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Royal MS 13 A X

Record Id:

040-002106822

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002105724

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000277.0x0003d2

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100059911176.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Royal MS 13 A X

Title:

Vita Sancti Johannis Eleemosynarii; Passio Sancti Albani; Vita Sancti Runwoldi; Bili of Aleth, Vita Sancti Machuti; Homelia in natale Sancti Machutis; Eutropius, Breviarium Historiae Romanae (fragment).

Scope & Content:

Contents:

This manuscript consists of two parts (ff. 1-62; 63-103) probably bound together in the early modern period (see Provenance).

Part one is from the 4th quarter of 12th century.

ff. 1r-53r: Vita Sancti Johannis Eleemosynarii (Life of St Johannes Eleemosynarius).

ff. 53r-55v: Passio Sancti Albani (Passion of St Alban).

ff. 55v-61v: Vita Sancti Runwoldi (Life of St Runwold).

Part 2 is from 2nd half of the 10th century.

ff. 63r-98r: Bili of Aleth, Vita Sancti Machuti (Life of St Malo).

ff. 98r-103v: Homelia in natale Sancti Machutis (Homily for the feast of St Malo).

ff. 104r-107v: Eutropius, Breviarium Historiae Romanae (imperfect).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

England and France 700-1200 Project
Royal Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002105724
040-002106822

Is part of:

Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts

Royal MS 13 A X : Vita Sancti Johannis Eleemosynarii; Passio Sancti Albani; Vita Sancti Runwoldi; Bili of Aleth, Vita Sancti Machuti; Homelia in…

Contains:

Royal MS 13 A X, ff 1-62 : Vita Sancti Johannis Eleemosynarii; Passio Sancti Albani; Vita Sancti Runwoldi
Royal MS 13 A X, ff 63-103 : Bili of Aleth, Vita Sancti Machuti; Homelia in natale Sancti Machutis; Eutropius, Breviarium Historiae Romanae (fragment)

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Royal MS 13 A X

Hierarchy:

032-002105724[1042]/040-002106822

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

A parchment codex

Digitised Content:

https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100059911176.0x000001

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

0900

End Date:

1199

Date Range:

10th century-12th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 245 x 170 mm (covers dimensions). Text block varies.

Foliation: ff. 107 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).

Binding: Post-1600. British Museum/British Library in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

John Lumley, 1st baron Lumley (b. c. 1533, d. 1609), collector and conspirator: inscribed with his name (ff. 1r, 63r); listed in the 1609 catalogue of his collection, nos. 1299, 1506 (see The Lumley Library, (1956)); passed to Henry, prince of Wales.

Henry Frederick, prince of Wales (b. 1594, d. 1612), eldest child of James I: his collection became part of the Royal Library.

The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71 (ff. 18, 18v) and in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James’s Palace (see [Edward Bernard], Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 3 vols (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), II, nos. 7921, 8267 and 8255).

Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.

Information About Copies:

Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

Publications:

H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), II (1893), p. 517.

George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 79-80.

David N. Dumville, Liturgy and the Ecclesiastical History of Late Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1992), p. 110.

David N. Dumville, English Caroline Script and Monastic History: Studies in Benedictinism, A.D. 950-1030, Studies in Anglo-Saxon History, 6 (Suffolk: Boydell, 1993), p. 145.

Joseph-Claude Poulin, 'Le Projet de Recherche sur les Sources Hagiographiques de la Gaule Antérieures à l'An Mil', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 50 (1996), 196-97 (p. 196).

Three Eleventh-century Anglo-Latin Saints' Lives: Vita S. Birini, Vita et miracula S. Kenelmi and Vita S. Rumwoldi, ed. and trans. by Rosalind C. Love (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), p. clxxv.

L. B. Mortensen, 'The Diffusion of Roman Histories in the Middle Ages. A List Of Orosius, Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus and Landolfus Sagax Manuscripts', Filologia Mediolatina, 6-7 (2000), 101-200 (p. 180).

Helmut Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 241 (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), no. 482 [on ff. 63-103].

Paul Antony Hayward, 'The Cult of St. Alban, Anglorum Protomartyr, in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England', in More than a Memory: The Discourse of Martyrdom and the Construction of Christian Identity in the History of Christianity, ed. by Johan Leemans (Leuven: Peeters, 2005), p. 184.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Notes:

This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.

Related Material:

From George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 79-80:

'LIVES OF SAINTS, &c., in Latin, viz.: 1. Life of S. Joannes Eleemosynarius, Patriarch of Alexandria, as translated by Anastasius Bibliothecarius from the Greek of Leontius. Rubric, 'Incipit prefatio Leuntii episcopi Neapolcos (Limasol) in uita s. Iohannis elemosinarii ad Nicholaum papam'. Beg. 'Cogitante me ac diu tacite'. This is the preface, not of Leontius, but of Anastasius, addressed to Pope Nicholas I (858- 867). It is followed (f. 2) by a table of 51 chapters. The preface of Leontius (f. 3b) is headed 'Incipit narratio Leontii episc. Neap. Cypriorum insule de vita s. Iohannis archiep. Alexandrini', and beg. 'Intentio quidem una est'. Cap. i, 'De Zacharia et de narratione Menne et quod sanctus iste Iohannes omnino non iurauerit', beg. 'Cum peruenissem Alexandriam' (f. 4 b). Printed in Acta Sanctorum, 23 Jan., and elsewhere, but without the rubrics of chapters as here given. f. 1.

