| Description | A multi-volume passional (imperfect), featuring a collection of lives of saints (legenda sanctorum) for liturgical readings throughout the year. Written at Canterbury Christ Church in the early 12th century, with later additions, and which formed part of the Christ Church monastic library. The passional is in the 14th century library catalogue as items 359 and 361-6. The leaves were reused as wrappers and binding materials in the 16th century. Further leaves survive at the British Library and at the Kent History and Library Centre.
Contents:
The passional was originally compiled in seven volumes (Ker, p289 and Gameson, no 22). The surviving Canterbury fragments are now arranged to reflect the original text order:
LitMs/E/42/1: fragments forming part of volume 1 (ff. 1-30) with later medieval additions (ff. 69-72)
LitMs/E/42/2: fragments forming part of volume 2 (ff. 31-34, 36r-v, 35r-v, 37-42)
LitMs/E/42/3: fragments identified as late medieval supplement to volume 4 (ff. 73-74)
LitMs/E/42/4: fragments forming part of volume 5 (ff. 43-6, 49r-v, 47-48, 50-53, 75r-v, 62-63, 76-77, 54-57, 78-79)
LitMs/E/42/5: fragments forming part of volume 6 (ff. 80-81, 58-61, 66-68, 64-65)
Passional fragments in other collections:
Maidstone, S/RM. Fae. 2 forms the beginning of volume 2
British Library, Cotton MS Nero C VII, ff. 29-78; Harley MS 315, ff. 1-39; and Harley MS 624, ff. 84-143 form portions of volume 3
Decoration:
Large historiated, anthropomorphic, or decorated initials at the beginning of each life or passion, mostly in red, orange, green, blue, purple, and sometimes yellow, usually with geometric or foliate decoration, and some also with men, hybrid creatures, animals, and/or animal head terminations; a few simpler in only one or two colours and in simpler patterns. Rubrics in red or green inks.
Physical Description:
The fragment leaves were previously bound in 1952, with the leaves formerly known as Lit/Ms/E/42/A stored separately. The passional fragments were reunited and arranged in present format during conservation work completed 2019.
Materials: Parchment
Dimensions: The leaves vary considerably in size, the largest folio (f. 75) measures c. 388 x 275mm. The written area varies by volume: 277 x 190 mm (volumes 1 and 2); 305 x 190mm (volumes 5 and 6)
Foliation: ff. 81
Collation: The quires may have been formed of 8 leaves (Ker, pp289-94)
Script: Protogothic in Canterbury Christ Church style. Later medieval supplement (ff. 69r-74v) has been identified as the work of Theodoric Werken, an itinerant Dutch scribe, in the 1470s (Gameson, no. 22).
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| Publication Note | See Richard Gameson, the Earliest Books of Canterbury Cathedral (2008), no 22; N Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries vol ii (1977), pp289-296; C R Dodwell, The Canterbury School of Illumination (1954); M R James, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (1903), p52 |