Work

 

The Book of St Albans. IE TCD MS 177

The Book of St Albans. IE TCD MS 177

Shelf Mark/Reference Number
  • IE TCD MS 177
Location
Creator
Contributor
DOI
Rights statement
  • Copyright The Board of Trinity College Dublin. Images are available for single-use academic application only. Publication, transmission or display is prohibited without formal written approval of the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
Publisher location
  • [England]
Date Created
  • [between approximately 1230-1250]
Physical extent
  • 77 folios ; 24 x 16.5 cm
Language
Abstract
  • See the Library's blog piece on the manuscript here: https://www.tcd.ie/library/news/one-of-the-worlds-finest-medieval-manuscripts-the-book-of-st-albans-is-digitised-for-the-first-time/ See the Library's online exhibition here: https://www.tcd.ie/library/exhibitions/st-albans/ Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueIv6aEalio
  • [1] IE TCD MS 177, The Book of St Albans, was compiled and illustrated by Matthew Paris, monk and chronicler of St Albans Abbey. The volume contains texts and documents relating to the history of the abbey, including works on the life and veneration of its patron saint and copies of foundation charters purportedly issued by King Offa of Mercia. Folios 3-20: (1) Ralph of Dunstable, Vita metrica sancti Albani (Latin elegiac verses on the Passion of St Alban), copied in hand of Matthew Paris (two further copies of text in British Library, Cotton MSS Julius D III and Claudius E IV) (Excerpts in J. Ussher, Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates in C.R. Elrington (ed.), The Whole Works of the Most Reverend James Ussher, D.D. , (Dublin, 1847-1864), 17 volumes, 5:189, 203; W. McLeod, Alban and Amphibal: Some Extant Lives and a Lost Life in 'Mediaeval Studies' 42 (1980), 412-416; 'Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina', Socii Bollandiani, (Brussels, 1898-1901), 3 volumes, no. 212; H. Walther, 'Initia Carminum Ac Versuum Medii Aeui Posterioris Latinorum', Carmina Medii Aeui Posterioris Latina 1, (Göttingen, 1959), with supplement (Göttingen, 1969), no. 732): Incipit passio sanctorum Albani Anglorum prothomartiris et Amphibali (sociorumque eius?). Albani celebrem celo terrisque triumphum - cumque sacro flamine Christe deum. Explicit liber ii us et habet uersus mccc et lx. Folios 20-28v: (2) William of St Albans, Passio sancti Albi (Latin prose on the Passion of St Alban), copied in hand of Matthew Paris (six further copies of text in British Library, Additional MS 62777, Cotton MSS Claudius E IV, Nero C VII and Faustina B IV; Oxford, Magdalen College MS Lat. 53; and Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 172 pt. 2) (T. O Donnell and M. Lamont (trans.), William of St Albans, The Passion of Saint Alban , in The Life of Saint Alban by Matthew Paris (Tempe, AZ, 2010), 139-160; Ussher o.c. 186-188, 191, 203-204; BHL no. 213): Prologue, 20: Incipit prologus in passionem beati Albani. Quisquis beatorum martirum - mandare curaui. Explicit prologus. Incipit passio beati ac gloriosi Anglorum prot//. Main text, 20-28v: C<um persecucio que sub Diocleciano> longe lateque deseuiret - in melius commutare dominus Ihesus Christus, qui uiuit et regnat deus per omnia secula seculorum. Amen. Explicit hystoria beati Albani Anglorum prothomartiris et beati Amphibali sociorumque eius. Folio 28v: (3) Rubric to a missing tract: Incipit historia de inuencio eiusdem sancti Amphali sociorumque eius ( The History of the Discovery of St Amphibalus and His Companions ). Heading only, no text following. Folios 29-50: (4) Matthew Paris, La Vie de seint Auban (Anglo-Norman French verse on the life