"Vita beate Marie egiptiace" manuscript, circa 1450-1475

Format
Manuscript
Language
Latin
Description
1 v. 14.5 x 10.2 cm (12 folios [quire of 12, plus two singletons])

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Special Collections - Manuscripts Princeton MS. 237 Browse related items Reading Room Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Compiled/​Created
    circa 1450-1475
    Summary note
    • Manuscript from Germany (Cologne) including a narrative of the life of and prayers to St. Mary of Egypt.
    • Fols. 1r-14r. Anonymous Latin metrical life of St. Mary of Egypt, set in verse by the Carthusians of Cologne (Kölner Kartause), founded in 1334. "Vita beate Marie egiptiace a quondam Carthusiensis Colonie edita Rithmus Synodaicus cum Iambica conclusione. Salve alma matronarum / preelecta patronarum / toto corde quam amare / mentis extat et laudare maria o egiptia...detur floribus. Amen." The text may be unique. There are earlier, unrelated metrical lives of St. Mary of Egypt, such as Hildbert of Lavardin, archbishop of Tours (1056?-1133), Vita Beate Marie Egyptiace. Norbert Klaus Larsen, ed., Hildeberti Cenomanensis Episcopi Vita Beate Marie Egiptiace, Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Medievalis vol. 209 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004).
    • Fols. 14r-v: Prayer to St. Mary of Egypt, in prose: "Oratio auctoris. Benignissime miserorum miserator eterne deus, qui ut clementiarum effluens perditis nobis ingiter spem...perquam beatissime marie egiptiace...in eternum salvatum gaudeam. Per christum dominum nostrum. Amen.").
    Notes
    27 lines in dark brown ink, capitals touched in red, paragraph marks in blue or purple, rubric in red, one small red initial opening the oratio auctoris at end, large blue initial with elaborate red penwork at beginning, watermark of letter P.
    Binding note
    Modern binding, probably 2015, pasteboards with buckram spine.
    Provenance
    Purchased at Drewearts & Bloomsbury, London, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, 6 July 2016, lot 101. Previously sold at Sotheby's, London, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, 5 December 2015, lot 3. When sold by Sotheby's, the manuscript was part of a larger manuscript that included leaves from pseudo-Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium (Italy? circa 1475); Hugh of St. Victor, De grammatica, ch. 6 (South Germany, circa 1450); choirbook (Italy, 18th century); and other Italian manuscripts (15th-16th centuries).
    Source acquisition
    Purchase, 2016. AM 2017-39.
    OCLC
    1340463481
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