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MS. Rawl. C. 558

Summary Catalogue no.: 12403

Contents

Language(s): Latin

(fols 153v–157r)
Tractatus de ortu et uita sancte Frideswide et de miraculis eius
Rubric: Incipit tractatus de ortu et uita sancte Frideswide. et de miraculis eius.
Incipit: Prefuit australi plage Bretonum. sine neuo
Explicit: Hunc tuearis chorum. pia mater seruula Cristi.
BHL 3168 Walther, Initia, 14408b

Partially printed in Bossue (566–7).

(fol. 157r)
Alliterative hexameter acrostic 'FRIDESVVITHA', on her virtues
Incipit: Firma Frideswida. fidei flos femina fida.
Explicit: Angelicas acies. adamans ascendit ad astra.
Chevalier, Repertorium, no. 37392.

Printed in Guido Maria Dreves, ed., Pia dictamina. Reimgebete und Leselieder des Mittelalters, Analecta hymnica medii aevi, 36 (Leipzig, 1905), vii. 261 (no. 221). The first five lines also appear in the margin of London, British Library, Royal MS 11 D. i, fol. 72v.

(fol. 157r)
Hexameter poem on Frideswide and Æthelthryth
Incipit: Carne Frideswidam genuit rex Didanus iste.
Explicit: Diuini cultus malens se subdere legi.
Chevalier, Repertorium, no. 36017.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
2 + 162 + 4 fol.
Dimensions (leaf): 190 × 137 mm.
Dimensions (written): 120 × 81 mm.

Layout

23 long lines

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander iii. 944:

Good border.

Good initials. Notes to the rubricator survive, fol. 41, etc.

History

Origin: 15th century, second quarter ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

Richard Rawlinson, 1690–1755

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1755

Record Sources

Summary description abbreviated from the Quarto Catalogue (W. D. Macray, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ...viri munificentissimi Ricardi Rawlinson, J.C.D., codicum...complectens, Quarto Catalogues V, 5 fascicles, 1862–1900). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1973).
Quarto Catalogue, col. 303
Summary Catalogue, vol. 3, p. 215

Bibliography

    Bossue, Benjamin, ‘De sancta Frideswida virgine, patrona Oxoniensi in Anglia’, in Joseph van Heck et al., eds, Acta sanctorum Octobris, Acta sanctorum, 55 (Brussels, 1853), viii, 533–90.

    Printed descriptions:

    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 4: Books of Hours (typescript, 1957), p. 174

Funding of Cataloguing

Jesus College, Oxford

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-09: Add extent, leaf dimensions and layout from van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Data

The TEI-XML file for this record can be viewed in a GitHub repository.

Tabular data derived from the TEI-XML files is available in a GitHub repository.