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Egerton MS 91

Record Id:

032-003952919

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003952919

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100127871458.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Egerton MS 91

Title:

Saints' Lives and other religious texts

Scope & Content:

Lives of Irish and other saints, plus other religious texts.

A detailed description of this manuscript is provided by O'Grady and Flower, Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts, ii, pp. 438-51.

Contents:

f. 1r: Paper pastedown calling the manuscript 'The Leabhar Breac' with a brief overview of its contents.

f. 1v: Blank.

ff. 2r-11r: Irish translation of Pope Innocent III's De Contemptu Mundi.

Unfoliated paper leaf between ff. 7 and 8. Lacuna between ff. 7 and 8.

ff. 11r-13r: The Life of St George including his encounter with the dragon.

ff. 13r-v: The Life of Longinus. The text is inaccurately retraced by a modern hand, with portions of text missing. Incomplete.

Unfoliated paper flyleaf between ff. 13 and 14.

ff. 14r-16v: The Pasion of SS Peter and Paul.

ff. 16v-20r: Text on the duties of priests.

ff. 20r-21v: The Pater Noster with translation into Irish and commentary.

Unfoliated paper leaf between ff. 21 and 22.

ff. 22r-25v: Life of Colm Cille.

f. 25v: Note in English that a later owner 'proved' (corrected?) the Life of Colm Cille.

ff. 26r-30v: Life of St Brendan. Some text has been lost and attempts made to retrace it in a modern hand.

ff. 30v-32v: Proicept Grigóir (Life of Gregory the Great).

ff. 32v-33v: Life of the seven men who slept in Ephesus. Some text lost at the end due to fading.

Unfoliated paper leaf between ff. 33 and 34.

ff. 34r-36r: Tract on Hell.

ff. 36r-v: Tract on Heaven.

ff. 36v-37v: Tract on Church prelates.

ff. 37v-38v: Tract on poverty.

ff. 38v-41v: Tract on patience. Imperfect at the end.

ff. 42r-44r: Life of St Ciarán. Imperfect at the beginning.

ff. 44r-46v: The Life of Martin of Tours.

ff. 46r-48v: The Nativity of John the Baptist, translated from Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend.

f. 48v: Text on the Decapitation of John the Baptist, translated from Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend. Imperfect or incomplete.

ff. 49r-51v: Life St Maignenn of Cillmainham.

ff. 52r-56r: Life of St Senán. Some text on the lower page of f. 52r is badly faded.

f. 56v: Life of St Mochua. Imperfect at the end.

Unfoliated paper leaf between ff. 56 and 57.

ff. 57r-60r: Life of St Brigid. Imperfect at the beginning.

Unfoliated paper flyleaf between ff. 57 and 58. A note in pencil states that there are no missing leaves.

ff. 60r-62v: Account of Paphnutius and Onophrius of Egypt (conflating a number of Egyptian saints called Paphnutius).

ff. 62v-63v: Passion of Marcellinus. Some text has been lost at the head of f. 63v.

ff. 63v-67r: Dígal fola Críst.

f. 67r: Account of the Virgin Mary appearing to a woman called Eulalia and teaching her to say the Ave Maria one hundred and fifty times instead of the Psalter; text about a statue of the Virgin Mary being undamaged when the church is destroyed by fire (inaccurately retraced in a modern hand).

f. 67v: Text on the derivation of the notes of the scale from the chant sung by the Israelites when crossing the Red Sea; tale of the Jew of Bourges who is saved from a fire by the Virgin Mary; the tale of the healing of Constantine.

Titles written in English in a modern hand in the upper margins throughout the manuscript.

Decoration:

Zoomorphic inital in black (f. 22r, 52r). Large, uncoloured interlaced initial (f. 1r, 34r, 38v). Small uncoloured zoomorphic initials (ff. 36r (incomplete), 36v, 52r 60r, 63v). Initials with minor decoration in black (ff. 14r, 16v, 20r, 26r, 32v, 38v 56v, 67r-v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-003952919", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Egerton MS 91: Saints' Lives and other religious texts" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003952919

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003952919

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Irish

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 260 x 175mm (written area: 220 x 155-65mm).

Foliation: ff. 67 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end + 1 between ff. 7 and 8; between ff. 13 and 14; between ff. 21 and 22; between ff. 33 and 34; between ff. 41 and 42 + 1 between ff. 56 and 57; and between ff. 57 and 58).

Script: Irish.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Brown leather with the Bridgewater arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers. Rebound October 1947.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Ireland.

Written by Uilliam Mac An Lega, a prolific 15th-century scribe, who gives his first name in a colophon on f. 44r.

Provenance:

James Hardiman, Irish historian and librarian (b. 1782, d. 1855). Hardiman sold his manuscript collection to the British Museum in 1832 in order to fund his research to complete the proof of the Netterville peerage for James Netterville.

Bought by the British Museum, using the Bridgewater fund (£12,000 bequeathed in 1829 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829).

Publications:

Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Standish Hayes O'Grady (vol. I) and Robin Flower (vol. II), 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1926; repr. 1992), ii, 438-51.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)