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Add MS 22029
- Record Id:
- 032-002034491
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002034491
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000043.0x00032d
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 22029
- 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.
Contents:
ff. 1r-4v: The Middle English poem O Vernicle.
Decoration:
24 miniatures with colours illustrating the arma Christi. The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 1r: Veronica holding her veil with the Holy Face; the knife of Christ’s circumcision; a pelican; Judas's thirty silver pieces; the Roman soldiers' lantern.
f. 2r: The Roman soldiers' swords and clubs; a rod; the hands that pulled Christ’s hair of and hit him; the sudarium; Christ’s robe and the Roman soldiers' pair of dice; the scourges; the crown of thorns (with an IHS monogram).
f. 3r: The pillar; Christ carrying the cross; the nails; the vessel with vinegar and gall; the sponge; the spear; the ladder used to take Christ from the cross.
f. 4r: The hammer used for the Crucifixion; the pincers; the Jews that spat on Christ (‘Jewys þat spytte lorde in thy face’); a Tau cross (with INRI monogram); Christ's resurrection from the tomb holding a cross-shaped banner (inscribed: ‘Christus Resurgens).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002034491", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 22029: An English Arma Christi Roll" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002034491
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002034491
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
Parchment roll
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_22029 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1425
- End Date:
- 1450
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the fifteenth century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Dimensions: 1345 x 90 mm (text space: 1340 x 65 mm).
Foliation: ff. 4 (4 unfoliated parchment leaves).
Script: Gothic (Anglicana).
Binding: A thin piece of leather sewn to f. 1.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
'Elynor Sybsay', 15th or 16th century: her name inscribed (f. 4v) in a 15th- or 16th-century hand.
'Uriah Young': Purchased by the British Museum from him in 1857 (f. 1v: ‘Purchased of Uriah Young 4. May. 1857’).
- Information About Copies:
- Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digital Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Richard Morris, Legends of the Holy Rood: Symbols of the Passion and Cross-Poems: In Old English of the Eleventh, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 46 (London: Trübner, 1871), 170-96 (edition from this manuscript).
Hope Rossell Robbins, ‘The ‘Arma Christi’ Rolls’, Modern Language Review, 34 (1939), 415-21 (p. 415).
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, 141-45, 148-54, 156-57, 159-62, 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 (pp. 180, 192, fig. 3).
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 (pp. 115, 117, 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 W. Astell, 'Retooling the Instruments of Christ's Passion: Memorial Technai, St. Thomas the Twin, and British Library Additional Ms 22029', 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.171-202.
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. 316, 324, 339-340).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)