London, British Library, Stowe 949
| Shelfmark | Date and Language | Contents |
| Physical Description | History | Record History | Bibliography |

Shelfmark
Country:England
Settlement:London
Repository: British Library
Idno:Stowe 949
AltName:
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Date and Language
Date:s. xivex
Language: English
Dialect:Scribal Dialect: Gloucestershire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 415 225, LP 6950 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, p. 196). Pickering places Scribe 1 north and Scribe 2 west of N.E. Gloucestershire 'within the West Midland dialectal region' (1975, p. 49).
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Contents
A late fourteenth-century copy of the South English Legendary.

Item: i
Locus:f. 1v
Title:Contemporary table of contents in Latin
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:Copied on the modern leaf, f. 2, probably by John Brand, the manuscript's first recorded owner. Ff. 2r-v blank.
Bibliography:

Item: 1
Locus:f. 3r
Title:South English Legendary: Legend of St. Michael (IMEV 3029)
Incipit:'Seynt michel şe archangel and is felawes'.
Explicit:
Note:Parts 1-3.
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 299-322.

Item: 2
Locus:f. 15v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Jerome (IMEV 2922)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 3
Locus:f. 17v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Leger (IMEV 2958)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 81-83.

Item: 4
Locus:f. 18v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Francis (IMEV 2899)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 53-67.

Item: 5
Locus:f. 25r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Faith (IMEV 2897)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 83-86.

Item: 6
Locus:f. 26v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Denis (IMEV 2882)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 7
Locus:f. 28v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Luke (IMEV 2973)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 8
Locus:f. 29v
Title:South English Legendary: The Eleven Thousand Virgins (IMEV 721)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 86-92.

Item: 9
Locus:f. 32r
Title:South English Legendary: Lives of Saints Simon and Jude (IMEV 3055)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 10
Locus:f. 34v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Quintin (IMEV 3050)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 11
Locus:f. 36v
Title:South English Legendary: All Saints' Day (IMEV 184)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, p. 418-420.

Item: 12
Locus:f. 37v
Title:South English Legendary: All Souls' Day (IMEV 201)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 420-431.

Item: 13
Locus:f. 42r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Eustace (IMEV 2894)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 393-402.

Item: 14
Locus:f. 46v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Martin (IMEV 3005)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 449-456.

Item: 15
Locus:f. 50r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Brice (IMEV 2870)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 16
Locus:f. 51r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Edmund the Bishop (IMEV 2886)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 431-449.

Item: 17
Locus:f. 57r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Edmund the King (IMEV 2887)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 296-299.

Item: 18
Locus:f. 58r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Cecilia (IMEV 2873)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 490-496.

Item: 19
Locus:f. 61r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Clement (IMEV 2875)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 322-340.

Item: 20
Locus:f. 67v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Katherine of Alexandria (IMEV 2954)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 92-101.

Item: 21
Locus:f. 71v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Andrew (IMEV 2848)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Furnival 1862, pp. 98-101.

Item: 22
Locus:f. 74r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Nicholas (IMEV 3033)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 240-255.

Item: 23
Locus:f. 80v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Lucy (IMEV 2961)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 101-106.

Item: 24
Locus:f. 83r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Thomas (IMEV 3063)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 376-389.

Item: 25
Locus:f. 88v
Title:South English Legendary: Couplet (IMEV 2743)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 26
Locus:f. 88v
Title:South English Legendary: The Long Life of Christ (IMEV 3452)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 27
Locus:f. 94r
Title:South English Legendary: Pater domini (IMEV 1801)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 28
Locus:f. 97r
Title:South English Legendary: Section on the Purification (IMEV 3354)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 29
Locus:f. 98v
Title:South English Legendary: The Section on Innocents' Day (IMEV 3559)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 30
Locus:f. 100v
Title:South English Legendary: Prologue of the Founding of the Feast of the Conception (IMEV 4173)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 31
Locus:f. 102r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Stephen (IMEV 3059)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 32
Locus:f. 103v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. John the Evangelist (IMEV 2932)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 402-417.

Item: 33
Locus:f. 110v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Thomas of Canterbury (IMEV 4171)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 34
Locus:f. 141r
Title:South English Legendary: The Translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury (IMEV 3064)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:Cf. Horstmann 1887, pp. 175-177.

