Add MS 46487

From Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1946-1950 (London: The British Museum, 1979), pp. 108-10:

'Chartulary, etc,. of the Benedictine Abbey of Sherborne, co. Dorset, containing copies of royal, papal and episcopal charters in Latin and Anglo- Saxon, followed by passions, gospels, collects, blessings and other ceremonies; circ. 1146, with later additions. G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies, 1958, no. 892; for extracts from another Sherborne register, now lost, in Bodleian Libr. MS. Dodsworth 63, ff. 90 - 92, see also ibid., no. 893. For the suggestion that the present MS. was written to mark the settlement of a dispute between the Abbey and the Bishop of Salisbury in the former's favour, with a list of contents, see F. Wormald, 'The Sherborne "Chartulary"', Fritz Saxl Memorial Essays, ed. D. J. Gordon, 1957, pp. 101-119. All the 38 charters and letters in the chartulary section of the MS. (ff. 3-38b) have been published; for bibliographical references see Wormald, ibid., pp. 111- 117 The earliest dated charter is a grant in Latin by Cenwalh, King of the West Saxons, of privileges to the See of Sherborne, 671 (ff. 37b - 38). The chartulary section also includes (ff. 21-22b) an extract from the Domesday survey relating to nine manors of Sherborne, cf. Domesday Book, I, 1783, p. 77. Later non-liturgical additions are:- (1) Extracts from the Dorset eyre roll of three suits involving the Abbot, 21 Jan. 1280. ff. 2-2b;- (2) Note relating to the endowment and dedication, in 1117, of St Thomas's Chapel, The Green, Sherborne, 14th cent. f. 38b;- (3) Account of the gifts of William de Thorncombe, Sacristan of Sherborne and brother of Abbot Clement, printed by Wormald, ibid., pp. 118-119. 12th cent. (after 1170). ff. 87-88. The liturgical contents are:- (1) Passions according to SS. Matthew, xxvi.

2-xxvii, Mark, xiv-xv. 46, Luke, xxii-xxiii. 53 (lacks a leaf at the beginning, see the stub numbered as f. 48), and John, xviii-xxix. ff. 39-56;- (2) Gospels and collects for principal feasts, Christmas Eve to the Conception of the Virgin (8 Dec.), lacking two leaves after f. 65. The collect for the feast of St Wesinus, Bishop of Sherborne, occurs at f. 60. ff. 56-71;- (3) Blessings and other ceremonies for Candlemas, Ash Wednesday (lacking two leaves after f. 71), Palm Sunday and Thursday to Saturday in Holy Week. ff. 71b-86b. Vellum; ff. 88. 275 mm. x 185 mm. Circ. 1146, with additions down to the XIV cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves (iii, 8 cancelled; iv lacks 7, 8 cancelled; v lacks 8; vii lacks 2; ix lacks 4, 5; x lacks 4, 5; xii (last) lacks 5, 6). x and xi are so numbered at the bottom left-hand corner of the last leaf. Ff. 1-2 are flyleaves. Ff. 3-88 bear a 17th-cent. ink foliation (frequently cropped) in which ff. 30, 64, 65, 72, 73, 89 and 90 are now lacking; that at least two further folios ( probably with miniatures of evangelists, as at ff. 43b, 53b, see below ) were lost before the ink foliation was made, is apparent from the stubs before f. 39 and at f. 48. Two irregular, cancelled, modern pencil foliations follow the incorrect order in which the MS. was bound from the early 19th cent. until 1967, see further Wormald, ibid., pp. 102-103; for a concordance of the ink and the two most recent pencil foliations see Add. MS. 46487*, ff. 1-3. Ruled and written, single column, 28 lines to a page, in one fine book-hand throughout, except the additions at ff. 2-2b, 38b, 87-88. The pricking is still mostly visible. Decoration, red titles, numerous coloured and, in the liturgical section, occasional illuminated initials, with two contemporary miniatures of SS. Mark ( half-page, f. 43b ) and John (full-page, f. 52b) executed in a stiff, rather angular style. The latter are unusual in that both omit the evangelist symbols, and St John is depicted standing. Companion miniatures preceding the Gospels of SS. Matthew and Luke have apparently been excised, see above. Binding (on which see Brit. Mus. Quart., xxii, 1967-1968, pp. 96-98 and plates) of contemporary oak boards, the front one recessed to receive applied decoration. To the top of the recess is nailed an inverted Limoges enamel figure of an angel, possibly early 13th cent., that was probably not part of the original decoration but is depicted in its present position in The Itinerary of John Leland, ed. T. Hearne, 1744, ii, p. 58. There are 17th cent. notes on Anglo-Saxon land measurement written on f. 1, and other 17th cent. annotations on ff. 26, 27. The name 'William Wetall' is written in a simple cipher, 17th cent., on f. 25b. The MS. was first noticed by Hearne, who thought that it belonged to William Digby, 5th Baron Digby, who had inherited the Sherborne estate of his cousin, John Digby, 3rd Earl of Bristol, in 1698 (Remarks and Collections, iii, 1889, p. 452; under 3 Sept. 1712). In the early 19th cent. it belonged to Thomas Lloyd, a wine merchant of London, and collector of genealogical and heraldic material, who had it resewn with the leaves disarranged (see above) and interleaved with paper for annotations; this interleaving has now been removed, except ff. i, ii, and is preserved separately as 46487*, ff. 8-61. Bought at the sale of Lloyd's MSS., Sotheby's, 10 May 1828, lot 202, by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. ( Phillipps MS. 3626 ). William H. Robinson, Cat. No. 77, 1948, item 19. Purchased with the aid of contributions from the Friends of the National Libraries, the National Art-Collections Fund, and the Pilgrim Trust.'.