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Cotton MS Julius F II
- Record Id:
- 040-001101765
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x00001c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165158295.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Julius F II
- Title:
-
Middle English translations of the Revelations of Birgitta of Sweden and Alfonso Fernández Pecha, Epistola solitarii ad reges
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains one of the two extant full-text translations of the Revelations of the mystic and saint, Birgitta of Sweden (b. 1303, d. 1373), known as the Liber celestis revelationum (Heavenly Book of Revelations). The other full-text copy survives in Cotton MS Claudius B I.
Also preserves the only extant Middle English translation of the Epistola solitarii ad reges (The Solitary's Letter to Kings) of Alfonso of Pecha (b. 1330, d. 1389), Bishop of Jaén. The latter was the spiritual director of Birgitta, and was largely responsible for editing her visions after her death. Alfonso wrote the Epistola as a preface to the final (eighth) book of the Liber, in which he defends Birgitta's status as a visionary and the veracity of her visions.
Contents:
ff. 1r-246v: Middle English translation of the Liber celestis revelationum of Birgitta of Sweden, Books I-VII.
ff. 246v-254r: Middle English translation of Alfonso of Pecha, Epistola solitarii ad reges.
ff. 254r-254v: Epilogue on Birgitta's death and canonization and Alfonso Pecha, written in Middle English.
f. 254v: A Latin prayer, beginning, 'O beata deo gratia patrona Suecia'.
f. 254v: A Latin prayer, beginning, 'Deus qui inter cetera potencie tue miracula eciam in sexu femineo beatam Brigidam'.
The manuscript contains a later addition:
f. 1r (first unfoliated parchment pastedown): A title inscription in the hand of Thomas Cotton: 'St Brigiths Revelations' with a (?) price 'viijs'.
f. 1r (second unfoliated parchment pastedown): 'Assit principio sancta Maria meo [meo] fuit homo missit / Fuit homo missus'; written in the (?) 14th or 15th century.
f. 254v: A foliation: 'Constat 254 ffol'; added in the 17th century.
Decoration:
Rubrics in red. Spaces for large (2-line) initials left empty with guide letters in brown ink.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001101765 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Julius F II : Middle English translations of the Revelations of Birgitta of Sweden and Alfonso Fernández Pecha, Epistola solitarii ad reges - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0053]/040-001101765
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165158295.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1475
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Condition: Outer edges of leaves damaged by fire in 1731.
Dimensions: 305 × 220 mm (text space: 175/190 x 165/170 mm).
Foliation: ff. 254 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); 2 unfoliated parchment pastedowns on f. 1r; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [ii]recto (bibliographical notes); 1 unfoliated paper stub between f. [i] and f. [ii].
Collation: Indicated by catchwords; each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard; quire numbers 'A' to 'N'.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house: blind-stamped brown leather with the arms of Robert Cotton gold stamped on the outside covers; rebound on 30 March 1961.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England (? Norfolk).
Provenance:
Thomas Sayer, 17th century: his signature inscribed on an unfoliated parchment pastedown on f. 1r.
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: his bookplates gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers, replacing and copying original covers from the Cottonian library; a title inscription in the hand of Thomas Cotton [see below] on an unfoliated parchment pastedown on f. 1r; the manuscript is listed in his catalogues (see Tite, The Early Records (2003), p. 99).
Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, Sir John Cotton.Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet: bequeathed the entire Cotton collection of books and manuscripts to trustees ‘for Publick Use and Advantage’, 12 and 13 William III, c. 7. Formed one of the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1802), p. 18.
The Revelations of Saint Birgitta, ed. by William Patterson Cummings, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 178 (London: Oxford University Press, 1929).
The Liber Celestis of St Bridget of Sweden: The Middle English Version in British Library MS Claudius B I, together with a Life of the Saint from the Same Manuscript, Volume I, ed. by Roger Ellis, Early English Text Society, 291 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).
Richard Beadle, 'Prologomena to a Literary Geography of Later Medieval Norfolk', in Regionalism in Late Medieval Manuscripts and Texts: Essays Celebrating the Publication of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English, ed. by Felicity Riddy (Cambridge: Brewer, 1991), p. 104.
Rosalynn Voaden, 'The Middle English Epistola Solitarii ad Reges' of Alfonso of Jaen: An Edition of the Text in British Library, Cotton MS. Julius F ii', in Studies in St. Birgitta and the Brigittine Order, ed. by James Hogg, Analecta Cartusiana, 35, Spiritualität heute und gestern, 19 (Salzburg: Universität Salzburg, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 1993), pp. 142-79.
Rosalynn Voaden, God's Words, Women's Voices: The Discernment of Spirits in the Writing of Late-Medieval Women Visionaries (York: York Medieval Press, 1999), p. 160.
Colin G. C. Tite, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 99.
'London, British Library, Cotton MS Julius F II', in Digital Birgitta [accessed 22 June 2022].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)