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Add MS 22285
- Record Id:
- 032-002034758
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002034758
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000043.0x0003c5
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165146384.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 22285
- Title:
-
The Martyrology of Syon Abbey
- Scope & Content:
-
A collection of texts used by the nuns and brothers of Syon Abbey, including liturgical guides, obituaries, historical notices, a calendar, and a martyrology.
For an edition and translation of the manuscript, see Gejrot, ed. The Martiloge of Syon Abbey (2015); for a list of book donors to Syon Abbey recorded in the Martyrology, see Gillespie, ed. Syon Abbey (2001), pp. 567-94.
Contents:
Inside upper cover: a certificate by Thomas Gascoigne (b. 1404, d. 1458) recording the provenance of a relic of St Birgitta of Sweden given to Osney Abbey, Oxfordshire, written in Latin, with three 17th-century obits added at the end; the text beginning, 'Anno Cristi Jhesu incarnate millesimo tricentesimo...'
f. 2r: a list of abbesses and confessor-generals of Syon Abbey, between the 15th and 17th centuries.
ff. 3r-4v: a set of memoranda on obituaries to be commemorated and the manner of their commemoration, written in Latin, beginning, 'Memorandum, quod a principio huius monasterij de Syon consueuerunt...'
f. 4v: a set of notes on the correct calculation of kalends, nones, and ides, written in Latin, beginning, 'Hee Kalende -darum -dis -das -dis dicuntur primi dies mensium...'
ff. 5r-10v: a calendar, glossed with obituaries (many erased) and historical notices added in the 15th and 16th centuries.
ff. 11r-12v: a bookmark inscribed with a Latin grammatical guide, mostly comprising the singular and plural nominative forms of common nouns in the volume (e.g. frater-fratres).
f. 13r-v: a guide on when and how to read the Martyrology and obits, written in Latin, beginning, 'Martyrologium legatur post De profundis cotidie exceptis duobus diebus..'
f. 14r-v: a short chronicle of the history of Syon Abbey, from its foundation in 1415 up to 1443, written in Latin, beginning, 'Anno Domini mo cccco xvo, in festo cathedre sancti Petri...'
ff. 15r-18r: a revised version of the earlier set of Latin memoranda (ff. 3r-4v), beginning, 'A principio huius monasterij de Syon consueuerunt…'
ff. 18v-19r: a Latin form of the vow of obedience taken by new brethren, beginning, 'Littere obedienciarie post diem octauum cuiuslibit professionis...'
ff. 19v-20r: a form of the vow of obedience taken by lay brethren and servants (focary), written in Middle English and Latin, beginning, 'In nominee Patrise et Filij et Spiritus sancti…'
f. 21r: a set of notes on the graves housed in the transepts of the abbey church, dated 1485, beginning, 'In ambitibus fratrum loco primo, qui est prope fenestram primam...'
ff. 21v-69v: an obituary calendar for Syon Abbey, with many entries erased and with added obits up to the year 1639.
f. 54r: a paper note with the added obit of Mr John Roper (d. 1524) and his Jane Roper (d. c. 1544), written in English.
ff. 70r-71v: a list of special benefactors of the abbey, recorded up to the year 1616.
f. 72r-v: a set of notes on commemorating the obituaries of certain benefactors, written in Latin, beginning, 'Orate fratres presents et future specialiter pro anima...'
ff. 73r-76r: blank, except for the Latin heading, 'Nomina generalium benefactorum'.
ff. 77r-188r: The Martyrology of Syon Abbey, glossed with quotations from a number of Latin theological texts, including Isidore of Seville’s Sententiae.
f. 91r: a paper note inscribed with a quotation from a theological text.
f. 94r-95r: an added set of leaves from a choirbook.
ff. 120-123: a bookmark enclosing two parchment wheels (ff. 121, 122), inscribed with dominical letters.
f. 187r: a paper note, inscribed with a quotation from a theological text.
f. 188v: a set of notes on the prayers to be said in chapter, written in Latin, beginning, 'Preciosa est in conspectus Domino'.
ff. 189r-192v: a list of the graves of brethren and sisters in the abbey.
Inside lower cover: a pastedown recording two certificates by Fray Francisco do Sacramento, chaplain to the English nuns of St. Brigitta at Lisbon, that he said masses for the soul of Doña Izabel de Azevedo, 3 April 1706 and 9 January 1707, written in Portuguese.
ff. 1v, 20v, 76v, 95v, and 189v-190r are blank.
Decoration:
1 large decorated initial and a foliate border in colours and gold (77r).
12 large 'KL' initials in blue with red pen-flourishing accompanying the calendar (ff. 5r-10v).
Large initials in blue ink with red pen-flourishing (ff. 77v-188r). Small initials in red.
Rubrics, headings, and marginal notes in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002034758", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 22285: The Martyrology of Syon Abbey" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002034758
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002034758
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165146384.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin
Portuguese - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment and paper.
Dimensions: 270 x 180 mm (text space: 185 x 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 193 (+ 1 unfoliated ruled parchment leaf after f. 188 + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); ff. 11-12 are parchment leaves combined to form a bookmark; ff. 120-123 are parchment leaves combined to form a bookmark, enclosing two inscribed parchment wheels (ff. 121-122).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Pre-1600. Original thick wooden boards covered with a contemporary white leather chemise wrapper; a metal clasp and catch.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
The Bridgettine Abbey of Sts Saviour, Mary, and Bridget, Syon:
Suppressed at the Dissolution, the abbey was reconstituted by Mary I in 1557 but suppressed again upon the accession of Elizabeth I. The community went into exile, first to the Low Countries and France, before settling in Lisbon in 1594. In 1809, they returned to England but financial difficulties saw them sell many of their manuscripts and artefacts to
Charles Talbot (b. 1753, d. 1827), 15th Earl of Shrewsbury, in 1815.
Purchased of the executors of the Earl of Shrewsbury by the British Museum on 13 February 1858.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1854-1875, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1877), II, p. 627.
The Martiloge in Englysshe After the Use of the Chirche of Salisbury and as it is Redde in Syon with Addicyons, ed. F. Proctor and E. S. Dewick, Henry Bradshaw Society III (London, 1893), pp. xxv-xxxii..
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 185.
Edward Wilson, ‘A Middle English Manuscript at Coughton Court, Warwickshire, and British Library MS Harley 4012’, Notes and Queries, 222 (1977), 295-303.
Syon Abbey, ed by Vincent Gillespie, with The Libraries of the Carthusians, ed. by A. I. Doyle, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 9 (London: British Library, 2001), pp. xxix n1, xxxi n5, xxxiv, xxxvii, xlii, xliii, xlv, xlvii, 567-94 .
Claes Gejrot, ‘The Syon Martiloge’, in Syon Abbey and its Books: Reading, Writing and Religion, c.1400-1700, ed. by E. A. Jones and Alexandra Walsham (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2010), pp. 203-27.
The Martiloge of Syon Abbey: The Texts Relevant to the History of the English Birgittines, ed. and trans. by Claes Gejrot (Stockholm: Stockholm University, 2015).
Doyle, in ~Of the Making of Books: Medieval Manuscripts, their Scribes and Readers: Essays presented to M. B. Parkes~, ed. by P. R. Robinson and Rivkah Zim (Aldershot: Scholar Press, 1997), 73-93 (p. 73 n. 2).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)