Historia Ecclesiastica, etc.

Bede's Ecclesiastical History: Gloriosissimo regi Ceouulfo Beda famulus Christi ... pie intercessionis inueniam (ff. 3-107). The manuscript was not seen by Plummer until after publication of his edition in Bedae Opera Historica, Oxford, 1896; his notes, dated 1897, are now tipped in on f. ii. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Oxford 1896, did not know the whereabouts of the manuscript. The text belongs to Plummer's Durham group, op. cit., pp. civ-cix, and he believed it to be a transcript of Harleian MS 4124 'with which it agrees in several minute points' (see the notes referred to). Certainly the text agrees with all the features of that of Harleian 4124 noted by Plummer in his apparatus (pp. cix, 130, 145, 228, 236, 426, 430). The manuscript also contains the anonymous Vita Bedae (ff. 107-113): Inter catholicos sacre scripture expositores ... (f. 108) adiuuando prosequi dignetur. Humane salutis auctore Christo Iesu ... laudat et adorat dominum. The text was printed in John Smith, Historiae Ecclesiasticae Gentis Anglorum, Cambridge, 1722, pp. 515-22. For manuscripts of the text, see T. D. Hardy, Catalogue of Materials ..., London, 1862-71, no. 985. The Vita follows the Historia in most manuscripts of the Durham group. Also included is Bede's Historia Abbatum (ff. 113-119 verso): Religiosus Christi famulus Biscopus ... et protectionis impendant. This was printed by Plummer, op. cit., pp. 364-387. Like the Vita Bedae the Historia Abbatum is associated with the Durham group of the Historia Ecclesiastica. Readings of our text again agree with those peculiar to Harleian 4124 as recorded by Plummer.
The manuscript also contains part of Richard of Hexham's account of the history of Hexham Priory (ff. 119 verso-122): Millesimo centesimo terciodecimo dominice incarnationis ... Calixti pape, Eugenii et Adriani. Our text corresponds to chapters iv-xi of James Raine's edition (Surtees Soc., vol. 44, pp. 48-58). There are chapter divisions only for chapters vii, viii, x and xi. Readings mostly agree with the York MS (York Minster MS xvi. I.12) which also ends with chapter xi. Also included is St Bernard, Sermones de diversibus, sermo xiv (ff. 122-123 verso): Beata illa et sempiterna trinitas peter et filius ... et fide non ficta. See S. Bernardi Opera, Rome, 1957- , vol. vi, pp. 262-6, or PL, 183, 667-669. Identified by the fourteenth century lister of contents on f. 2 verso as 'Quedam verba notabilia de sermonibus beati Bernardi, viz, de trinitate ...'. Together with two extracts from St Bernard, Sermones de tempore, sermo iii in die Pasche (ff. 123 verso-124): In corde duplex est lepra, propria uoluntas et consilium proprium ... non mea, inquid, uoluntas, sed tua fiat. O domine, uoluntas de qua dixisti ut non fieret ... et nobis erat utile ut redimeremur. See S. Bernardi Opera, Rome, 1957- , vol. v, pp. 105-6, 108, or PL, 183, 289-290, 291. Identified by the lister of contents as 'alia verba notabilia de lepra voluntatis proprie'. Also included is an extract from a sermon, unidentified (f. 124): Tria sunt que sic roborant et confirmant cor meum ... Hic est funiculus triplex ... qui est benedictus in secula. Amen.

Access to the original manuscript by authorised permission only. Readers are directed to use surrogate copies.

Formerly Mostyn MS 181.

Collation: 1 [2] (old pastedown and flyleaf), 2-11 [2], 12 [2]. Catchwords. Written in a heavy textura. Black ink. Spaces left for rubrics never used. Parti-coloured red and blue initials of 8 and 6 lines on ff. 4 verso and 113; red or blue 3 or 4-line initials elsewhere at the beginning of books and separate items; 2-line alternate red and blue initials for chapters; all with contrasting blue or red penwork. Alternate plain red and blue initials in some passages of text and for verse.

Written in North East England in the second half of the 13th cent. C. Plummer's Durham group of manuscripts derive from Durham MS B. ii. 35 (from Durham). The other early members of the group are Harleian MS 4124 (at Worksop by 15th cent.); Pembroke College, Cambridge MS 82 (probably from Tynemouth) and BL Add. MS 25014 (probably from Newminster). The first three of these include the first three items of our manuscript in the same order. The two manuscripts of Richard of Hexham known to Raine are from Sawley and (probably) Durham. Near the top of f. 2 verso in black ink, first half 14th cent., is a large arabic '38' between dots and beside it a list of contents by the same hand. The pressmark '38' is repeated by the same hand at the foot of f. 3 in the outer corner. Following the contents list in a later hand, 15th cent.? is 'Z.8' , probably another pressmark. There are erased inscriptions at the top of f. 2 verso and foot of f. 3, the former in yellowish ink, 14th cent., 'Liber sancti ..... L ..... ham de ordine ....'. A hand of the second half of the 13th cent. added book numbers at the head of each page in plummet and some sidenotes; a neat hand in brown ink of about the same date numbered the capitula and chapters, ff. 1-16, and added sidenotes on these leaves and on f. 90 verso, including on f. 8 verso a reference to Constantine's birth 'ex obscuriore matrimonio', citing Eutropius [Breviarium] (Durham had a Eutropius in the twelfth century, see Surtees Soc., vol. VII, p. 4), a scratchy hand in brown ink also about the same date has added marginal references between ff. 6 verso-31 of the pattern 'br'.21.a', 'br'.21.b' and 'de quo br' 54.b' and two glosses on the battle of Bangor-on-Dee: these appear to be folio references to a manuscript of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. A hand of 15th cent. has added sidenotes and headings, including identification of Newcastle, Gateshead and Lastingham on ff. 53 and 55.

Sec. fol. Passio sancti.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 21245E [RESTRICTED ACCESS].

Available on microfilm at the Library.

Bought at the sale of the library of William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, in 1687 (p. 81, Manuscripti Latini in Folio, 22, Ven. Beda de Gestis Anglorum. Eiusdem vita cum allis Tractat[is]) by Thomas Mostyn (BL, marked copy). On f. 2 in a hand probably late 17th cent. 'the Right Honbell ye Earle of Aylesbury', probably referring to Robert Bruce, the first Earl (dec. 1685), of known antiquarian interests. The link with the Earl of Ailesbury is not clear but it may be noted that his wife's mother was a daughter and coheir of the 2nd Earl of Exeter (grandson of Lord Burleigh) and that the seller in the 1687 sale is not named. The text of the Historia Ecclesiastica has been collated throughout by two hands of the late 17th cent. with a text identified as 'V', referred to once, f. 72 verso, as 'MS V'. 'V' probably stands for Vaughan; the readings concur with Peniarth MS 381 which came to Hengwrt in the time of Robert Vaughan. One of these two hands appears twice in Peniarth 381 and refers once (f. 50) to 'MS Thomas Mostyn', suggesting that the collation of the two manuscripts may have been before 1690 when Thomas Mostyn became the second baronet. On f. 1 verso the armorial bookplate of Thomas Mostyn, 4th bart, bearing his signature, date 1744 and number 15 (16); the same two catalogue numbers appear at the top of f. 2. Gloddaeth library ticket, 19th cent., inside upper cover. Appears as MS 66 in the 1842 Gloddaeth catalogue (NLW MS 21243E), as MS 181 in HMC Cat. and inside upper cover, as lot 5 in the Mostyn sale at Sotheby's 13 July 1920 when it was presumably bought in. Lot 1476 in the Mostyn sale at Christie’s, 24 Oct. 1974.

Published