Pershore Legendary; Pershore Abbey, 1160s × 1170s

Title

Pershore Legendary; Pershore Abbey, 1160s × 1170s

Shelfmark

MS. Laud Misc. 114

Place of origin

Benedictine abbey of St Edburga, Pershore

Date

1160s × 1170s

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

i (modern paper endleaf) + i (modern parchment endleaf) + 170 + i (modern parchment endleaf) + i (modern paper endleaf) leaves

Hands

English protogothic bookhands.

Decoration

Many marginal and two full-page pencil sketches added, 15th century, second half. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 151)

Binding

Laudian binding, rebacked.

Acquisition

Given to the Bodleian Library in 1635 as part of Laud’s second donation.

Provenance

Sir John Prise: no. 40 in the list of Prise books in the 1602 college register. Neil R. Ker, ‘Sir John Prise’, The Library, 5th ser., 10, no. 1 (March 1955): 1–24.

Gregory Price (1535–1600): willed to Jesus College.

Jesus College, Oxford: Brian Twyne made extracts from Vita sancte Frideswide in MS. Twyne 22, fols. 53v–54r, when the book was still at Jesus College: pertinuit olim ad D. Jo: Price. Extat in collegio Jesu Oxoniæ iste liber quem illic vidi (fol. 53v).

William Laud: inscribed, Liber Guilielmi Laud. Archiepiscopi Cantuar’. et Cancellarii Vniversitatis Oxon’ 1635 (fol. 1v).

Title

Pershore Legendary

Shelfmark

MS. Laud Misc. 114

Summary

Part 1:

Fol. 1r. Table of contents added in a late twelfth-century hand: |In hoc uolumine continentur Miracula sancti Andree apostoli. Et passio sancti Vincentii martiris

Fol. 1v. Augustine, Retractiones 2.4.1

Fols. 2r–23(b)v. Augustine, De doctrina christiana

Part 2:

Fols. 24r–37v. Passio sancti Andree

Fol. 38. Blank, with Fuit homo pen trial written at foot of fol. 38v

Part 3:

Fol. 39r. Passio sancti Vincentii: Praeambulum II

Fols. 39r–43v. Passio sancti Vincentii

Fols. 43v–46v. Aimoin of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Historia translationis sancti Vincentii Liber I

Fols. 46v–49v. Miraculi in Hispania

Fols. 49v–52v. Aimoin of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Historia translationis sancti Vincentii Liber II

Fol. 52v–53v. Gregory of Tours, Liber miraculorum 1.88–89

Fols. 53v–54v. Augustine, Sermon 276

Fols. 54v–55r. Augustine, Sermon 277A

Fols. 55r–61v. Augustine, Sermon 277

Fols. 61v–65(b)v. Passio sancti Ignacii

Fols. 65(b)v–68v. Passio sancti Blasii

Part 4:

Fols. 69r–81v. Vita Willelmi ducis

Fols. 82r–84r. Vita sancti Audoeni

Part 5:

Fols. 85r–120r. Osbert of Clare, Vita sancte Eadburge uirginis

Fol. 120v. Passio sancti Thome

Fols. 130r–131v. Added sketches of men and women in sixteenth-century garb; with caption on fol. 131r, Cor non est letum dum perstat ad hostia letum

Part 6:

Fols. 132r–140r. Robert of Cricklade, Vita sancte Frideswide uirginis

Fols. 140r–158r. Robert of Shrewsbury, Vita sancte Wenefrede

Fols. 158r–163v. Translatio sancte Wenefrede

Part 7: Fols. 164r–184r. Passio sancte Katerine

Date

12th century, middle

Language

Latin

Physical extent

170 Leaves

Custodial history

Brian Twyne (vol. xxii. fol. 89) states that this MS. once belonged to a dr. John Price, and was in his (Twyne's) time in Jesus College, Oxford. Manuscript 2269 acquired by the Bodleian Library