11 - Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS 199 (P1)

Summary

In its present form this volume contains three items, each apparently written in a different hand:

1. Jordan of Quedlinburg, OEA, Meditationes de passione Christi, here anonymous (ff. 1–36);

2. a series of forty-three sermons (ff. 41–141);

3. Wyclif's Sermones quadraginta, here anonymous and without title (ff. 142–221).

Item (1) is a separate booklet; items (2) and (3) stand together in a second booklet, though they are written by different hands and the medieval quiring system distinguishes between them; the changeover occurs within a quire. I have discussed the volume, its composition, and Wyclif's sermons elsewhere and am here concerned only with item (2).

The forty-three sermons of this anonymous collection form a partial de tempore cycle from Advent to Good Friday, with up to three sermons per Sunday or feast. About two thirds of them are addressed to Reuerendi, and the collection in general has a strong academic tone. Of its forty-three sermons, fourteen also occur in Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS 257. As the two collections have other significant features in common, they should be discussed together.