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Alternative title

Missale (S. Aug. Cant.)

Type of resource

mixed material

Extent

ff. 195 + 2

Date created

[ca. 1000-1099]

Language

Latin

Material

Vellum

Layout

normally 20 lines to a page

Height (mm)

266

Width (mm)

173

Collation

1 flyleaf, 1(4) (+ 1 or 6 wants 1) 2(8)-6(8) (wants 4, 5) 7(8)-21(8) (+ 2 after the 7th) 22(8)-25(8) (wants 8), 1 flyleaf: in 19 a slip is added after 7.

Writing

in a magnificent large round upright minuscule

Foliation

ff. a-b + 1-146 + 146a + 147-163 + 163a + 164-196 + i + c-d

Provenance

Main hand ischaracteristic of St Augustine's, Canterbury.

Additions

The first flyleaf (f. 1r) is from an xith cent. copy of Bede's History, 29 lines to a page, finely written in the Christ Church hand: Beda famulus Christi et presbiter. Historiam gentis anglorum ... necnon et orientalium anglorum.

The last flyleaf (f. ir), 32 lines to a page, in a different hand contains: Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica I 2: ta fuit qui anno ab urbe condita quingentesimo nonagesimo tertio ... occidenti libiorum a meridiano.

Summary

This Missal is written in the beautiful round script particularly associated with St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, in the second half of the eleventh century. We know that this manuscript was written after 1091 because it contains a mass for the translation of St Augustine in this year. As such it shows the typical English script of the eleventh century being written well after the Norman Conquest, in contrast to the spiky script written at nearby Christ Church at this time. T. A. M. Bishop identified the work of some of CCCC MS 270's scribes in other manuscripts from St Augustine's, Canterbury. Arguments on textual grounds that the manuscript must have been written before 1100 are unconvincing in themselves, but this style of script would not be expected to have lasted very long into the twelfth century. The manuscript has flyleaves written in late eleventh- or twelfth-century script, containing text from Bede's Historia ecclesiastica. It is possible that these leaves were not taken from a dismantled copy of Bede's work, but were rather leaves rejected during the production of a manuscript, and if so then they may have been used in the binding of MS 270 at an early date.

Contents

Missal of St Augustine's, Canterbury

M.R. James Date

xi

Downloadable James Catalogue Record

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:qc440sn5939/MS_270.pdf

Superseded Interim Catalogue Record

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:sn353wq3451/270.pdf

Contains

• Missal of St Augustine's, Canterbury. 2r-196v

  Note

  ff. 174r-181v and 182r are in a large bold pointed hand<br />ff. 182v-196v in a tall narrow round hand<br />On ff. 12r, 16r, 46r, 48v, 51v, 54r, 71v, 92v, 98r, 101v are fine polychrome decorative initials in many of which purple is used<br />The text of the volume was printed by Mr Martin Rule (Cambridge, 1896) with two pages in facsimile, and a most elaborate and ingenious Introduction, in which Mr Rule contends that this Missal is copied from one given by Gregory to Augustine. Mr Rule has presented to the College a manuscript volume written by himself entitled A Study of MS. C.C.C.C. 270, which is preserved in the manuscript class

TJames

228

Stanley

O. 22

Repository

UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library

Location

MS 270

Use and reproduction:

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License:

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