Pages from the Past: Medieval Writing Skills and Manuscript Books (Variorum Collected Studies) by Parkes M.B. & Robinson edited by P.R

Author:Parkes, M.B. & Robinson, edited by P.R. [Parkes, M.B.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781351219600
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2018-02-05T16:00:00+00:00

XI

Stephan Batman’s Manuscripts

Stephan Batman,1 rector of St Mary, Newington Butts from 1570 until his death in 1584, was a learned and devout minister of the established Church, a limner, as well as an author and translator whose published works exerted a considerable influence on late-Elizabethan English literature.2 He also collected medieval manuscripts, especially those containing texts in Middle English. The primary purpose of this brief account is to provide a list of manuscripts currently associated with him.

The account of Batman’s career in the current Dictionary of National Biography is unreliable, since it is based largely on the assumptions of early-eighteenth-century antiquaries and bibliographers. Although his published works and common-place books display considerable learning, there is no record that he attended either of the two English universities or any of the Inns of Court. Moreover, whereas the degrees held by those instituted to livings were usually recorded in Archbishop Parker’s registers, none of the entries relating to Batman refer to him as a graduate. Batman was first attributed with the degree of D.D. by the Cambridge antiquary and historian Thomas Baker (1656–1740) in a note added to his copy of Maunsell’s printed catalogue of theological works (1595).3 Baker’s assumption was probably based on statements found in Batman’s printed works. On the title page of one published in 1577 Batman is described as merely ‘student in Diuinitie’,4 but in prefaces and dedications to his own and other works he signed himself as ‘in Diuinitie Professor’ (1578, 1581),5 ‘Professor in Diuinitie’ (1582),6 and in one of his manuscripts as ‘sacre theologiae professore’ subsequently altered by him (in different ink) to ‘sacrarum literarum theologiae professore’.7 Such statements appear to be descriptions of his activity rather than references to a title, since there is no evidence that he held the degree of D.D. from either English university, or from Lambeth.

Batman was also described by later antiquaries as chaplain to Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon (1524?–1596),8 but again the sources for this assertion do not support such an interpretation. In an epistle dedicatory addressed to Hunsdon, dated ‘At Newington the 8 September 1577’,9 Batman requests that the book may pass ‘vnder the Ensigne of your noble protection’. Although he signed himself as ‘Your Lordshippes most humble seruaunt in the Lord’, this is merely a courtesy formula employed by one who described himself as ‘Stephan Batman Minister’. Five years later, in another epistle dedicatory addressed to Hunsdon, 10 Batman ended with the words ‘depending on your honourable furtheraunce, when Opportuniti shal minister Occasion, and in the meane time, I shall not cease to praye …’, and signed himself ‘Your Honours Chaplaine at commaundement S. B. M[inister].’ The terms of these dedications suggest that Batman was offering his services as chaplain, and that he hoped for patronage.

We know very little about Stephan Batman beyond what can be found in his published writings.11 He was born in Bruton, Somerset, but not long after his twenty-first birthday he was living at Leeds in Kent.12 I have found no record of his

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