Add MS 60390

EXEMPLA FAMILIARIA: collection of 159 tales, mainly taken from secular life, transcribed in France; 1st half of 14th cent. Latin. Imperfect, lacking single leaves after ff. 25, 27, and two leaves after f. 26, and several after ff. 28, 46. The collection probably originated in S. E. France and was compiled by a member of the order of Brothers of Penance of Jesus Christ, generally known as the Friars of the Sack, in the second half of the thirteenth century. Inc. after the title rubric, 'Audivi quendam cardinalem dicentem quod quidam erant in maris periculo constituti'. See E. Welter, 'Un recueil d'exempla du xiiie siècle', in Etudes franciscaines, 30 (1913) pp. 646-665; 31 (1914), pp. 194-213, 312-320, in which the text is described and partially published from Arras, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS. 1019. In the present volume the exempla are virtually identical with Welter's nos. 1-77, 83-95, 101-104, 110, 111, 113, 146-207. Of five further exempla not found in Welter's article four occur in the Harley 463 version of the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry (see J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances, iii, 1910). Erased inscription in the lower margin of f. 1. Inscribed (upper margin of f. 1) 'Mei Io. Stam quem emi erga heredes Kummerhensgis pro xviii albis' and (f. ii) 'Istum librum habeo ego Io. Stam a filiis Kummerhensgis pro xviii albis anno d[omini] 1442'. On other books formerly owned by Stam (d.1463), priest at Bernkastel and later at Kues, see J. Marx, Verzeichnis der Handschriften-Sammlung des Hospitals zu Cues (1905). Presented by the runic archaeologist George Stephens (b.1813, d.1895) to the Folklore Society in 1895 and deposited on loan by this society at University College, London, as MS. lat. 27, in 1923. See N. R. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, i (Oxford, 1969), p. 357. Purchased at Sotheby's, 5 Dec. 1978, lot 35.

Vellum (except f. ii); ff. ii+46. 138 x 100mm. Written space, 83 x 65 mm. Text written on 23 lines to a page. Collation, 1-38 (ff. 1-24), 44 (ff. 25-28), 5-68 (ff. 29-44), 72 (ff. 45-46). Horizontal catchwords. Sec. fol. ha]bu(n)dant(er). Early 16th cent. binding comprising a scrap of vellum to which the gatherings are stitched, but which covers only a small part of them. One reused paper leaf bearing part of a verse grammatical text in Latin (f. ii) was apparently placed at the end of the volume and formed part of an earlier binding.