Egerton MS 3130

LIVES OF FEMALE SAINTS and other theological works, etc., in Latin prose and verse. As follows:-

(1) 'Breuiloquium fratris Bonauenture supra totam sacram scripturam': Breviloquium of St Bonaventura, Cardinal-bishop of Albano (d. 1274), beg. 'Flecto genua mea [Eph. iii. 14]: Magnus doctor gentium'. Printed in the Franciscan edition of the collected works (Quaracchi, 1882-1902), V, pp. 199- 291, and elsewhere. For other texts see Royal MSS. 8 D. iii, ff. 4b-49b, 9 A. xiv, ff. 157- 191b, 10 C. xii, ff. 1 -21 ; Add. MSS. 22041, ff. 2-5 4, 2464 1, If. 2-60. ff. 1-112.

(2) 'Ratio quare beata uirgo maria dicitur aduocata nostra': tale, known as the 'Processus Belial', of the trial before Christ of the human race, beg. 'Nostis karissimi quod cum filius dei perambularet terram'. The tale is here given in the most complete form of the 'Ascaron' version, cf. J. P. W. Crawford, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, xxvi, 1911, pp. 31-50, and Hope Traver, ibid., xl, 1925, pp. 44-92, with references there cited. ff. 113-124.

(3) Miracles of the Virgin: sixteen tales in leonine hexameters, except the last (ff. 136b-137) which is in elegiac couplets, beg. 'Uirgo fuit quaedam metrice quam plenius edam'. Cf. H. L. D. Ward, Cat. of Romances, ii, 1893, pp. 696-698; H. Walter, Versanfänge Mittellateinischer Dichtungen, 1959, no. 20506, and references there cited. For the first tale ('Nun who saw the World') see also G. Gröber, Beiträlge zur romanische und englische Philologie: Festgabe für W. Foerster, Halle, 1901, pp. 441-442. The seventeenth tale that appears in other MSS. ('Neglected Mary Image') is here wanting. ff. 125-137.

(4) Life of St Catharine of Alexandria in elegiac couplets, imperfect at the beginning (see further below), and lacking the first 400 lines as printed by H. Varnhagen, Eine lateinische Bearbeitung der Legende der Katharina von Alexandrien, Erlangen, 1892, pp. 5-25; cf. Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, 1898-1901, no. 1666. Beg. (f. 138) 'Palma triumphalis'. ff. 138-143b.

(5) Life of St Agnes in elegiac couplets (with an additional pentameter) by Petrus Riga, canon of St Denis, Rheims (d. circ. 1209), beg. 'Agnes sacra sui pennam scriptoris inauret'. Printed by Migne, Patr. Lat., clxxi, 1307-1314, cciii, 1387-1392, and by B. Hauréau, Le 'Mathematicus' de Bernard Silvestris, 1895, pp. 42-49; cf. Bibl. Hag. Lat., no. 164. Another text is in Egerton ff. 23-27b. ff. 144-149b. MS. 2951, (6) Life of St Mary of Egypt, in leonine hexameters, by Hildebert, successively bishop of Le Mans and archbishop of Tours (d. 1133), beg. 'Sicut hyems laurum non urit nec rogus aurum'. Printed by Migne, Patr. Lat., clxxi, 1321-1340; cf. Bibl. Hag. Lat., no 5419. ff. 150-165.

(7) Life of St Gudula al. Gudila, patron saint of Brussels, in leonine hexameters, with prologue beg. 'Inuidie morsum metuens' (text beg. 'Quum Sigibertus rex'). Glosses mainly in Latin, but including (f. 166) the word 'Magherheit'. Of the two prose lives printed in the Acta Sanctorum, i, 1863 (8 Jan.), the text is most closely related to the second (ibid., pp. 524-530; cf. Bibl. Hag. Lat., no. 3685). ff. 166-177.