of St Alban) with text, illustrations, rubrics and labels within illustrations produced in hand of Matthew Paris (J. Wogan-Browne and T. Fenster (trans.), Matthew Paris, The Life of Saint Alban , in The Life of Saint Alban by Matthew Paris (Tempe, AZ, 2010), 67-106; R. Atkinson (ed.), Vie de seint Auban, (London, 1876), with use of TCD MS 177; A.R. Harden (ed.), 'La vie de seint Auban, Anglo-Norman Text Society', (Oxford, 1968), with use of TCD MS 177; J. Vising, 'Anglo-Norman Language and Literature', (London, 1923), no. 115). Text imperfect, lacking prologue and one or more laisses at beginning: Ki tant est redutee de diable enfernal - la estoire de Auban ci finis e termin. Ci finist le rumantz de l estoire de seint Auban le premer martir de Engletere e de seint Amphibal e de ses cumpainnuns. Folios 50v-52v: (5) Lessons and liturgical responses for the feast of the Invention and Translation of St Alban (excerpts in Ussher o.c. 190; BHL no. 215), in lessons, with (52v) liturgical response from Mat. 10.34. Incipit, 50: [cropped]ni. Lectio prima. Lessons, 50v-52v Beati prothomartyris Anglorum Albani, fratres karissimi - sanctorum ubi sine fine feliciter conregnemus. Response, 52v: Secundum Matheum In illo tempore dixit Ihesus discipulis suis Nolite arbitrari quia uenerim . Folios 52v-62v: (6) On the Invention of St Alban (excerpts in Ussher o.c. 190-191; BHL no. 216): Tractus de inuencione seu translacione sancti Albani secundum aliud exemplar prout legitur ad prandium conuentus in festo inuencionis que facta fuit die sancti Petri ad uincula. Cum preciosus. sancti dei martyr Albanus uiriliter - candidatorum Iesum Christum dominum nostrum dominancium, cui est cum deo patre et spiritu sancto decus et imperium per omnia secula seculorum. Amen. Text continues 66v-68v, with cross-reference added by Matthew Paris (62v): Verte iiii folia sequentia ad hoc signum O-. On 66v the start of the text is marked O-. Folios 63-66: (7) Charters of foundation for St Albans Abbey purportedly issued by King Offa of Mercia and his son Ecgfrid. Folios 66v-68v: Continuation of text in (6). Folios 68v-69v: (8) On the Invention of St Amphibalus: Sepulta sunt corpora sanctorum quos sanctus Amphibalus ad Christum conuertit - digna ad gloriam dei omnipotentis celebrantur. Folios 69v-70v: (9) On the miracles of St Amphibalus: Miracula quibus diuina miseracio beatum decorauit - clarissimus choruscauit. Loss of text after 69v (69v ends uiuit et regnat and 70 begins phibalus in ciuitate ). Folios 70v-72: (10) On the Translation of St Alban the Protomartyr: De translacionibus sancti Albani Anglorum prothomaritis (!). <A>b incarnacione domini usque ad passionem sancti Albani anni elapsi sunt ducenti et octoginta sex - a fratribus est examinatum. 72v left blank. Folios 73-77: (11) On the miracles of St Amphibalus (BHL no. 396), text ends imperfectly: Anno dominice incarnacionis millesimo ducentesimo uicesimo ii o idus Maii nutu diuino rerum euentibus - mensurando circumdedit. 77v left blank except for pen-trials. [2] Flyleaf additions: Folio 1v: In 15th-century hand, note stating volume shown to King Henry VI of England: [cropped]erissimus rex Henricus sextus exiens ad consilium magnum Westmonisterrii (!) tentum hunc librum visus est et ad honorem gloriosi martiris Albani. Folio 2: Latin verses in a 13th-century hand on the occupations of the month: [cropped]Prati fena lego, collecta sub horrea lego - porcum mactando secure; a note now illegible; a note in the hand of Matthew Paris on the circulation of the MS and another saints lives collection on Sts Thomas Becket and Edward the Confessor between noblewomen readers: Mittatis si placet ad dominam comitissam Harundell Isabellam ut mittat uobis librum de sancto Thoma martire et s<ancto Ed>wardo quem transtuli et protra(here ?) <po>terit domina comitissa Corni<uallie ?