Medieval manuscripts behaving badly

Posted on February 28, 2014 | in Collections, CRC, Featured, Library | by

MS185sThis 15th century manuscript of the Chronicle of England ends with some rather surprising remarks on the flyleaf:
Tritu est perire quod facis ingrato [what you do is lost by thankless wear and tear]
Clawe a Churle by the arse and he wyll beshite thy fyste quod elisabet moncke

It sounds as though the 16th-century Elizabeth Monk was having a particularly bad day.  Thanks to Meg Laing from Linguistics and English Language for spotting this note, which is not recorded in the catalogue.

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information-services/library-museum-gallery/crc/collections/special-collections/rare-books-and-manuscripts/rare-books-directory-section/western-manuscripts

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