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Add MS 32006
- Record Id:
- 032-002025731
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002025731
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000054.0x00020e
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 32006
- Title:
-
An English arma Christi roll
- Scope & Content:
-
This so-called arma Christi roll is one of the ten extant late-medieval English rolls with the Middle English poem O Vernicle - a poem on the different instruments of Christ's suffering - illustrated with images of the arma Christi at its relevant stanzas. The reason why the poem was frequently copied on rolls is unclear: the rolls may have been displayed publically in churches, but the relatively small size of the rolls makes it more likely that they were designed for private devotional reading. The rolls provide their readers with detailed instructions for prayer and meditation on the different aspects of Christ's suffering and encourage them to continue these devotional activities throughout their lives: this roll, for example, ends with an indulgence that promises that those who look daily at the roll will be protected against spiritual and physical dangers.
Contents:
ff. 1r-4v: The Middle English poem O Vernicle, with Latin headings for all stanzas, ending with an indulgence (rubricated).
Decoration:
22 miniatures with colours illustrating the arma Christi. The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 1r: Veronica holding the veil with the Holy Face.
f. 2r: A pelican; the knife of Christ's circumcision; Judas's thirty silver pieces; the Roman soldiers' lantern; swords and clubs; a reed; the hands that pulled Christ’s hair and hit him; the scourges; the crown of thorns; (Christ bound to) the pillar.
f. 3r: Christ carrying the cross; the nails; the vessel with vinegar and gall; the sponge; the spear; a ladder; pincers; the Jews that spat on Christ ('The Jewe þat spette lord in þi face'); Christ crucified; the sepulchre (empty); Christ rising from the sepulchre.
25 large blue initials, most with red penwork decoration.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002025731", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 32006: An English arma Christi roll" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002025731
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002025731
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Parchment roll
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_32006 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1500
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the fifteenth century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 2380 x 145 mm (text space: approximately 2376 x 75 mm).
Foliation: ff. 4 (4 unfoliated parchment leaves).
Script: Gothic (Anglicana).
Binding: No binding.
- Custodial History:
-
Origins: England.
Provenance:
'William Sa[nt?]For[est/th?]', 16th century: his name (partially legible) inscribed on f. 4v, with pen trails and an English recipe or rhyme written by the same scribe.
Edward Gilbertson (b. 1813, d. 1904), English banker and collector: his name inscribed on f. 1v: ‘Presented by Edward Gilbertson on 29 Dec. 1882’. Donated by him to the British Museum.
- Information About Copies:
-
Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digital Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Hope Rossell Robbins, ‘The ‘Arma Christi’ Rolls’, Modern Language Review, 34 (1939), 415-21 (pp. 415, 418).
Curt F. Bühler, ‘Prayers and Charms in Certain Middle English Scrolls’, Speculum, 39 (1964), 270-78.
Ann Eljenholm Nichols, ‘’O Vernicle’: Illustrations of an Arma Christi Poem’, in Tributes to Kathleen L. Scott: English Medieval Manuscripts: Readers, Makers and Illuminators, ed. by Marlene Villalobos Hennessy (London: Miller, 2009), pp. 138-69 (pp. 138, 141, 145, 147, 149, 151-57, 159-164, 167).
Mary Agnes Edsall, ‘Arma Christi Rolls or Textual Amulets? The Narrow Roll Format Manuscripts of “O Vernicle”’, Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, 9:2 (2014), 178-209 (p. 180, fig. 3).
Richard G. Newhauser and Arthur J. Russell, 'Mapping Virtual Pilgrimage in an Early Fifteenth-Century Arma Christi Roll', in The Arma Christi in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture: With a Critical Edition of ‘O Vernicle’, ed. by Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea Denny-Brown (Abingdon: Ashgate, 2014; repr. London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 83-112 (pp. 85, 327).
Ann Eljenholm Nichols, 'The Footprints of Christ as Arma Christi: The Evidence of Morgan B.54', in Arma Christi in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture: With a Critical Edition of ‘O Vernicle’, ed. by Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea Denny-Brown (Abingdon: Ashgate, 2014; repr. London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 113-42 (p. 135).
Martha Rust, 'The Arma Christi and the Ethics of Reckoning', in Arma Christi in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture: With a Critical Edition of ‘O Vernicle’, ed. by Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea Denny-Brown (Abingdon: Ashgate, 2014; repr. London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 143-70 (pp. 150, 160).
Ann Eljenholm Nichols, 'O Vernicle: A Critical Edition', in Arma Christi in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture: With a Critical Edition of ‘O Vernicle’, ed. by Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea Denny-Brown (Abingdon: Ashgate, 2014; repr. London: Routledge, 2016), pp. 308-91 (pp. 323, 330-31).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)