> usque ad pentecostem. Paris dedicated his life of St Edmund to Isabella de Warenne (d. c. 1279), Countess of Arundel by marriage to Hugh d Aubigny, 5th Earl of Arundel. The Countess of Cornwall who the note refers to as keeping the book until Whitsuntide may have been Sanchia of Provence (d. c. 1262), married in 1243 to Richard of Cornwall, 1st Earl of Cornwall. James suggested this note was addressed to an unknown G (James facsimile edition, 15), however the letter appears instead to be a paragraph mark. Folio 2v: An incomplete drawing of the Virgin and Child (reproduced in M.R. James, La Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei (Oxford, 1920), 23b); a prayer in a 13th-century hand to St Cendonius for restoration of sight, text imperfect (a complete copy found in British Library, Cotton MS Julius D VII, also produced in St Albans): [cropped]impones super eum misericordiam tuam quesumus domine intercedendo beato Cendo<nio inter>cessore tuo nobis et uisum oculorum me(orum ?) placatus suffragiis - lumen transferas sempiternum. Per. Dicatur ter Pater noster in honorem sanctorum Laurentii, Nigasii, Blasii, et Leodegarii; a note in a 13th-century hand on the preparation of saints images for the Countess of Winchester and French verse captions for the images: In libro comitisse Wint. / binae imagines in singulis / paginis Francesis. The Countess of Winchester may refer to Matilda, second wife of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester (d. 1262) or Eleanor de Ferrers (d. 1274), married to Roger in 1252 as his third wife and possible patron of the Lambeth Apocalypse (London, Lambeth Palace Library MS 209); French verses on saints: Iacobus. Sue merci deus me eschoisi e apostle apela . [3] Foliation: correction of a binder s error has resulted in the present sequence of leaves: 38, 47, 46, 39-45, 48, 49. The previous numbering of the folios 39-49 is used in the facsimile of M.R. James and commonly features in academic references to these leaves. Foliated in black ink in a modern hand on recto of each folio and in pencil on some leaves. Layout: 2 columns, 37 lines. [4] Script: Gothic, folios 3-50 and 73-77 written in the hand of Matthew Paris (Hand 1) with folios 50v-72 copied by three assistants (Hand 2: 50v-62v, 66v-72; Hand 3: 63-64; Hand 4: 64v-66). Corrections and additions: Marginal note (22) in red ink in 13th-century hand: Hoc de libro Iohannis Mansel , possibly referring to John Mansel (c. 1210-1295), royal counsellor and keeper of the seal to King Henry III of England. Further marginalia in Latin and Anglo-Norman French largely referring to subjects of illustrations (41v, 42, 43v, 45v, 49v, 50v, 51v, 53v, 54r-v, 56, 57r-v, 60r-v, 61r-v and 62r-v), several illegible as a result of cropping. Corrections added to work of assistant scribes (50v-72) in hand of Matthew Paris. [5] Collation analysis: i (folios 1-2), ii (3-4), iii (5-9), iv (10-13), v (14-20), vi (21-22), vii (23-28), viii (29-38), ix (47-46), x (39-45), xi (48-52), xii (53-61), xiii (62-69), xiv (70-77). Leaf signatures present: ii-vi in red (29v-33v), IIIus in brown ink with cropping (55v), XIII in red and IIIIus in brown ink (both on 56v). A binder's error that resulted in the miscollation of folios 46 and 47 has been corrected so that the sequence now reads 38, 47, 46, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49. [5] Decoration: several parts of the manuscript are accompanied by illustrations, depicting the lives of Sts Alban and Amphibalus (29-50), the