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Cotton MS Claudius B I
- Record Id:
- 040-001102467
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x000312
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165157421.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Claudius B I
- Title:
- The Life and Revelations of Birgitta of Sweden
- 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).
Another full copy of the text now survives as Cotton MS Julius F II.
Contents:
ff. 2r-4v: A Middle English translation of the Life of St Birgitta of Sweden, as prepared by Birger Gregersson, Archbishop of Uppsala, in 1376; imperfect at the end due to the loss of a folio after f. 4.
ff. 5r-281v: A Middle English translation of the Liber celestis revelationum of Birgitta of Sweden, Books I-VII; imperfect at the beginning due to the loss of a folio before f. 5.
The manuscript contains a number of later additions:
f. 1v: An added table of contents, entitled, 'Elenchus contentorum'; written in the hand of Richard James (b. 1592, d. 1638), librarian for Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631).
f. 2r: A title inscription, 'The Revelation of Sainct Bridgitte'; added in the 16th century.
f. 281v (upper margin): A foliation for the manuscript: 'Cons. fol. 280'; possibly added in the 17th century.
Decoration:
3 column miniatures in colours (ff. 34r, 117r, 270r).
Very large initials in blue, purple and red with floral motifs and golden grounds inside the letter and with full or intercolumnar borders of acanthus leaves in blue, green, purple and gold at the beginnings of Books I-VI (ff. 70r, 117r, 149r, 212r, 230r).
1 large (8-line) blue initial in a frame of red penwork decoration at the beginning of Book VII. Large (3- and 4-line) blue initials with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing in red ink at the beginning of each chapter.
Rubrics in red. Paraphs in blue. Corrections in red.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 34r: St Bridget kneeling before the Virgin Mary wearing a crown and holding a sceptre, with Christ standing behind her.
f. 117r: St Bridget seated and writing in a book with a bishop standing before her.
f. 270r: The Nativity with St Bridget kneeling before the Christ child surrounded by rays of light.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102467 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Claudius B I : The Life and Revelations of Birgitta of Sweden - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0563]/040-001102467
- 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_100165157421.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1424
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter 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.
Condition: Intact.
Dimensions: Approximately 350 × 240 mm (text space: 230 x 150 mm), written in 2 columns.
Foliation: ff. 281 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 unfoliated modern paper pastedown on f. [ii]recto (bibliographical notes); early modern pagination throughout (crossed out), but modern foliation in pencil is followed here.
Collation: Indicated by catchwords.
Script: Gothic cursive (Anglicana).
Binding: British Museum in-house. Blind-stamped and gold-tooled brown leather with the arms of Robert Cotton gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; dark tanned fore edges. Rebound in 1857.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
? Northern England [written in Northern Middle English].
Provenance:
? Henry Savile, of Banke (b. 1568 d. 1617), collector of manuscripts, owned in early 17th century: speculatively identified as no. 6 [Revelationes Sanctae Brigidae virginis, Anglice. perg. fol.'] in his catalogue (see Watson, The Manuscripts of Henry Savile of Banke (1969), p. 17 [no. 6]).
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; his pressmark (Claudius B I) written by the so-called 'Stylized hand' on f. 1r; a table of contents in the hand of his librarian Richard James on f. 1v; the manuscript is listed in his catalogues (see Tite, The Early Records (2003), p. 123).
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. 191.
The Revelations of Saint Birgitta, ed. by William Patterson Cummings, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 178 (London: Oxford University Press, 1929), p. xvii.
Andrew G. Watson, The Manuscripts of Henry Savile of Banke (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1969), p. 17 [no. 6].
Angus McIntosh, M. L. Samuels, and Michael Benskin, A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, 4 vols (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1986), I, p. 105.
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).
Joan Isobel Friedman, 'MS Cotton Claudius B.I.: A Middle english Edition of St Bridget of Sweden's Liber Celestis', in Prophets Abroad: The Reception of Continental Holy Women in Late-Medieval England, ed. by Rosalynn Voaden (Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1996), pp. 91-113.
Colin G. C. Tite, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 123.
'London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius B.i', in Digital Birgitta [accessed16 June 2022].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)