Sermons. — 13th century; English, Canterbury, St. Augustine's

Title

Sermons. — 13th century; English, Canterbury, St. Augustine's

Life of St. Edmund of Abingdon — 13th century, second half; English, Canterbury St. Augustine's

Lives of Saints., Passio sancte Katerine — 12th century, second half; English, Canterbury St. Augustine's

Lives of Saints. — c. 1100–1130; English, Canterbury St. Augustine's

Shelfmark

MS. Fell 2

Place of origin

English, Canterbury, St. Augustine's

English, Canterbury St. Augustine's

Date

c. 1100–1130

13th century, second half

12th century, second half

13th century

Language

Latin

Contents

Provenance

Canterbury, Kent, Benedictine abbey of St Augustine (originally of St Peter and St Paul) (?) : Additional lives of St Augustine and St Edmund of Canterbury, and of Peter, 1st abbot of St Augustine's. Cf. London, BL, Arundel 91. (MLGB3: evidence from locally specific contents, including obits, scribbles, etc.).

London, BL, Arundel 91 and Bodleian, Fell 2 are companion volumes. (MLGB3)

Title

Forty-seven lives of saints

Shelfmark

MS. Fell 2

Summary

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'

Date

Written late in the 12th century at St. Augustine's, Canterbury

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, in double columns. Imperfect and mutilated, with one miniature, many illuminated capitals, etc.

Physical extent

478 pages

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.