Royal MS 8 D XIII

DIADFMA MONACHORVM and some other fragments, in Latin, viz.:-

1. 'Hunc modicum libellum Smaragdus de diuersis uirtutibus collegit, et ei nomen diadema imposuit, quia sicut diadema gemmis ita et hic liber fulget virtutibus': the work of Smaragdus, Abbot of S. Mihiel (cc 7 D. VI). Preface beg. 'Hunc modicum operis nostri'; text, 'HOC est remedium eius'. f. 2.

2. Metrical version of the story told in the Apo. phthegmata Patrum (transl. by Pelagius), Rosweyd's Vitae Patrum, lib. v, p. 598 (Migne, Patr. Lat. lxxiii. 916), as in 8 E. xviii, art. 2, but imperfect by loss of leaves at the end, breaking off at the bottom of the page at 1. 36p 'ultra non curat homines'. In a later 12th cent. hand. Beg. 'In gestis patrum ueterum quoddam legi ridiculum'. f. 83 b. In the margin at the top of f. 25 are some lines in English, written with a plummet, beg.'Ic an witles fula wis of worldles blisse nabbe ic nout for a lefdi'. The fly-leaves (ff. 84, 1) contain the opening chapters of the Acts of the Apostles in a small early 12th cent. hand, incomplete, preceded by a summary of the chapters (no. ii in Berger's list, Hist. de la Vulgate. 1893, p. 356). Vellum; ff. 84. 101/2 in. x 71/4 in. Early XII cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves (i¹⁰, v¹⁰, x⁶). Art. 1 is written in a singular variety of hands; for some of which see pl. 58. Sec.fol. 'Secretus qui'. Ornamental initials in colours. Belonged to Worcester Cathearal Priory, 'Liber ecclesie cathedralis beate Marie Wygornensis' (f. 2). The names Thomas Greene, Webley, and Thomas Grymley in 15th-16th cent. hands occur on ff. i b, 2, and on f. 1 b are also 'Thomas Wlstanus hunc libellum perlegit anno domini 1520' and an elaborate monogram containing the letters m. a. c. i. e. l. o. nus (?). Belonged to john Theyer. Theyer sale-cat. no. ioi ; CMA. 6437.