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Miracle stories of the Virgin, two fragments from a manuscript on vellum [Germany, 14th century]
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Anonymous authors
Miracle stories of the Virgin, two fragments from a manuscript on vellum [Germany, 14th century]
A pact with the devil for a promotion, a sinful nun, and a miraculous cure: two fragments containing rare 14th-century miracle stories.
Two fragments, c.160 x 100mm and 155 x 115mm, originally joined and forming most of a bifolium, preserving 27 lines, capitals stroked in red. Provenance: from a binding with an added label on the spine, with the title '[D]ialectica, & / Græca Lingua'.
The larger piece has most of what was probably the most popular Miracle of the Virgin in the Middle Ages, in which the cleric Theophilus makes a pact with the devil in order to get a promotion, and subsequently is released from the deal by the Virgin (on which see J. Root, The Theophilus Legend in Medieval Text and Image, 2017). The text begins here at 'invenisti? At ille. Confitebor et gracias ago [...]' and ends '[...] incessabili parte diem noctemque'.
The smaller piece has parts of two much rarer miracle legends. The first relates how it was revealed to a German cripple that, if he crossed the sea into England, he would be cured there in a church dedicated to the Virgin; and how this came to pass at a place in the territory of Bury St Edmunds. The story is summarised by H.L.D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, II, 1893; repr. 1962, p.648. The second concerns a nun who died before she could complete a penance; the nun later appeared to her abbess and said that the Virgin had promised to release her from the penance (see Ward, p.621). The text here begins at 'domino gressumque illius disponente [...]'. The place of the first of these miracles is unknown; it is written as 'Curdinges in territorio sancti gatmundi' on the second line of the recto; but just as 'gatmundi' is based on a misreading of Edmundi/Eadmundi/Ædmundi, so Curdinges is doubtless incorrect; it is spelled 'Curdiges' in BL, Add. MS 18346, and 'Turdinges' in the French version by Jean Miélot (see G.F. Warner, Miracles de nostre dame collected by Jean Mielot, 1885, p.40).
Miracle stories of the Virgin, two fragments from a manuscript on vellum [Germany, 14th century]
A pact with the devil for a promotion, a sinful nun, and a miraculous cure: two fragments containing rare 14th-century miracle stories.
Two fragments, c.160 x 100mm and 155 x 115mm, originally joined and forming most of a bifolium, preserving 27 lines, capitals stroked in red. Provenance: from a binding with an added label on the spine, with the title '[D]ialectica, & / Græca Lingua'.
The larger piece has most of what was probably the most popular Miracle of the Virgin in the Middle Ages, in which the cleric Theophilus makes a pact with the devil in order to get a promotion, and subsequently is released from the deal by the Virgin (on which see J. Root, The Theophilus Legend in Medieval Text and Image, 2017). The text begins here at 'invenisti? At ille. Confitebor et gracias ago [...]' and ends '[...] incessabili parte diem noctemque'.
The smaller piece has parts of two much rarer miracle legends. The first relates how it was revealed to a German cripple that, if he crossed the sea into England, he would be cured there in a church dedicated to the Virgin; and how this came to pass at a place in the territory of Bury St Edmunds. The story is summarised by H.L.D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, II, 1893; repr. 1962, p.648. The second concerns a nun who died before she could complete a penance; the nun later appeared to her abbess and said that the Virgin had promised to release her from the penance (see Ward, p.621). The text here begins at 'domino gressumque illius disponente [...]'. The place of the first of these miracles is unknown; it is written as 'Curdinges in territorio sancti gatmundi' on the second line of the recto; but just as 'gatmundi' is based on a misreading of Edmundi/Eadmundi/Ædmundi, so Curdinges is doubtless incorrect; it is spelled 'Curdiges' in BL, Add. MS 18346, and 'Turdinges' in the French version by Jean Miélot (see G.F. Warner, Miracles de nostre dame collected by Jean Mielot, 1885, p.40).
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