Richard James and the Seventeenth-Century Provenance of British Library MS Cotton Caligula A.xi

This article analyses the extracts from PPl copied by the librarian and antiquarian Richard James into his notebook, now Bodleian Library MS James 2. Textual analysis of these extracts shows that they are related to the three closely affiliated manuscripts Bodleian Library MS Bodley 814, B.L. MS Additional 10574, and B.L. MS Cotton Caligula A.XI. As Robert Cotton’s librarian, James had access to the Caligula manuscript in which annotations in his hand and a table of contents can be found. The remainder of the article surveys the passages of the poem extracted by James, which reveal his particular interest in L’s antifraternal satire and his treatment of various aspects of Catholic doctrine. (SH)