Egerton MS 3059

OBIT-BOOK OF THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF AUGUSTINIAN CANONS OF ST GERMAIN AT MONS, in Belgium. Latin and French. References to St Germain as 'patronus noster', f. 26, and to his church as the recipient of the benefactions, e.g. ff. 4, 20b, 22b, 90b, make it plain that, although they appear frequently as benefactresses, the 19th-cent. ascription of the MS., on ff. i-ii, to the canonesses of St Waudru at Mons is mistaken (see Brit. Mus. Quart., vii, 1932-1933, pp. 110-111). The contents are in two sections:-

(1) Calendar of Saints' days with obits of benefactors, written in a series of 14th-16th-centt. hands. The original entries and earlier additions show the annual values of benefactions and the rents upon which these sums were a charge. The later additions, see (2) below, show only the capital values of benefactions. ff. 1-61 b.

(2) Lists written in the same series of hands and complementary to (1), showing, by properties, the assignations made from the church's rents for the maintenance of obits. From f. 80 onwards the arrangement is, however, inverted as the capital sums of benefactions were thereafter entered upon receipt and the assignations made retrospectively, viz. in 1403, 1413 and 1439 (ff. 81, 83, 86 b), a change which is also reflected in the form of the later entries in (1), see above. The last entry in this section in the hand of the original compiler of the book is for 1349, f. 69b; the earliest datable entry in a subsequent hand is for 1352 (f. 70) and the latest for 1525 (f. 95). ff. 62-95b. Vellum; ff. iv + 95. 280 mm. x 205 mm. Mid xiv cent. with additions circ. 1352-circ. 1525, see above. Gatherings of 12 leaves (last lacks 12). Red rubrics, ff. 1-61. Annotations, ff. iii-iv, by Rev. E. S. Dewick. Puttick and Simpson's sale-cat., 25-27 June 1890, lot 694; Sotheby's sale-cats., 17-18 Oct. 1918 (E. S. Dewick), lot 107, and 12-14 Dec. 1932 (J. Meade Falkner), 1ot 368. From the Farnborough Fund.