visits of Sts Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes to Britain (51-55), the Invention and Translation of the relics of St Alban and the foundation of St Albans Abbey by King Offa (55v-63). There are 54 remaining framed tinted drawings set at the head of the two-column text (occasionally over only one column) and occupying roughly one-third of the page. The illustrations are copied in the hand of Matthew Paris, with drawings in green, grey/black, yellow/brown, red, and blue tinting. The tinting and gilding from folio 51 onwards appear to be in another hand, with the use of silver or silver alloy used for sword-, spear-, and axe-heads (40v, 52v, 53v, 55v, 56, 57r-v, 58, 59 and 60), and use of gold (51 onwards). Decorated initials with penwork in red and blue inks, and rubrics in red ink with some paragraph marks and lettering in blue. Eight illustrations were copied on separate pieces of parchment pasted down in manuscript, but were removed and are now lost (40v, 42v, 43, 45v, 48v, 49v, 50v and 51v). Thomas Walsingham (d. c. 1422), chronicler and monk of St Albans, recorded that Matthew Paris wrote and illustrated the lives of Sts Alban and Amphibalus (H.T. Riley (ed.), Amundesham's Annales , Roll Series, vol. 2 (1870-71), 303). The subjects of the illustrations are as follows, with missing illustrations in square brackets: Folio 29v: St Amphibalus telling St Alban of the life of Christ. Folio 30v: St Alban (below) dreams of the life of Christ, with scenes (above) of the Annunciation, Crucifixion and Resurrection. Folio 31: St Alban in an adjacent room observes St Amphibalus kneeling before the Cross. Folio 31v: St Alban kneels before St Amphibalus (left) and is then baptised by Amphibalus (right). Folio 32: A Saracen witnesses the baptism (left) and reports to the Roman Governor (right). Folio 33: St Amphibalus departing after exchanging clothes with St Alban. Folio 33v: St Alban attacked by the pagans. Folio 34: St Alban is arrested. Folio 34v: Pagans attempting to force St Alban to renounce his faith and worship pagan idol, witnessed by the Roman Governor. Folio 35: The scourging of St Alban. Folio 35v: St Alban imprisoned (left) and country suffers a drought (right) with men dying of thirst. Folio 36: St Alban, being led to his martyrdom, saves pagans from drowning by his prayers. The miracle is witnessed by the soldier St Heraclius. Folio 37: Following his witness of the miracle, St Heraclius converts to Christianity (left) and he is beaten by pagans (right). Folio 37v: St Alban's prayers bring forth streams of flowing water which is drunk by pagans. Folio 38: The martyrdom of St Alban by beheading and the fate of his executioner. Folio 38v: St Heraclius is mocked for retrieving St Alban's head. Folio 47: The burial of St Alban. Folio 47v: The torture of St Heraclius. Folio 46: The beheading of St Heraclius. Folio 46v: Angels and celestial fire descend on the place of St Alban s tomb. Folio 39: Christian converts leave Verulamium for Wales to find St Amphibalus. Folio 40: St Amphibalus baptises the converts. [Folio 40v: Illustration piece removed, rubrics at head intact and brown-tinted border remains to right with surviving illustrations of two hands around the pole of a red banner and dog s head appearing out of the frame below.] Folio 41: Soldiers discover St Amphibalus baptising the converts. Folio 41v: Soldiers massacre the converts. Folio 42: An eagle and wolf guard the bodies of the martyrs. [Folio 42v: Illustration piece removed, rubrics intact and parts of green-tinted border remain with some drawn lines remaining above border.] [Folio 43: Illustration piece removed, rubrics intact and part