The Lincoln Thornton Manuscript is a medieval manuscript compiled and copied by the fifteenth-century English scribe and landowner Robert Thornton, MS 91 in the library of Lincoln Cathedral. The manuscript is notable for containing single versions of important poems such as the Alliterative Morte Arthure and Sir Perceval of Galles, and gives evidence of the variegated literary culture of fifteenth-century England. The manuscript contains three main sections: the first one contains mainly narrative poems (romances, for the most part); the second contains mainly religious poems and includes texts by Richard Rolle, giving evidence of works by that author which are now lost; and the third section contains a medical treatise, the Liber de diversis medicinis.
Manuscript
The Lincoln Thornton Manuscript (sometimes simply referred to as "the" Thornton manuscript) consists of seventeen quires of varying numbers of sheets. The manuscript is catalogued as Lincoln, Cathedral Library MS 91 (formerly A.5.2), and is held in the Lincoln Cathedral Library. It was written between 1430 and 1440 in a northern dialect.
Most likely, Thornton prepared a number of quires and copied texts on them as they became available, and may have collected both his manuscripts out of the same collection of individual quires. Some quires show evidence of having been used or read independently before being bound together. For instance, the beginning of the Alliterative Morte Arthure (AMA), which starts quire d, has rounded edges and a "faint grimy sheen," suggesting that this quire "was left unbound for some time, absorbing the dust."
Contents
The texts in the manuscript fall into three main sections. The first (gatherings A-K) contains mainly romances interspersed with an occasional miscellaneous texts; the second (L-P) contains mainly religious texts; the third (Q) contains the Liber de diversis medicinis, a collection of medical lore.
The beginning of the manuscript is "dominate[d]" by romances; the rest of the manuscript contains "religious and medicinal tracts in prose and verse." The organization suggests the compiler's recognition of genre. The variety of genres found in the manuscript is deemed to be representative of what Edmund Spenser may have been influenced by in composing The Faerie Queene. Because of the different genres represented it has been termed a "household miscellany."
Romance
In the list below, short miscellaneous texts are indented. Titles are represented as given by Brewer and Owen's facsimile edition. Prose Life of Alexander (unique) "Prognostication of weather" Lamentacio Peccatoris (prologue to Adulterous Falmouth Squire) Morte Arthure (unique) The Romance of Octovyane The Romance of Sir Ysambrace The Romance of Dyoclicyane Vita Sancti Christofori Sir Degrevante Sir Eglamour De miraculo beate Marie Lyarde Thomas of Ersseldoune The Awentyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne The Romance off Sir Percyvelle of Gales (unique) "Three Charms for Toothache" Epistola Sancti Salvatoris A Preyere off the Ffyve Ioyes of oure lady ffyve prayers
Religion
This section contains, besides sermons, hymns, and prayer, a number of texts by Richard Rolle. Noteworthy also is The Previte off the Passioune, a translation of a text by Bonaventure.
Among the best known poems of the Manuscript is a poem on death later partially quoted by John Ball:
Among the archaisms of the poem "spire" means 'inquire', "lame" means loam, and "noye" to be vexed.
Medicine
The third section, consisting of quire q, contains Liber de diversis medicinis, a collection of medical advice and recipes. It is described as "the usual mixture of genuine therapeutic lore and humbug" and includes a recipe "for to gare a woman say what þu askes hir." The text builds on both local, vernacular texts and "the learned Latin recipe traditions."