The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Owen Roberson

London, British Library, Cotton Caligula A.xiv

Lives of Saints

Date: s. ximed

Summary:

A composite manuscript which contains music and hymns in Latin and Saints' Lives in English. The Lives of Saints is contained in the second part of the manuscript on fols 93-130v. Ker (1957) notes one hand, s. ximed. Origin unknown, belonged to Thomas Allen.

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: fols 125-30v, 93r-111v

   Title (B.1.3.30): Ælfric, Third Series of Homilies [Lives of Saints]: Saint Martin

   Incipit: (fol. 125r) [...] ond þa bærmen sona stedefæste stodon sƿylce his astifode ƿæron

   Explicit: (fol. 111v) mid ƿundrum se ðe on ecnysse rixað ælmihtig ƿealdend AMEN.

   Text Language: English

   Note: Bound out of order. One leaf is missing between fol. 130v, which ends with 'he sa.t toþam casereondhi sƿiðe blyðe wæron' and fol. 93r which begins with 'for his ingangeondnolde hine ƿylcumian ac ðær ƿearð godes miht'.

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, Art. 1

   Skeat 1881-1900, II, pp. 242-, ll. 374-

   Wilcox 2000

2. Item: fols 111v-21v

   Title (B.1.3.34): Ælfric, Third Series of Homilies [Lives of Saints]: Passion of Saint Thomas the Apostle

   Rubric (initial): (fol. 111v) XX.KALENDARIS IANUARIASPASSIOSANCTITHOME APOSTOLI DUBITABAM DIUTRANSFERRE ANGLICEPASSIONEM

   Incipit: (fol. 111v) ÆFTER ÐÆS HÆLENDES ÐROǷUNGEONDÆRIST of deaðe

   Explicit: (fol. 121v) ælmihtigan to lofe reðe on ecnysse rixað riclice mihtig AMEN.

   Text Language: English

   Other versions of the text: According to Ker, the text is 'very like that in no. 162'.

   Note: Bound out of order

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, Art. 2

   Skeat 1881-1900, II, pp. 398-, ll, p. 1-

   Wilcox 2000

3. Item: fols 121v-24v

   Title (B.3.3.26): Anonymous Homilies, Homilies for Specified Occasions, Sanctorale: Saint Mildred

   Rubric (initial): (fol. 121v) III.IDUSIULII.NATALESANCTAEMILDRYÐEuirginis

   Incipit: (fol. 121v) On drihtnes namanSANCTUSaugustinus gefulƿihte æþelbryht cantƿara cyning

   Explicit: (fol. 124v) ondða sona æfterþyssumƿordum se eorðe tohlad [...]

   Text Language: English

   Note: Bound out of order

   Bibliography:

   Cockayne 1864-66, I, p. 551

   Ker 1957, Art. 3

   Liebermann 1889, pp. 1-9

   Rollason,1982, pp. 29-31

   Wilcox, 2000

Administration Information:

Described by Owen Roberson with the assistance of Johanna Green with reference to published scholarship.

Bibliography:

Cockayne, Oswald, ed., Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, Being a Collection of Documents for the Most Part Never before Printed, Illustrating the History of Science in this Country before the Norman Conquest, Rerum Britannicarum Medii Ævi Scriptores, 35, 3 vols (London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1864-66; repr. Wiesbaden: Kraus, 1965)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 138

Liebermann, Felix, Die Heiligen Englands Angelsächsisch und Lateinisch (Hannover: Hahn, 1889)

Rollason, David, The Mildrith Legend: A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1982)

Skeat, W. W., ed., Ælfric’s Lives of Saints, EETS, OS 76, 82, 94, 114 (London and Oxford: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1881-1900; repr. as 2 vols, 1966)

Wilcox, Jonathan, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2000), vol. 8