Contents

Data Source: Parker on the Web

• Résumé : CCCC MS 277 contains the unique surviving copy of Adam of Barking's Carmen de serie sex aetatum, a poem narrating and commenting on biblical history. The copy in this manuscript is incomplete, dealing with only four of the six ages alluded to in the title, and is almost certainly Barking's (fl. twelfth century) own working copy. The Tudor antiquarian John Leland (1506-52) records that he saw a copy of the same work in Sherborne Abbey in Dorset, though it has been disputed that this is the same manuscript as the one now in Corpus Christi and, as a result, it is not certain how this manuscript came to be in Parker's collection.

  
  

  Contenu :

  
  

  Langue(s) des textes : latin

  
  

  Intervenants :

  Adam of Barking - author

  1r-141v - Adam of Barking, Carmen de serie sex aetatum

  Note : It begins

  rubric : (1r) Auctor huius operis de sex etatum serie tractare proponens breuiterque concludere que leuiter transierunt carptim tangit in prologo precedenti de quibus latius est tractaturus in opere subsequenti dicens se otio iam diu deditum torpore deposito iam ad studia reuersum se de magnis breuiter tractaturum promittens et unde tractaturus hec (hic?) seriatim capitula premittens

  incipit : (1r) Scribere decreui decursum labilis euiClaudere fine breui fine peracta leui

  explicit : (1r) Que lux leticie . quis sit fons philosophieQuid caput ecclesie . que uia . duxque uie

  incipit : (1r) Tempora patris ade renouante stilo mihi tradeMusa stilo trade tempora patris ade

  Note : (3v) The story of the Creation is begun on f. 3v

  rubric : (3v) Auctor huius operis a summo omnium auctore deo narrationis seriem inchoans etc.

  incipit : (3v) Ante creaturas tot secula totque figurasTot generum formas tantas per tot loca normas

  Note : On f. 15r the Flood is reached. Here is a gap. After 12 lines, ending

  explicit : (15r) Nil alibi tutum nihil est a morte solutumNulla foris tuta morti sunt queque tributa,

  Note : (15r) the rest of the page is blank

  Note : a.

  incipit : (15v) Nuper eram locup(l)es multisque beatus amicisEt risere mihi fata secunda diu

  Note : (Hildebert P. L. CLXXI 1418)

  explicit : (16r) Ille potens mitis tenor et concordia rerumQuicquid uult in me digerat. eius ero

  Note : b.

  incipit : (16r) Si supplex hominum tibi seruiat ordo. quid inde

  explicit : (16r) Tam cito pretereunt hec omnia quod nihil inde

  Note : (6 lines)

  Note : c.

  incipit : (16r) Ridentis iocus est fortune copia rerumMobilis hec nescit continuare iocum

  explicit : (16v) Ergo cum proles mihi sit bona. non nihil indeNam sine prole pater est sine sole dies

  Note : (24 lines)

  Note : Rest of 16v blank

  rubric : (17r) Auctor ad materie seriem redit

  incipit : (17r) Hiis interiectis uti decet amodo rectisAd seriem recti recto decet ordine flecti

  Note : (17r) with a sign referring to a passage on f. 75v

  Note : Story of Abraham begins f. 21r

  Note : On f. 38r is a break and reference to a passage which occurs on f. 80v

  Note : On f. 38v a fresh beginning

  incipit : (38v) Dum uigil inquiro de lacte simulque butiro

  Note : which only occupies this page

  Note : On f. 39r change of hand and entirely new exordium: a very long address to Christ for all estates of men On f. 47v-48r in a prayer for kings is a disquisition on the meaning of the several Regal ornaments, and a still longer disquisition on the Incarnation, the Virgin, and the types referring thereto

  incipit : (39r) Ad titulum Christi titulo nota competit isti

  Note : Quire 9, ff. 72r-75v, in the first hand, is an insertion containing various supplements

  Note : From f. 92r onwards we have a very full treatment of the story of Genesis from Gen. xviii to the end

  Note : On f. 134r sqq. a much shorter account of the Plagues, Exodus, the Law, the Priestly vestments

  Note : (141r) Ending (after a few lines about David)

  explicit : (141r) Sunt modo cras ut heri nequeunt diuina moueriSic manet immotum manet immutabile totum

  Note : The work is unfinished: only four ages out of the six have been treated. The confused state of the work suggests that this copy may be the author's autograph

  Note : On f. 141v, in another hand, after 3 erased lines

  incipit : (141v) Manducare potes formicam si capud aufers

  explicit : (141v) In cruce sum pro te qui peccas desine pro meDesine do veniam do vitam corrige culpam