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London. British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A XVII

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Source
The British Library, Polonsky Pre-1200 Project
Library
London. British Library
Shelfmark
  • British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A XVII
Biblissima authority file
Language
  • Latin
Title
  • Chronicle of Chichester Cathedral; List of bishops; Osbert of Clare, Epistolae; anonymous poems about the Passion and the Virgin Mary; Latin proverbs
Agent
Description
  • This composite manuscript contains two parts that were produced at separate locations in England and at separate moments during the 12th century. The first part (ff. 1r-17v) contains the Annals of Chichester and was produced at the Cathedral church of Holy Trinity, Chichester. The second part (ff. 17r-166v), is the only extant witness to the letters of Osbert of Clare (d. after 1139), Prior of the Benedictine abbey of Westminster. The letters show his commitment to re-establishing the English feast of the Conception that had been removed from the liturgical Calendar after the Norman Conquest. The two parts were most likely joined together in the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631).Contents: ff. 1r-16r: A chronicle of Chichester from the birth of St John the Baptist to 1164. f. 16v: A list of bishops present at a great council. ff. 17v-164v: Osbert of Clare (d. after 1139), Epistolae (Letters) The manuscript contains a number of additions:f. 17r: Excerpts of Latin poems and proverbs. ff. 23v-24r (lower margin): an anonymous poem on the Passion, begining ‘Mens, affectus, ratio, sensus convenite’. f. 26r (lower margin): an anonymous poem entitled ‘Iohannis lucicij contra legistas et decretistas indiscretos’. ff. 164v-165v: The second part (‘secunda pars’) of the poem on the Passion on ff. 23v-24r (lower margin); with moral and satirical notes in the margins. ff. 165v-166v: Three anonymous poems on the Virgin Mary, the first incomplete at the beginning; the first complete stanza begins: ‘Mater caput agita manibus levatis’. f. 166v: An anonymous poem on the three men revived by Christ, here entitled De Tribus Mortuis (On the Three Dead Men), beginning ‘Intro, foris, sub humo, recubat, vehitur, veterascit’. f. 166v: Maximianus (fl. 6th century), Elegiae (Elegies), excerpts [written vertically]. f. 166v: An anonymous saying about the three types of unhappiness, beginning: ‘Tres infelices in mundo novimus esse’. f. 166v: Aesop, Fabulae (Fables), 26: De Agno et Lupo (On the Lamb and the Wolf), excerpt: ‘Nil melius sano monitu, nil peius iniquo. Consilium sequitur certa ruina malum’. [ff. i recto, i verso, ii verso are empty].Decoration:See the separate descriptions of parts 1 and 2.
Place
  • Preferred form
    • Chichester (West Sussex, United Kingdom)
    Original form
    • Chichester, England
    Biblissima portal
  • Preferred form
    • England (United Kingdom)
    Original form
    • England
    Other form
    • Angleterre
    • Angleterre (?)
    • Angleterre.
    • Angleterre ?
    • Anglaterra
    • Inglaterra
    • Engeland
    • Angleterre (Salisbury ?)
    • Anglaterra (Salisbury?)
    • Inglaterra (Salisbury?)
    • England (Salisbury?)
    • [Oxford?]
    • [England]
    • England, Norwich?
    • England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's Abbey?
    • England, Cornwall?
    • England, St. Albans?
    • England, North?
    • England, York?
    • England, Witham?
    • England, Winchester or St. Albans
    • England, Reading or Leominster
    • England, Cirencester?
    • England, Sherborne?
    • England, Worcester?
    • England, Bury St. Edmunds?
    • England, Tewkesbury?
    • England, East Anglia?
    • England, Peterborough?
    • England, Mercia?
    • England, Canterbury, Christ Church?
    • England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's?
    • England, Winchester?
    • England, Oxford?
    • Flanders (possibly executed in England)
    • England and Netherlands
    • England, Canterbury?
    • England, West Midlands?
    • England, London?
    • England, Crowland?
    • England, Wessex?
    • England, Reading?
    • England, Northeast?
    • England, Southeast?
    • England, Ely?
    • England, Winchester or Hereford?
    • England, Salisbury?
    • England, Oxford or Salisbury
    • German (but made in England)
    • England, South East (?)
    • England. Peterborough (?) or Lincoln (?)
    • Hereford?, England
    • England, Durham ?
    • England, Durham?
    • England, probably Durham
    • England, Oxford (?)
    • England, possibly Oxford
    • England (?Oxford)
    • England, Durham (?)
    • England, London/Westminster
    • Unknown, possibly London and Cambridge
    • Royal Chancery, London; Cambridge
    • Engeland (?)
    • England (II)
    • I. England
    • [Engeland]
    • see more
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    Biblissima authority file
Rights
  • Public domain in most countries other than the UK
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