Item: 35
Locus:f. 142v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Ecgwine (IMEV 2891)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 36
Locus:f. 144r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Frideswitha (IMEV 2900)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 37
Locus:f. 145v
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Fremund (IMEV 3192)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 38
Locus:f. 154r
Title:South English Legendary: Life of St. Petronilla (IMEV 3049)
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 39
Locus:ff. 155r-157v
Title:South English Legendary: Old Testament History (life of Moses) (IMEV 3973)
Incipit:
Explicit:'Wente eft vp a?en mene myht for myst ihesus crist'.
Note:A section of Old Testament history covering the life of Moses.
Bibliography:
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Physical Description
Form:Codex
Support: Parchment. Poor quality - thick, uneven, frequently discoloured and patched, irregular sizes.
Extent:250 x 180 mm
Collation: One leaf (f. 1), 18 (ff. 3r-6v, 9r-12v), 2-38 (ff. 13r-28v), 4-66 (ff. 29r-46v), 7-98 (ff. 47r-70v), 106 (ff. 71r-76v), 118 (ff. 77r-84v), 128 (ff. 85r-88v, 90r-93v), 13-208 (ff. 94r-157v), one leaf (f. 158). Regular catchwords.
Layout:Pricked and ruled. Writing space of c. 200 x 130 mm. Single columns with 36-42 lines. Frame and lines ruled in drypoint.
Writing: Scribe 1: ff. 1r-20r, insertion on f. 89, writing in an Anglicana hand. Pickering describes this hand as 'of the ordinary Anglicana type, much less formal and tidy' (1975 p. 49). Scribe 2: f. 20r - Anglicana with some Secretary influences. Scribe 3: ff. 20v-157v - Fourteenth-century Anglicana Formata (see Pickering 1975, p. 50, facsimile of f. 98r). Pickering describes the hand as 'a developed 14th-century book hand...it is upright and clear, though not always neat and regular' (1975 p. 49). However, Görlach (1974, p. 99) states that the manuscript was written by one scribe, apart from some lines on f. 20r, who wrote in an 'unpractised Anglicana hand'.
Decoration: Large blue initial with red penwork extending along the left margin and top of the leaf on f. 3r, St. Michael. Initial letter of each line tinted red until f. 6r. F. 13r marginal rubrics. F. 20v red couplet brackets and first letter of each line tinted red and again on ff. 142v-5r. Spaces left for large initials. Nota bene occasionally drawn in margins, e.g. ff. 92v, 98v, 99v.
Binding: Probably medieval. Thick, rough oak boards, soft bevelled edge c. 20 mm. Thickness of c. 15 mm. Wormholes. Cover missing but 'modern' leather back. Size: 265 x 180 mm. Unable to ascertain sewing, possibly original thongs, unable to see. Four raised bands across spine.
Foliation:ff. 158. Really ii (foliated modern flyleaves) + 156 + i (contemporary flyleaf).
Additions:A contemporary table of contents in Latin has been added on f. 1v and copied on the 'modern leaf', f. 2, probably by John Brand, the manuscript's first recorded owner. On the blank f. 8r is some moralizing doggerel written in the sixteenth century. This is transcribed and commented on by Stiehler (1884, p. 406) along with other marginalia. On f. 157v is an inscription relating the manuscript's history, 'hytt was founde apon a donghyll' so that the 'detestable' beliefs and practices of pre-Reformation England could be seen for what they were.
Condition:Good
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History
Origin:Unknown
Provenance:The inside front cover carries the bookplate of (1744-1806), educated at Lincoln College Oxford, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1777, Secretary of the Society from 1784 until his death. Written above the 'modern' table of contents on f. 2r, is written, 'From the Revd. Mr. Brand 1796. This M.S. is in old English Verse, which I suppose was composed about the Reign of King Rich. 2d', the inscription is signed by (1735-1803), Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1763, and Royal Society in 1766, Keeper of the the Records in the Tower in 1783. Upon the death of Thomas Astle the manuscript, along with his collection, passed on to the 's library at Stowe. In 1849 the majority of the Stowe collection, including this manuscript, came into the possession of Lord Ashburnham.
Acquisition:Bought from Lord Ashburnham in 1883.
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Record History
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, March 2004.
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Bibliography
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