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Egerton MS 877
- Record Id:
- 032-001983944
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001983944
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000053.0x0003e1
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Egerton MS 877
- Title:
-
Passio sanctae Margaretæ; Seven Penitential Psalms
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains an illustrated Passio sanctae Margaretae (Passion of St Margaret). The account ends with a Latin prayer (f. 12r) for a woman in childbirth and invokes Sts Elizabeth, Anna and Mary to free the mother from her pains.
Several of the miniatures in the manuscript appear to have been damaged by kissing, and it has been suggested that the volume was a Margaret libellus, and used as a birthing aid.
Contents:
ff. 1r-11v: Passio sanctae Margaretae (Passion of St Margaret) in Latin, beginning 'Post passionem et resurrectionem domini nostri'.
f. 12r: A Latin prayer, beginning, 'Plaudit[e] i[n] te[r]ris dom[in]us om[n]ipote[n]tis...' followed by the invocation, 'Exi infans, Christus te vocat.’
ff. 12v-16v: The Seven Penitential Psalms, written in Latin, beginning, 'Domine ne in furore...'
Decoration:
The style of the miniatures resembles those in a manuscript of Dante's Divina commedia (now Egerton MS 943), originating from Padua or Emilia.
18 small miniatures, in colours and gold (ff. 2r, 2v, 3r, 3v (x2), 4v, 5r, 6r (x2), 7r, 8r, 8v, 9r, 9v, 10r, 11r, 11v, 12r).
1 large historiated initial containing a portrait of St Margaret, with a three-sided foliate border, in colours and gold (f. 1r).
Smaller decorated initials with foliate extensions into the margins, in colours and gold.
Small initials in red with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing.
Rubrics.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 2r: St Margaret spinning and watching sheep with two companions.
f. 2v: The Roman prefect Olibrius rides towards St Margaret; his two messengers talk to her and a companion.
f. 3r: Two messengers from the prefect dispute with St Margaret and her companion.
f. 3v: St Margaret is brought before Olibrius on his throne and interrogated (above); St Margaret is in prison; the prefect worships a golden idol (below).
f. 4v: St Margaret disputes with Olibrius.
f. 5r: St Margaret is flogged and tortured, with iron, while Olibrius hides his face.
f. 6r: St Margaret is beaten with sticks while Olibrius covers his face with a cloth and attendants watch; a nurse brings water (and food) to St Margaret in prison.
f. 7r: St Margaret emerges from the belly of a dragon (left); St Margaret prays at the window of a prison while a dragon appears (right).
f. 8r: St Margaret tramples on and beats a black demon with a stick in front of a prison.
f. 8v: St Margaret is brought before Olibrius and she debates with him and his attendants.
f. 9r: St Margaret is burned by two men with flaming torches while Olibrius and his attendants watch.
f. 9v: St Margaret is in a tub with two figures pouring water from pitchers.
f. 10r: A Roman soldier with a sword stands over kneeling converts.
f. 11r: Three angels descend to carry the decapitated St Margaret to heaven, while demons lament and Malchus lies dead beside her.
f. 11v: The infirm are healed and a demon is exorcised from a figure at Margaret's tomb.
f. 12r: A woman lies in a bed screened by a curtain and a swaddled infant is held by a midwife who is speaking to a figure, perhaps a doctor. The miniature is smudged by kissing and the prayer above begins 'Exi infans, Christus de vocat' and invokes Sts Elizabeth, Anna and Mary to free the mother from her pains.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Egerton Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001983944", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Egerton MS 877: Passio sanctae Margaretæ; Seven Penitential Psalms" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001983944
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001983944
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Egerton_MS_877 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1325
- End Date:
- 1374
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 14th century-3rd quarter of the 14th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 190 x 133 mm (written space: 120 x 80 mm).
Foliation: ff. 16 (+ 6 paper flyleaves at the beginning and 31 at the end).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Blind-tooled brown leather, with the Farnborough arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Northern Italy (possibly Padua).
Provenance:
Inscribed in red 'No. 548' (f. 16v).
Bought by the British Museum from Bohn, 24 September 1840 (see note on a flyleaf: f. [vi] recto), using the Farnborough Fund (£3,000 bequeathed in 1838 by Charles Long, Baron Farnborough (b. 1761, d. 1838), a cousin of Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829), founder of the collection.
- Publications:
-
List of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1836-1840 (London: British Museum, 1843), no. Eg. 877.
La Vie de Sainte Marguerite, ed. by Hans-Erich Keller, with 'Commentaire des enluminures du ms. Troyes 1905' by Margaret Alison Stones (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1990), pp. 196-211.
Juliana Dresvina, A maid with a dragon: the cult of St Margaret of Antioch in medieval England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 181, 183, 189, Appendix 4, p. 296, figs 29, 30.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)