Beinecke MS 243                                                     Italy, s. XVI^^med
Confession Manual (in Greek)

          ff. 1r-222r     [Greek]. [brief table, f. 222v, on the Seven
     ages of man: infant, child, etc.]

          The work includes prayers and materials for examination of
     conscience, such as lists of mortal sins, canonical obligations, and
     similar texts.

          Paper (sturdy; watermarks: Briquet Ancre 531), ff. ii (paper) +
     222 + i (paper), 152 x 112 (106 x 62) mm. Written in 16 long lines;
     double vertical bounding lines. Ruled in hard point, on verso; no
     prickings visible.
          I-V^^8, VI^^10 (plus bifolium bound between 7 and 8, ff. 48-49),
     VII-XXVII^^8 (+ 2 at end). Signed in Greek along lower edge of verso;
     some lost due to trimming.
          Written by a single copyist in an archaizing script reminiscent of
     the 13th century.
          Simple and crudely executed headpieces mark the beginning of each
     new section of text; many small initials in red throughout.
          Binding: s. xvi. Greek (according to A. R. A. Hobson); original
     sewing, presumably a chain stitch, on three supports laced into square-
     edged, flush wooden boards without edge grooves but with blind-tooled
     lines along the edges. The plain, wound endbands are covered with a
     bright yellow, beaded, secondary embroidery (traces only). Covered in
     dark brown calf, blind-tooled with concentric borders, different on
     each board, and three diamonds and flowers in the center panel. Two
     pins in the edge of the upper board and two sets of three holes for
     fastening straps on the lower.

          Written probably in Italy (Northern?) in the mid-16th century to
     judge by the watermarks; early provenance unknown. Unidentified tag
     with "CCLII" on spine. Belonged to the Greenway family in Devonshire
     (18th-century bookplate). Dr. Adam Clarke (1762?-1832); at his sale (20
     June 1836) it was acquired by Thorpe, who sold it to Sir Thomas
     Phillipps (no. 9516, on spine). Purchased from Laurence Witten with
     funds from the Jacob Ziskind Charitable Trust in 1957 (MS 43).

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 45, no. 243. 
	     Ziskind Catalogue, p. 51.

     Barbara A. Shailor