Royal MS 7 F XI

Two THEOLOGICAL WORKS, in Latin, viz:-

1. 'Liber qui intitulatur Florarium Bartholomei' (so colophon): a collection of excerpts from theological and canon law writers, arranged alphabetically under headings, Abstinentia-Usura. The title, supposed by Pits and others to indicate the name of the author, is really to be interpreted in the same sense as in the case of the medical work Breviarium Bartholomaei (partly printed in Anecdota Oxoniensia, i, pt. i, cf. Harley MS. 3), the compilation being in fact the work of the same author, John de Mirfield, Augustinian canon of St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield. This is indicated by a couplet on f. 3, 'Ad Ihesus incipies capitales inde notabis / Nunc quo vado scies venio simul vnde probabis', referring to the initial letters of capp. lxii-end, which read 'Iohanni de Suthuuelle per Iohannem de Mirfeld ora pro nobis beate Bartholomee ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Cristi. amen. explicit'. Dr. Norman Moore has shown that a similar acrostic runs through the Breviarium. The authorities cited

include a constitution of Simon Islip, Archbishop of

Canterbury (f. 69), which is dated by Walsingham (Hist. Angl.) 1362, a sermon of John 'Cronson' [Grandison], Bishop of Exeter 1328-1369 (f. 181), Higden's Polycronica, &c. There are also several 'narraciones', one of which relates to a vision seen by a lay-brother of Bordesley on the death of Roger, Bishop of Worcester (1179). The original table of capitula is at the end, but a new one is prefixed in a calligraphic Italian hand. Preface beg. 'Gracias ago gracie largitori quia gratanter audisti, frater karissime'; text, 'Abstinencia est statutum prandendi tempus non peruenire'. f. 3.

2. Speculum Peccatoris, a work of uncertain authorship, printed in the appendix to S. Augustine's works (Migne, Patr. Lat. xl. 983), and attributed to S. Bernard (cf 6 E. III, art. 29), Aegidius Romanus (Oxford, Trin. Coll. MS. lxxi), Richard Rolle, and others. In the two MSS. Egerton 673 (f. 31) and Sloane 2275 (f. 196 b) it appears as the last of three chapters in a longer work with the same title, but in most of the very numerous other MSS. (cf. 8 F. VII, art. 3, 17 B. XVII, art. 7) it appears separately. An English version is in Harley MSS. I706 (f. 106), 2339 (f. 49), and 4O12 (f. 73). Beg. 'Quo. niam, karissimi, in huius via vite'. and ends 'prudenter prouideas'. f. 259b. Vellum; ff. 226. 131/2 in. x 91/4 in. XV cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves (lastl2), with catchwords. Sec. fol. 'esse sublimem'. Initials in red. On f. 259 is the note 'Iste liber constat Thome Baxster vicario perpetuo ecciesie parochialis de Stikford' [Stickford, co. Linc.], with the name of Ricardus Hutton, 'qui Ricardus contulit istum librum domui religiose [Augustinian Bonihomines] de Asherug [Ashridge, co. Bucks.] ibidem in biblioteca permansurum, anno domini 1518'. Old Royal press-mark 'no. 1109'; cat. of 1666, f. 15 b; CMA. 8187.