of the black outline of outer frame remains.] Folio 43v: Lamentations over the massacre. Folio 45: Martyrdom of St Amphibalus by beheading. [Folio 45v: Illustration piece removed, only traces of rubrics remain at head.] Folio 48: Battle between Christians and pagans, with removal of the body of Amphibalus (lower right). [Folio 48v: Illustrated piece removed, rubrics intact with much of the black outline of the outer frame also intact.] Folio 49: Devils attack the killers of St Amphibalus. [Folio 49v: Illustrated piece removed, rubrics intact and the lower green-tinted and upper black borders remain, with black line remaining over lower border.] Folio 50: The conversion, penance and baptism of the inhabitants of Verulamium. [Folio 50v: Illustrated piece removed, no trace of rubrics, border or illustration. Top line of both text columns imperfect, suggesting text copied after addition of pastedown.] Folio 51: Sts Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes as bishops depart for Britain to deal with Pelagian heresy. [Folio 51v: Illustrated piece removed, only trace of rubrics remaining on left-hand side with a partial initial in blue and lower line beginning Cist d... .] Folio 52: St Genevieve makes vow of chastity before St Germanus. Folio 52v: St Germanus hanging a metal penny around St Genevieve s neck as a protective sign. Folio 53: Sts Germanus and Lupus embark on a boat for Britain. Folio 53v: Sts Germanus and Lupus disembark from the boat in Britain. Folio 54: The two bishops worship at St Alban's tomb and pray for assistance against the Pelagians. Folio 54v: The bishops dispute with the Pelagians, who carry scientific instruments including an astrolabe. Folio 55: The bishops return home, St Germanus carrying a reliquary in the form of a church containing dust stained with St Alban's blood. Folio 55v: King Offa of Mercia setting out on expedition, dressed in crown and armour with sword and decorated shield. Folio 56: Offa s victory over King Boernred of Mercia in battle. Folio 56v: An angel appears to the sleeping Offa. Folio 57: A stream of celestial light or fire descends from heaven to signify the place of St Alban's grave. The gilt fragment is superimposed on the illustration. Folio 57v: Offa goes to see the place where the miracle of light occurred. Folio 58: The celestial light descends again. Folio 58v: Offa in consultation with three bishops. Folio 59: Offa directs a search for St Alban's tomb, and the relics of the holy body are recovered wrapped in a silk cloth. Folio 59v: Offa directs the building of St Alban's church, with master mason holding compass and T-square and craftsmen at work. Folio 60: Continuation of previous scene, craftsmen at work building St Alban's church. Folio 60v: Investiture of Willegod by Offa as the first abbot of St Albans. Folio 61: Monks before St Alban s shrine, following the translation of his relics. Folio 61v: Offa and four bishops in procession to commemorate St Alban's feast day. Folio 62: Offa landing in England on his return from Rome. Folio 62v: Offa's horse, squire and attendants (continuation of following scene). Folio 63: Offa presents his gift to a monk of St Albans in the form of a sealed charter on the altar, as bells are rung in celebration.
Note
  • Rebound in 1984 in oak boards and fully covered in Italian tawed goatskin vellum. A binder's error that resulted in the miscollation of folios 46 and 47 has been corrected so that the sequence now reads 38, 47, 46, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49.
  • In Latin, and Anglo-Norman French.
  • Former shelfmarks: Lyon: E.1.40 ; Bernard: 629 ; Foley: F.62 ; c1670: F.1.53 ; Ussher: III.32.