This art. and artt. 2, 3 are of the 12th cent., having originally formed a separate MS.

2. 'Incipit passio sancti Albani prothomartyris Anglorum.' Beg. 'In Britannie insula passus est sanctus Albanus'. Taken from Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. i, cap. 7 (ed. Plummer, 1896, i, p. 18). f. 53.

3. 'Vita sancti Rumwoldi.' Prologue beg. 'Legitur Christi magnalia enarrare'; text, 'Fuit namque in insula maiore Britannia'. Printed from this and other MSS. in Acta SS., 1 Nov.; see also an abridgement in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Angliae, 1516, fol. lxxiv. f. 55 b.

On a blank leaf following art. 3 (f. 62 b) is inserted, in a 13th cent. hand, a note on the method of calculation for making up the number of the Beast in Apoc. XIII. 18.

4. Vita sancti Machutis: a Life of S. Machu, Maclou, or Malo, by Bili, deacon, of Aleth (afterwards St. Malo), in two books, adapted from an earlier Life and dedicated to Ratuili, Bishop of Aleth (circ. 866-890). Beg. 'In Christi nomine incipit prologus vitae sancti Machutis episcopi atque confessoris. Domino sancto et meritis venerabili totoque pectoris sinu amplectendo ac meo magistro gregorio in sancta Trinitate Ratuilio episcopo mihi amantissimo Bili leuita humilis perpetuam salutem. Magnitudo caritatis'. The word 'gregorio' is not a proper name but an epithet meaning 'vigilant' (see ed. Lot, p. 340, note 1, and L. Duchesne in Revue Celtique, xi, 1890, note 2). This 'prologus', or dedication, is followed by:-(a) Eleven quasi-hexameter lines beg. 'Vitales qui cupis doctorum capere fructus'. f. 64b;-

(b) Table of 67 capitula of lib. i. f. 65,-(C) 'Ymnus s. Machuti episc. atque conf.', beg. 'Benedicite Dominum gubernatorem omnium, qui suum dedit famulum Machutem ducem Brittonum' (Chevalier, Repert. Hymn. no. 2425). f. 66 b;-(d) Prologue, without title, beg. 'Religiosorum actuum gesta'. f. 68b. Lib. i (f. 70) beg. 'Igitur venerabilis atque sacratissimus sanctus Machu'; ends (f. 81 b) 'fructum fidelissimum optinent'. Lib. ii is preceded by a table of 16 capitula (f. 81 b), and by five elegiac lines (f. 82) beg. 'Hunc operis nostri modicum percurre libellum'. It begins (f. 82) 'Igitur quia de ortu', and ends (f. 98) 'Sua cuius nos suffragia semper adiuuent in secula. Amen'. These words begin a page, and a leaf immediately preceding has been lost, f. 97 b ending 'lapidem mecum tollens ut'. Written in 10th cent. Caroline minuscules. Edited from this MS. and Bodley MS. Lat. 535 by Dom Francois Plaine for the Soc. Archéol. du Département d'Illeet-Vilaine, Bulletin et Mémoires, xvi, Rennes, 1883, p. 167, another adaptation of the earlier Life being included in the same volume, p. 267, ed. A. Le Moyne de la Borderie (reprinted Deux Vies inédites de St. Malo, 1884). For a revised text see F.Lot, Mélanges d'Histoire Bretonne, 1907, p. 331; and for the connexion of Bili's narrative with the Voyage of S. Brendan, Ward, Cat. of Romances, ii, p. 517. f. 63.

5. 'Homelia in natale s. Machutis Christi confessoris atque pontificis.' Beg. 'Gaudete, dilectissimi fratres in domino, qui ad sanctissimi Machutis'. In the same hand as art. 4, and perhaps by the same author. f. 98.

6. Two fragments of the Breviarium historiae Romanae of Eutropius, viz. iv. 24, 'Cato consul Scordiscis intulit bellum'- v. 9, 'duo bella funestissima', and vi.

15, 'claris quidem sed audacibus!-vii. 4, 'his qui superfuerant'. ff. 104, 106.

Vellum; ff. 107. 9¹/₈ in. x 6¹/₄ in. (ff. 63-109 on a ¹/₄ in. guard). X-XIII centt.(see above). Gatherings, artt. 1-3, i-vii⁸, viii⁶, numbered at the end; artt. 4, 5, i, ii⁸, iii¹⁰, iv⁹ (signed 'd'), v⁶ ; art. 6, four single leaves guarded. Sec. fol. 'non astutiam' and art. 4 'etiam supra'. Initials in red, green, and brown; in art. 4 in red only, in art. 5 in black. Belonged (ff. 1, 63) to [John, Lord] Lumley. Lumley cat. f. 253; cat. of 1666, ff. 18, 18b; CMA. 7921, 8267.'