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MS. Lat. hist. a. 2

Summary Catalogue no.: Not in SC (late accession)

Contents

Magna tabula Glastoniensis

Extracts concerning the history of Glastonbury and the saints supposedly buried there, mostly from John of Glastonbury, Cronica sive Antiquitates Glastoniensis Ecclesie, but also from William of Malmesbury, De antiquitate Glastoniensis ecclesiae.

Ed. and discussed J. Krochalis, ‘Magna tabula: the Glastonbury tablets’, in Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian tradition, ed. J. carley (2001), 435–567
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: tabula
Support: parchment
Extent: six leaves pasted on to the inside of a folding wooden frame and two wooden leaves, probably modern
Dimensions (leaf): 1000 × 425–40 mm.
Each leaf made up of two pieces of parchment of length 700–710 and 300–320 mm. respectively.

Layout

94–101 long lines

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander iii. 716:

Partial borders; that on the last leaf having an animal design.

Large blue initials with red flourishes; small plain and flourished blue initials.

Plain red initials.

History

Origin: 14th century, late ; English, Glastonbury

Provenance and Acquisition

Glastonbury, Somerset, Benedictine Abbey of Saint Mary the Virgin: Provenance inferred from contents: the contents are historical collectanea relating to Glastonbury, derived almost entirely from John of Glastonbury. (MLGB3: evidence from locally specific contents, including obits, scribbles, etc.).

A "tabula" consisting of six large sheets of parchment pasted to wooden boards which swing on hinges attached to a wall. Described with facs. by J. A. Bennett, Somerset Arch. Soc. Proc. 34 (1889) pp. 117–29; J. A. Robinson, Two Glastonbury Legends (Cambridge 1926), pp. 41f. (MLGB3)

Lord William Howard (d. 1640) of Naworth castle : seen there by Ussher, Antiquitates (Works, ed. Elrington, V.30)

Sotheby's, 28 Oct. 1947, lot 524. Bought.

Record Sources

Typescript description by Bodleian Library staff.

Availability

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Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (4 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Published descriptions:

    J. Krochalis, ‘Magna tabula: the Glastonbury tablets’, in Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian tradition, ed. J. carley (2001), 435–567 (repr. from Arthurian Literature 15 (1997), 93–183 and 16 (1998), 41–82

    Online resources:

    MLGB3: Medieval Libraries of Great Britain

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2021-12-14: Add provenance information from MLGB3.