Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 523: Devotional and Theological Tracts

purl.stanford.edu/nz247ys3717

Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 523: Devotional and Theological Tracts

Alternate Title:

[Untitled]

Language:

Latin

Extent:

ff. cir. 150

Dimensions:

292 Height (mm) and 220 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1300 - 1399]

Description:

This book is in an extremely fragile condition and it has not been possible for it to be imaged, save for two images of its exterior front and back - the boards do not survive. The paper is disintegrating and cannot be stabilised, so it has not even been possible to foliate the manuscript throughout. The writing has disappeared from many of the pages. The texts included in CCCC MS 523, probably made in Bohemia, are devotional and theological tracts, and a text on preaching, the 'Liber de arte predicationis' by Conrad Waldhauser, a preacher of Prague. Another text which has been identified is the 'De conscientia et ratione' of Matthew of Krakow (c. 1330/35- 1410). The manuscript dates to the late fourteenth century and is part of the Elbing collection; a group of manuscripts which belonged to a Brigittine convent at Elbing (Elblag), near Gdansk. The collection was donated to Corpus Christi College by Richard Pernham (1583?-1628) or by his wife, Mary, whose signature is in many of the books.