the Book of Margery Kempe', The Journal of English and Germanic philology, 112.3; (2013), 340-64.

The Book of Margery Kempe, project website with a full facsimile and edition (Hammond, Louisiana: Southeastern Louisiana University): at http://english.selu.edu/humanitiesonline/kempe/index.php [accessed 29 October, 2013].