Afterword: A Life in Books: Habits and Habitats of Ricardus Franciscus

Abstract

If Gower’s Confessio Amantis in Morgan M.126 grants us spectral visions of an author attempting to inhabit his book, it is the mostly anonymous scribes who copied texts into books during the Middle Ages who might most properly lay claim to inhabiting the virtual dimensions books potentially enclose. Among the many individuals who labored to copy the numerous manuscripts I have touched upon in this exploration of the medieval manuscript matrix, several have made their identities known in that territory: we know that John Grimestone wrote Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates MS 18.7.21, that someone in the Frowyk household wrote the booklet in London, British Library Harley 541 in which the “ABC of Aristotle” appears, that John Shirley penned Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 59 and Cambridge, Trinity College MS R.3.20, that Humphrey Newton compiled Bodleian Library MS Lat. misc. c.66, that John Lacy wrote and illuminated Oxford, St. John’s College MS 94, that Ricardus Franciscus inscribed Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.126, and that one “Lyty” copied Bodleian Library Bodley 638.¹