(8) The common metrical penitentiary 'Paeniteas cito' (Migne, Patr. Lat., ccvii, 1153-1156) here consisting of 110 lines, viz. two elegiac couplets

followed by 106 hexameters. Accompanied by a commentary beg. 'Materia penitencie dicit autem Ysayas', similar to, but fuller than, that found in Royal MS. 9 A. xiv, ff. 296-298, and elsewhere, in which the authorship of the poem, often assigned to Johannes de Garlandia and less frequently to 'mag. Thomas' and Peter of Blois (cf. Cat. of Royal MSS., ad loc., and references there cited), is attributed (f. 178), as in Giessen MS. 797, to Bernardus Siluestris (al. de Chartres). ff. 178-183b.

(9) Poem on manners, known as 'Facetus', in 153 rhyming hexameter couplets, beg. 'Cum nichil utilius humane credo saluti'. Elsewhere attributed to magister Johannes Facetus, Johannes de Garlandia and others (see the edition by J. Morawski, Le Facet en Francoys, Poznan, 1923). Other texts are in Arundel MSS. 243, ff. 289-299, and 507, ff. 69-70 (extracts); Add. MSS. 19046, ff. 1-5b (imperfect), and 37075, ff. 52b-58. ff. 184-191b.

(10) 'Contemptus mundi' (see colophon, f. 199b): moral poem in 370 hexameters, for the most part leonine or rhyming in couplets, beg. 'Cartula nostra tibi mandat dilecte salutes'. (The bifolium constituting ff. 193, 198 has been misbound and should appear between ff. 195, 196.) Elsewhere sometimes wrongly attributed to St Bernard of Clairvaux, and in some versions addressed to a certain Rainaldus. Printed with this attribution and address by Migne, Patr. Lat., clxxxiv, 1307-1314. Other texts are in Add. MS. 10415, ff. 19-25, Cotton MS. Domitian A. xiii, ff. 108-109, Harley MS. 4967, ff. 113-114 (the two last imperfect). ff. 192-199b.

(11) 'Algonsmus' (see colophon, f. 207): the treatise on arithmetic by Johannes de Sacrobosco al. Holywood (fl. 1230), beg. 'Omnia quae a primeua rerum origine'. Printed by E. L. W. M. Curtze, Petri Philomeni de Dacia in algorismum... Commentarius, Copenhagen, 1897, pp. 1-19, who lists earlier editions (p.v.). Followed (f. 207), as in Verdun MS. 25 (Cat. gén. des MSS. des ... départements, v, 1879, pp. 441-442), by a collection of arithmetical problems, beg. 'Sint hic milites pedites et puelle', many of which also appear in such similar collections as that in Royal MS. 12 C. xii, ff. 8-11. ff. 200- 209.

(12) 'Filius' (f. 210, 121): moral poem in hexameters, occasionally leonine, but generally rhyming in couplets, arranged in nine stanzas of varying length. Beg. 'Ad noua dilecti redeant et amare salutis'. In other MSS. (for which see H. Walter, op. cit., no. 404) the authorship is ascribed variously to magister Henricus (of Tirlemont), magister Godefridus, and magister Andreas. ff. 210-217b. Vellum; ff. 217. 153 mm. x 103 mm. XIII-XIV centt. Each article was originally written (probably in the Low Countries) as a separate 'libellus', in a different hand or hands. Gatherings irregular. Artt. 1, 3, and 6 contain catchwords. Sec. fol. 'scripture attendatur'. A 15th-cent. arabic foliation, omitting the number 177, shows a loss from the MS. as then constituted of 64 leaves (63-126) between artt. 1 and 2 and of 9 leaves (152-160) from the beginning of art. 4. Initials, etc., in red, except in artt. 4 and 7. At f. 149 b (end of art. 5) is the 15th-cent. inscription 'liber monasterij rubee uallis', i.e.

21 B M

the Priory of Augustinian Canons Regular at Rouge Cloître al. Roode Kloster in Belgium: other erased inscriptions occur at the end of other artt. passim. From the Farnborough Fund.