Biographical note
Related url
Bibliography
  • This description was adapted (2021) from the following sources: T.K. Abbott, Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (Dublin, 1900), no. 177; M.L. Colker, Trinity College Library Dublin Descriptive Catalogue of the Mediaeval and Renaissance Latin Manuscripts (Aldershot, 1991), no. 177; N. Morgan, 'Early Gothic Manuscripts, 1190-1250 , A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 4, (London, 1982), no. 85; C. Baswell and P. Quinn, The Manuscript (Dublin, Trinity College MS 177) , in The Life of Saint Alban by Matthew Paris (Tempe, AZ, 2010), 169-212. Facsimile edition: M.R. James, W.R.L. Lowe, and E.F. Jacob, Illustrations to the Life of St. Alban in Trin. Coll. Dublin MS E.I.40 (Oxford, 1924). For IE TCD MS 177, see J. Ussher, 'Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates in C.R. Elrington (ed.), The Whole Works of the Most Reverend James Ussher, D.D.' (Dublin, 1847-1864), 17 vols, 5: 190; T.D. Hardy, 'Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the End of the Reign of Henry VII', Rolls Series, (London, 1862-1871), 3 vols in 4, 1:8, 14-18; R. Atkinson (ed.), 'Vie de seint Auban', (London, 1876), [v]-xii (early references to the codex, including James Ussher s, are discussed on v-vi, ix); J. Vising, 'Anglo-Norman Language and Literature', (London, 1923), no. 115; M. Esposito, Inventaire des anciens manuscrits français des bibliothèques de Dublin in 'Revue de bibliothèques' 24 (1914) 197; A. Långfors, 'Les incipit des poèmes français antérieurs au xvie siècle', (Paris, 1917), 397; M.R. James, W.R.L. Lowe, and E.F. Jacob, Illustrations to the Life of St. Alban in Trin. Coll. Dublin MS E.I.40 (Oxford, 1924); E.G. Millar, 'English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth Century', (Paris and Brussels, 1926), 58, 59, pl. 89; P. Grosjean in 'Analecta Bollandiana' 46 (1928) 96-97; O.E. Saunders, 'English Illumination' 1, (Florence and Paris, 1928), 78; A.T. Baker, La vie de saint Edmond, archevêque de Contobéry in 'Romania' 55 (1929) 340-341; V&A Museum, 'English Mediaeval Art, catalogue of an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum', (London, 1930), 27; F. Wormald, Some illustrated manuscripts of the Lives of the Saints in 'Bulletin of The John Rylands Library' 35 (1952) 263 n.3; R. Vaughan, The Handwriting of Matthew Paris in 'Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society' 1 (1953) 376-394 passim with pl. xvi; R. Vaughan, Matthew Paris , (Cambridge, 1958), 168-173, 177-178, 195-198, 206-221, 227-228, 267, pl. 8; M.J. Rickert, 'Painting in Britain in the Middle Ages', Pelican History of Art 5, (Melbourne, London, Baltimore 1954), 119, 120, 134; N.R. Ker, 'Medieval Libraries of Great Britain', second edition, Royal Historical Society, (London, 1964), 166; G. 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Jahrhunderts, Zum Abschluss von ± Early Gothic Manuscripts » in 'Scriptorium' 44 no. 2 (1990) 326; N. Morgan, 'The Lambeth Apocalypse', (London, 1990), 32 n.73, 33, 77 n.20, 113 n.22; I. Toinet, La Parole incarnée: voir la parole dans les images des XIIe et XIIIe siècles in 'Médiévales' 22-23 (1992) 28 n.30, 30 n.39; J.J.G. Alexander, 'Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work', (New Haven, 1992), 35, 107, 111 with pls. 177 and 182; C. Hahn, Absent no longer: the saint and the saint in late medieval pictorial hagiography in G. Kerscher (ed.), 'Hagiographie und Kunst' (Berlin, 1993), 152-168, with plates; 'Medioevo latino' 15 (1994) no. 7145; S. Lewis, 'Reading Images', (Cambridge, 1995), 37-38, 295 with figs. 22-23; 'Medioevo latino' 17 (1996) no. 3561; R.J. Dean (with the collaboration of M.B.M. Boulton), 'Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts', (London, 1999) nos. 506 and 507; E. Roberts, 'Images of Alban: Saint Alban in Art from the Earliest Times to the Present, St. Albans', 1999, 25-33 passim, with illustrs.; B. Meehan, Lost and Found: A Stray of the Thirteenth Century from Trinity College Library in V. Kinane and A. Walsh (eds.), 'Essays on the History of Trinity College Library Dublin', (Dublin, 2000), 116; B. Kjøkbye-Biddle, 'The Alban Cross' in M. Henig and P. Lindley (eds.), Alban and St Albans: Roman and Medieval Architecture, Art and Archaeology , British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions XXIV, (2001), pp. 85-110; C. Hahn, 'Portrayed on the Heart: Narrative Effect in Pictorial Lives of Saints