Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 557: Old English Fragments of the Legend of the Cross

purl.stanford.edu/bq942kd2868

Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 557: Old English Fragments of the Legend of the Cross

Language:

English, Old (ca. 450-1100)

Extent:

ff. 2

Dimensions:

260 Height (mm) and 215 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1000 - 1099]

Provenance:

Two Old English fragments of a single leaf on the legendary history of the Cross before Christ, from Worcester. Removed in 1952 from printed books donated to the College by Matthew Parker, SP.4, Tercia pars Chronici Carionis (Basle 1543) etc., and SP.260, Fides Iesu et Iesuitarum (Strasbourg, 1573).

Notes:

This MS description is not part of the M. R. James catalogue; it is based in part on the description given in Vaughan and Fines, 'Handlist', p. 117.

Table of contents:

Old English fragments of the Legend of the Cross

Description:

CCCC MS 557 consists of two fragments of eleventh-century Old English material removed from the bindings of two Parkerian printed books. Two further fragments from the same manuscript were removed from printed books in the collection of the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas. The text is an Old English sermon on the True Cross. It has later annotations by the Tremulous Hand of Worcester, and was probably also written there.