Forty-seven lives of saints, Written late in the 12th century at St. Augustine's, Canterbury
Forty-seven lives of saints of whom a complete list in the hand of bishop Barlow occurs at p. v: there is a list also in an interleaved copy of the Old Catalogue of 1697 in the Library. The Saints are chiefly those commemorated in November and December, and among them are:
- P. 1. 'Vita sancti Edmundi Cantuariensis archiepiscopi, cum miraculis eiusdem': this life, occupying pp. 1-44, is in a hand of the 2nd half of the 13th cent., an addition to the volume; cf. p. 120
- P. 45. the real beginning of the volume, with a miniature of st. Augustine, etc., at the head) 'Relatio de ordinatione sancti Augustini Cantuariensis', imperfect at end, some leaves containing the end of the life (after 'post longa tempora in celestis') and the beginning of the life of st. Martin being missing after p. 56
- P. 175. the latter part of a Vita sancti Columbani, some leaves being missing before the words 'per anni circulum tantus ignis'
- P. 263. 'Vita sancti Birini episcopi'
- P. 457. Lectiones de s. Pancratio
- P. 459. 'Vita s. Petri abbatis [Cantuariensis]'. This volume is badly mutilated, wanting single leaves after pp. 124, 140, 174 (several), 198 (two), 248 (two), 318, 326 (two), 384 (?), 390, 408, 418 (two), 454 (two?), 456 (two?), and all after p. 464; and illuminated capitals have been cut out on pp. 155, 225, 269, 309, 325, 335, 351, 365, 369, and pp. 270-1, 383-4 have lost part of the leaf
- Pp. vii-xii, 465-72 are seven leaves from a 13th-cent. Latin MS. of sermons, of which one (p. 469) is 'Sermo in secunda feria Penthecostes fratris Remundi Rigaldi ordinis fratrum Predicatorum'
Dates
- Creation: Written late in the 12th century at St. Augustine's, Canterbury
Extent
478 pages
Language of Materials
- Latin
Shelfmark
MS. Fell. 2
Other Finding Aids
Falconer Madan, et al., A summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the Quarto series (7 vols. in 8 [vol. II in 2 parts], Oxford, 1895-1953; reprinted, with corrections in vols. I and VII, Munich, 1980), vol. II, no. 8690
Custodial History
This volume was bought (together with printed books) with £10 given to the Library by Richard Doydge of Milton Abbot in Devonshire in 1652. The strange part of its history is that it was wrongly identified with a volume of saints' lives stated to have been deposited in the Library along with MSS. Fell. 1, 3-4 by the dean and chapter of Salisbury, and as such was ordered by the curators in 1679 to be sent to Salisbury after having been lent to Dr. John Fell, bishop of Oxford: but it never reached Salisbury and was restored to the Bodleian Library in 1686 as a donation from bishop Fell! The Salisbury volume for which the present MS. was mistaken appears to have been a collection of Acta s. Germani as in MS. Bodl. 793, art. 1 a-d: it is not now in the Library.
A 16th-cent. name 'Johannes Lucas' is on p. 465.
Bibliography
- A facsimile of p. 192 is given as plate xvii in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy , 1902-4, vol. xxxii, sect. c.
Physical Facet
On parchment, in double columns. Imperfect and mutilated, with one miniature, many illuminated capitals, etc.
Dimensions
13 1/2 × 9 7/8 in.
Repository Details
Part of the Bodleian Libraries Repository
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom
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