from the Tenth through the Thirteenth Century', (Berkeley, 2001), 27, 282-317, 334, 391-398 passim, pl. 8, figs. 138-142 and 144-149; R. Sharpe, 'A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540' in Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 1, (2001), 447; D. McKitterick, 'The Trinity Apocalypse', (London and Toronto, 2005), 64, with fig. 25; J. Wogan-Browne and T.S. Fenster (eds. and trans.), The Life of Saint Alban by Matthew Paris with T. O Donnell and M. Lamont (eds. and trans.), The Passion of Saint Alban by William of St Albans and C. Baswell and P. Quinn, Studies of the Manuscript , The French of England Translation Series (Tempe, AZ, 2010); E. Light, Musterai i mun livre : Monastery History and Practices of Seeing in Matthew Paris s Vie de seint Auban in Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies , 13:2 (2017); M. Munoz Garcia, The script of Matthew Paris and his collaborators: A digital approach , unpublished doctoral thesis (King s College London, 2018); L. Cleaver, Illuminated History Books in the Anglo-Norman World, 1066-1272 (Oxford, 2018), 97-100, 147-153, 150-1 fig. 44; L. Slater, Matthew Paris, Cecilia de Sanford and the Early Readership of the Vie de Seint Auban in L. Cleaver and A. Worm (eds.), Writing History in the Anglo-Norman World: Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066-c.1250 (York, 2018) 189-212; M. Kauffman, Seeing and Reading the Matthew Paris Saints Lives in L. Cleaver, A. Bovey and L. Donkin (eds.), Illuminating the Middle Ages: Tributes to Prof. John Lowden from his Students, Friends and Colleagues (Leiden, 2020), 182-206; St Albans Museum & Gallery, Chroniclers of History: The Medieval Monks of St Albans and their Books , exhibition catalogue (St Albans, 2021). Record entry for TCD MS 177 on Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (MLGB3) online: http://mlgb3.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/mlgb/book/4831/ [accessed 6 July 2021].
Finding aid
Provenance
  • IE TCD MS 177 was in St Albans Abbey until the dissolution of the abbey in 1539, or shortly after. An early 14th-century library inscription of St Albans is on the opening folio (f.3): Hic est liber ecclesie sancti Albani Anglorum prothomartiris / de armariolo A . There is a marginal annotation of the triple Jupiter symbol with the inscription Anonymus Britainis (f.20) in the hand of John Dee (1527-1608), royal advisor, astrologer and antiquary. The manuscript features the shelfmark of the book collection of James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh and primate of All Ireland (r. 1625-1656), III 32. (f.1v). The Ussher library was gifted by King Charles II to Trinity College Dublin in 1661.
Sponsor
  • This digitisation work was made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Subject
Keyword
Format
Resource type
Medium
  • ink
  • colored ink
Support
  • goatskin
  • parchment (animal material)
Source
  • b19722152x

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Items

Thumbnail Title Shelf Mark/Reference Number Actions
3x816v268?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 29v: St Amphibalus telling St Alban of the life of Christ IE TCD MS 177
2b88qk74m?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 30v: St Alban dreams of the life of Christ, with scenes of the Annunciation, Crucifixion and Resurrection IE TCD MS 177
9c67wv82s?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 31: St Alban observes St Amphibalus kneeling before the Cross IE TCD MS 177
44558n148?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 31v: St Alban kneels before, and is baptised by, St Amphibalus IE TCD MS 177
9g54xr48q?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 32: A Saracen witnesses the baptism and reports to the Roman Governor IE TCD MS 177
Bv73c677z?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 33: St Amphibalus departing after exchanging clothes with St Alban IE TCD MS 177
Dr26z559h?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 33v: St Alban attacked by the pagans IE TCD MS 177
2801pp67q?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 34: St Alban is arrested IE TCD MS 177
Jh3440870?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 34v: Pagans attempting to force St Alban to renounce his faith and worship pagan idol, witnessed by the Roman Governor IE TCD MS 177
Wd376361c?file=thumbnail IE TCD MS 177, folio 35: The scourging of St Alban IE TCD MS 177