The presentation of the poem beginning louerd asse þu ard on god in Cambridge, Trinity College MS B. 14. 39

The presentation of the poem beginning louerd asse pu ard on god in Cambridge, Trinity College M S B.14.39 The anonymous Middle English poem under consideration is a summary history of the world from Creation to the generalised present of the writer, a 'salvation history' in miniature,1 in 349 long lines; traces of a title appear on the upper edge of the first page of the unique manuscript (Fig. 1), but over-trimming has left little hope of deciphering it.2 The manuscript as a whole is an unpretentious compilation of one hundred and forty religious and moral texts, which is nevertheless well known to students of Early Middle English literature. After a brief introduction to the manuscript, this paper discusses select aspects of the physical presentation of the poem as pointers to both the scribal culture and the broader national culture in which it participates. Trinity College Cambridge M S B. 14. 39 is a parchment book of eighty-seven folios, dated from historical references within its contents to ca 1255-60.3 The majority of its contents are in Latin or English, several are in French, others combine Latin and English or Latin and French, and one combines French and English. They are generally typical of material produced through the thirteenth century as a response to the imperative of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 to provide more substantial instruction for both clerical and lay people.'* The manuscript has also been linked specifically with other compilations made in England in the latter part of the thirteenth century which share some items and have together been The generic identity of the poem is recognised in its modern title, Die Heilsgeschicht, in the study and edition of the manuscript by Karl Reichl, Religiose Dichtung in Englischen Hochmittelalter: Untersuchung und Edition der Handschrift B.14.39 des Trinity College in Cambridge, Muncher Universitats-Schriften, Philosophische Fakultat, Texte und Untersuchung zur Englischen Philologie 1, Munich, 1973; Die Heilsgeschicht, pp. 391-404. The title has not previously been noted. 3 Reichl, Religiose Dichtung, pp. 46-48. The substantial increase in the production of English-language didactic literature following the Fourth Lateran Council is widely recognised: see for example Derek Pearsall, The Routledge History of English Poetry, 1: Old and Middle English Poetry, London, 1977, p. 95. PARERGON ns 13.2, January 1996—Text, Scribe, Artefact 166 D. Speed designated friars' miscellanies,5 but recent research has questioned the likelihood of universalfraternalorigins for the group and concluded that the Trinity manuscript in particular can best be regarded simply as a preachers' commonplace-book, without any strong indications offraternalorigin.^ The main part of the manuscript was apparently written by ten scribes over a period of time, with intermittent rather than overall planning.7 The dialect of those scribes w h o wrote in English has been located in West Worcestershire, a shade to the north of a line between Worcester and Hereford, and considerably nearer Worcester than Hereford.** The specific institution which produced the manuscript is thus likely to have been in that area, but its actual location and identity remain uncertain at this stage. The scribe who wrote out Louerd asse pu ard on god ('Lord, as thou art one God'), on ff. 36r -42r , is the m a n responsible for by far the greatest part of the book, including texts in all three languages. Unlike the other scribes, he has also left us his name: Michel of Arras. O n f. 28r , which contains various short items in his hand, he has used a blank space to pen a conventional scribe's couplet lamenting the fact that no one will remember who has done this work: hie a m michel of arras wl sone ic am virbetew [for viryeten] alas. (I a m Michel of Arras; full soon I'll be forgotten, alas!)9 3 For this view and its history see Pearsall, Old and Middle English Poetry, pp. 94102 ,311-12. D For a critique of the 'friars' miscellanies' view and a detailed reconsideration of Cambridge, Trinity College M S B. 14. 39, see John Damien Scahill, "The Friars' Miscellanies', unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sydney, 1990, especially...