A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

MS. Douce 372

Summary Catalogue no.: 21947

Contents

Gilte Legende

English translation of La Legende dorée, a French adaptation of Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea

Language(s): Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 1-163 (=164) fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 408 × 284 mm.

Layout

2 cols., 47-48 lines, column space 312 × 91 mm.

Decoration

Initials. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 901)

History

Origin: 1438–60 ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

London, Priory of St John the Baptist, of Augustinian canonesses in Holywell (Shoreditch): (fol. 163v) "[b]e hit remembryd that Iohn Burton [c]itizen and mercer of London past oute of this lyfe the xx day of Novembr' the yere of oure Lorde Mill' cccc lx and the yere of kynge Henry the sixte after the conquest xxxix and the said ... Legenda Sanctorum the seyde Kateryne to have hit and to occupye to hir owne use and at hir owne liberte durynge hur lyfe and ... evermore they to pray for the saide John Burton and Johane his wife and alle crystene soyles. And who that lettithe the execucion [of thi]s bequest be the lawe standeth". (MLGB3: evidence from an ex-libris inscription or note of gift to an institution).

E. Trotter (s. xvii, fol. 8r). (MLGB3)

Cf. Horstmann, Altenglische Legenden, NF (1881) p. cxxx. (MLGB3)

Francis Douce, 1757–1834

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1834

Record Sources

Summary description abbreviated from the Summary Catalogue (1897). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1973).

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2024-05: Add extent, leaf dimensions and layout from Watson, Dated and Datable.