Hymns and Poems transcribed by Mary Webber, 1694 : Religious writing; Prose; Miscellany c. 1694-1695.

Format:

Other

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Meditation.

Inscriptions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

1694

Notes:

AMDigital Reference:Osborn MS b.202

Mrs. Mary Webber's compilation of hymns and religious poems is a manuscript in three parts. The first portion of the manuscript (MS items 3-3.46) contains 45 numbered hymns, all written in Webber's hand at about the same time, with the possible exception of the final hymn, which appears to have been written with another pen and shows slight variations in the hand. Throughout the manuscript, the hymns are written in paragraph form rather than as verse lines, suggesting that Webber may have transcribed the words from the Book of Common Prayer, which they follow closely. She has not transcribed the musical settings, even though she attributes each hymn to a contemporary composer based on his musical arrangement of the psalm. In this first section of the manuscript, there is almost no writing on the verso side of the folios, with the exception of MS item 3.10, two lines of Latin written in a later hand, not that of Mary Webber. This first section is quite elaborate, each hymn set off with red ruling and each author's name inscribed in large, ornate letters. The second part of the manuscript (MS items 4-4.6) consists of five poems and a meditation, all written in one hand (Hand B), a hand not that of the hymn transcriber. In contrast to the first section, the poems in this portion of the manuscript are written on both recto and verso sides corresponding to pp. 91-98, and there is no decoration. Note that MS items 5.5 and 5.8, two poems in the third section of the MS, are also written in Hand B. Several stubs follow the poems of section two, after which the manuscript has been reversed, so that the third section, beginning with p.100, is actually the first page of the manuscript if one begins reading it from the back and upside down. The volume would end at p.119 if the pagination continued from the first page to the last, but the hand which paginated the volume reversed the book and continued the paginating with p.100, so this catalogue entry does the same. This third section is written in Webber's hand, with the exception of MS items 5.5 and 5.8, which are poems written in the Hand B responsible for MS item 4. The title page of the volume, with the inscription "Mrs Mary Webber: Her Book Anno Domini 1694" (MS item 5.2) is the first page of this third section. The other signatures noted in this manuscript, of "Miss Sopia Delight" (MS item 5.1) and Robert Brutton (MS item 5.2), are also located in the front matter of this third section. The third section of the manuscript consists of 18 hymns, written in Webber's hand, and two poems in Hand B, these on the versos corresponding to p.101 (MS item 5.5) and p.103 (MS item 5.8). The internal logic of the manuscript seems to suggest that Webber began with her signature and with the hymns of the third section, reconsidered, and began again from the other side of the volume. The poems seem to have been a later addition to the manuscript, written on the empty pages following the numbered hymns and on the versos of the unnumbered hymns.