The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

1. Prayer. O domine Iesu christe, (added) Memento omnis premeditacionis et intimi meroris.
The fifteen Oos followed by
Gracias ago tibi d. I. C. quia passionem tuam inchoasti.

2. A poem in Latin rhymes on the Life of Christ.
One stanza on each page, illustrated by a half-page picture of rough execution. Grounds alternately gold and chequered. The shape is that of a square frame enclosing a lozenge in a quatrefoil. A precisely similar MS. was discovered at the end of the last century in a hole in the wall at Pentlow Hall, Essex, and is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum (formerly in the possession of Mrs Mathew, late of Cambridge).
The first stanza runs thus:
Ihesus condolens miserie humane post peccatum ode.
Ihesu mi dulcissime conditor celorum
Conditor omnipotens rex uniuersorum,
Quis tuorum sufficit mirari gestorum
Que te ferre compulit salus miserorum.
Te de celis caritas traxit animarum
Pro quibus palacium deseris preclarum,
Miseram ingrediens uallem lacrimarum
Opus durum suscipis et iter amarum.
Sic nobis compaciens nostri miserere,
Et laudes quas offero pius intuere.
Tua iussa domine fac nos adimplere
Ut possimus gaudia tecum possidere. Amen.
The poem ends on f.32a. Three pictured pages follow. On the last which is half-blank a possessor's name has been written very badly.

3. f.34 Prayer
O d. I. C. fili dei uiui qui in hunc mundum.
Ends:
indulgeat mihi dominus omnia peccata mea hic et in futuro. Amen.

It invokes the four Evangelists and SS. George, Christopher, Denis, Stephen, Gregory, Augustine, Audoen, Guthlac, Nicholas, Egidius.
The pictures are as follows:

1. Christ on rainbow holding globe. Angels (five: the Pentlow MS. (P.) has four) playing instruments.
2. Annunciation. Angel on L. with blank scroll (in P. the scroll has aue -plena). Lily-pot.
3. Visitation: with houses in the distance.
4. Nativity. Joseph seated. Virgin reclines. Christ in manger. Angels in clouds playing musical instruments (no angels in P.).
5. Angel with scroll: two shepherds and a boy (in P. these differ).
6. Child Christ lies on a table covered with a cloth, and the Virgin suckles Him. Two men watch.
7. Adoration of the Magi: one points upward to star, which is not seen (star on R. in P.).
8. Presentation. Joseph present. Simeon holds out his arms. Christ blesses.
9. Massacre of Innocents, five soldiers, five children, one mother, Herod (two soldiers and one mother in P.).
10. Flight into Egypt: they enter a city.
11. Christ stands before seated Doctors: the Virgin and a maid enter.
12. Baptism. Christ stands in heaped up water. Angel holds the coat.
13. Christ seated with book and raised hand in an ornate building: a black devil offers three stones. (In P. the devil is antlered.)
14. Twelve apostles in two boats. Christ talks to them (in P. one apostle and two men in a boat: four apostles on shore).
15. Marriage at Cana: five guests at table. Jesus in front (in P. the bride is crowned and nimbed).
16. Apostles. Christ, who blesses nude figures coming out of stone tombs. (Ihesus miracula faciens.)
17. Christ and two nimbed figures: an apostle on R. addresses kneeling figure. (Prediction of Christ's death: it looks like two scenes: and is not in P.)
18. Entry into Jerusalem. Man in tree: coat spread before gate.
19. Christ before the Temple, with scourge: five men: two spill bags of money.
20. Judas receives gold in his robe from three priests: he is red haired.
21. The Last Supper. Judas with bag, on the nearer side of the table, receives the sop.
22. Christ washes Peter's feet.
23. The agony. In the sky instead of an angel is another figure of Christ. (In P. Christ is beardless; the Father is seen in the sky.)
24. Christ: three apostles: soldiers kneel.
25. The Betrayal: kiss of Judas: Malchus healed: Peter sheathes his sword.
26. Christ bound between soldiers on R., apostles on L.
27. Peter and the maid. Christ smitten by two men. (In P. Christ between two men on L. On R. a fireplace. Peter and a man on L., maid on R. Cock in border.)
28. Christ before Caiaphas mocked.
29. Judas (nimbed in P.) casts the money down. On R. he hangs on a tree with entrails protruding.
30. Mitred Priest. Christ before Pilate.
31. Christ sent back by Herod (crowned). In P. one of the soldiers has a winged helmet.
32. Christ before Pilate. In P. the soldier with the winged helmet appears.
33. The scourging: Christ back to pillar. (In P. bound round the pillar.)
34. The crowning with thorns.
35. He is blindfold and mocked.
36. He bears the Cross, helped by Simon. The thieves follow, bound.
37. He is stripped and nailed to the Cross.
38. The three crosses (those of the thieves T-shaped). Two soldiers with garment (and dice in P.).
39. Crucified: the Virgin and St John. Two men (one in P.) mock.
40. Crucified: three women on L.: St John and a woman on R.
41. Crucified: the Virgin and St John. Sponge on reed offered.
42. Crucified: the Virgin swoons, supported by two persons. Prophet on R. with scroll.
43. Crucified: side pierced. Longinus points to his eye. A sword in the Virgin's heart. St John on R., a woman on L.
44. The Deposition: nails left in the T-shaped cross. The Virgin holds the arm, a man the body, St John the other arm. (In P. a man draws the nails from the feet.)
45. The Entombment. Joseph pours ointment on the body: St John at the feet. (In P. two men anoint: the Virgin and St John at the feet.)
46. The Harrowing of Hell: souls led to R. A devil with two faces (in P. he blows two horns).
47. The Resurrection. Christ steps out of the tomb: an angel adores. On L. angel and three women: in front three guards asleep.
48. Angel seated on lid of tomb: three Maries with vases. (In P. angel has blank scroll.)
49. Christ meets two women: tree in centre. On R., Noli me tangere: Christ shows His hands.
50. He takes loaves (or honeycomb) from the apostles. On R., Incredulity of Thomas: two figures only.
51. The Ascension, with the Virgin.
52. The Descent of the Holy Ghost, with the Virgin. The Dove is large.
53. The Assumption: the Virgin in mandorla. Four angels, two with scrolls (in P. six angels): below, figures and empty tomb (in P. nothing below).
54. Coronation of the Virgin: two figures only. P. ends here.
55. Christ as judge on rainbow: two angels with trumpets: two with cross and crown and column.
56. Full page. A. Angel drives wicked souls into hell. B. Below, souls, including Pope, King and Bishops seated on the ground, nude. A devil lowers two souls in a chain from the upper picture.
57. Full page. A. The Blessed taken to Paradise: some are vested as Pope, King and Bishops, some are nude.
B. Souls mostly nude seated on the ground converse: they include Pope and Kings.
58. Half page. Italian Trinity: no text.
The pictures are numbered i-lviij.
Opera quaedam Lidgati written on f.5.

Hennessy, M. (ed),Tributes to Kathleen L. Scott: Essays on English Medieval Manuscripts (Turnhout: Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2009)

Ross, E. M., The Grief of God: Images of the Suffering Jesus in Late Medieval England (Oxford, 1997)

Sandler, L. F., Gothic Manuscripts 1285-1385, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 5, 2 vols (London, 1986), no. 123, II.136, ill. 323, 324.