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Details
BENEDICT OF PETERBOROUGH (d.1193), Miracula Sancti Thomae Cantuariensis, in Latin, two halves of a nearly complete leaf, MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Italy, early 13th century]
c.470 x 370mm. Two halves of one leaf, two columns of 35 lines written in a fine rounded romanesque bookhand in brown ink, ruled in plummet, traces of the inner margin of text of the conjoined leaf, rubrics in red, two-line 'Lombardic' initials in red, running headings 'Sci Thome' and 'lxvij' in red (lacking an irregular horizontal section across the middle and other smaller losses, the recto scrubbed of text but legible with UV, worn overall as a result of its use as a wrapper). Mounted in an archival grey cloth-coveredfolder. Provenance: formerly used as a wrapper, the verso with the book's title 'Corradi Brutus' (likely Sebastiano Corrado, De claribus oratoribus liber, qui dicitur Brutus, Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1552) with large calligraphic initials.
The text begins just before the rubric 'De homine de dolore dentium libero', and an account of a servant of William of Warbleton ('Guartebona'), who was cured of toothache; is followed by 'De muliere pregnante', concerning Alditha of Worth, near Sandwich, who was saved from death during childbirth; and ends under the rubric 'De sanguine multiplicato' with an account of William, priest of Bourne, who gave away part of his relic of the blood of Becket, and found that the remaining portion remained miraculously undiminished.
AN EARLY SURVIVAL OF THE EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF THE MIRACLES WHICH OCCURRED AT THE SHRINE OF ST THOMAS BECKET IN CANTERBURY SHORTLY AFTER HIS DEATH. Two principal collections of miracle stories survive that testify to the growing 12th-century cult of Thomas Becket: William of Canterbury's Miracula and an earlier work by Benedict of Peterborough, a Canterbury monk. These Miracle collections have been called 'the greatest collection of miracle stories connected with any single shrine in the whole Middle Ages' (R.W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages, 1953, p.255; see also N. Vincent, 'William of Canterbury and Benedict of Peterborough: The Manuscripts, Date and Context of the Becket Miracle Collections', Hagiographie, idéologie et politique au Moyen Âge en Occident, Hagiologia, 8, 2012, pp.347-87). Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170, and buried in the crypt the following day; his tomb was made available to visitors after Easter 1171, and miracles soon began to be reported. Benedict, who was a witness to Becket's murder in 1170, recorded the miracles more-or-less as they happened, in chronological order, and completed his work by the time Becket was canonised in February 1173. For a recent study of Benedict's collection see R. Koopmans, Wonderful to Relate: Miracle Stories and Miracle Collecting in High Medieval England, 2011, especially pp.139-80.
[Italy, early 13th century]
c.470 x 370mm. Two halves of one leaf, two columns of 35 lines written in a fine rounded romanesque bookhand in brown ink, ruled in plummet, traces of the inner margin of text of the conjoined leaf, rubrics in red, two-line 'Lombardic' initials in red, running headings 'Sci Thome' and 'lxvij' in red (lacking an irregular horizontal section across the middle and other smaller losses, the recto scrubbed of text but legible with UV, worn overall as a result of its use as a wrapper). Mounted in an archival grey cloth-coveredfolder. Provenance: formerly used as a wrapper, the verso with the book's title 'Corradi Brutus' (likely Sebastiano Corrado, De claribus oratoribus liber, qui dicitur Brutus, Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1552) with large calligraphic initials.
The text begins just before the rubric 'De homine de dolore dentium libero', and an account of a servant of William of Warbleton ('Guartebona'), who was cured of toothache; is followed by 'De muliere pregnante', concerning Alditha of Worth, near Sandwich, who was saved from death during childbirth; and ends under the rubric 'De sanguine multiplicato' with an account of William, priest of Bourne, who gave away part of his relic of the blood of Becket, and found that the remaining portion remained miraculously undiminished.
AN EARLY SURVIVAL OF THE EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF THE MIRACLES WHICH OCCURRED AT THE SHRINE OF ST THOMAS BECKET IN CANTERBURY SHORTLY AFTER HIS DEATH. Two principal collections of miracle stories survive that testify to the growing 12th-century cult of Thomas Becket: William of Canterbury's Miracula and an earlier work by Benedict of Peterborough, a Canterbury monk. These Miracle collections have been called 'the greatest collection of miracle stories connected with any single shrine in the whole Middle Ages' (R.W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages, 1953, p.255; see also N. Vincent, 'William of Canterbury and Benedict of Peterborough: The Manuscripts, Date and Context of the Becket Miracle Collections', Hagiographie, idéologie et politique au Moyen Âge en Occident, Hagiologia, 8, 2012, pp.347-87). Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170, and buried in the crypt the following day; his tomb was made available to visitors after Easter 1171, and miracles soon began to be reported. Benedict, who was a witness to Becket's murder in 1170, recorded the miracles more-or-less as they happened, in chronological order, and completed his work by the time Becket was canonised in February 1173. For a recent study of Benedict's collection see R. Koopmans, Wonderful to Relate: Miracle Stories and Miracle Collecting in High Medieval England, 2011, especially pp.139-80.
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