GEMMS IDGEMMS-MANUSCRIPT-000676
TitleJohn Donne's 1622 Gunpowder Plot Sermon
ShelfmarkMS Royal 17.B.XX
Creation Dateca. 1622 - 1622
RepositoryBritish Library
Contents NoteA complete, fair scribal copy of Donne's well-known 1622 sermon on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, including Donne's own corrections. It is the only known autograph sermon by Donne.
Material FeaturesPaper, quarto, 38 leaves, 157 mm. x 195 mm. Ff. 37-38 are blank. In good condition, with many leaves repaired recently. Watermark of two posts, similar to that in MS Heawood 3499. Written mostly in secretary hand, apparently by a scribe, with corrections and additions by Donne on nearly every page. The scribe's writing becomes looser and there are more errors later in the manuscript, suggesting that the scribe was writing faster close to the end. Donne's changes consist of correcting errors and filling in blank spaces left by the scribe, where the scribe was unable to read what Donne had originally written in his holograph. Unsigned and with no title page. Nothing is known about the original binding. The manuscript was rebound with three other sermons (MSS Royal 17B.XVIII-XXI) by the British Library in 1984 in morocco half-binding and red cloth. Folio numbers in pencil in the top-right corner, added c. 19th century. On the first leaf, a later writer has written "17 B XX. p. 264" in ink, referring to David Casley's catalogue of the King's Library (1734). Proper nouns and other words meant to be emphasized are underlined on the first three leaves, possibly by Donne himself.
Associated Peoplemanuscript owner? - Stuart, James I
ProvenanceThe manuscript appears to be the copy ordered by King James I for an unknown reason, and which reached him no later than 1 December, less than a month after the sermon was preached on 5 November. It was identified as Donne's sermon, with corrections in his hand, by Jeanne Shami in 1992.
Acquisition
Source of DataJeanne Shami; Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne website; Jeanne Shami, ed., John Donne's 1622 Gunpowder Plot Sermon: A Parallel Text Edition (Duquense: Pittsburgh, 1996)
Other Note
Sermons ContainedSermon on Lamentations 4:20 -- ff. 1-38
Sermon Reports Contained
GEMMS record createdJune 09, 2017
GEMMS record last editedJune 09, 2017