Study of the lives of seven saints in the MS. Cotton Domitien XI. Brit. Mus

Abstract

The volume contains 182 leaves, of which two are flyleaves. The first contains a table of contents, the last acharter. There are three distinct handwritings, the first down to fol. 106 v°, and the second ending on fol. 154. Of the nine lives of Saints given in this MS., four only have been published, namelya) The life of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, by Ludwig Karl, in the Zeitschrift fur romanische Philologie. XXXIV pp. 295-314, from the MS. Cotton Dom. XI. and another MS. in the library of the Duke of Portland, at Welbeck Abbey.b) The life of Saint Agatha, by L. M. Brandin, in the Melanges offerts a M. Emile Picot, membre de 1'Institut, par ses amis et ses eleves.Paris 1913.c). The life of Saint Lucy, by Auguste Beaugrand in SainteLucie, viergo et martyre de Syracuse, sa vie, son martyre, ses reliques, son culte. Paris 1882. d) The first 100 lines of the life of Sainte Agnes are given in 'Lea Contes moralises de ftiloole Bozon' par Lucy Toulmin Smith et Paul Meyer. Soc. Ano. Textes, 1889. pp. xviii-lii Of these four lives only a) and b) offer a critical text. Beaugrand gives the text of the life of Saint Lucy c) as a curiosity, and the copy he publishes is not always accurate, and L. Toulmin Smith and Paul Meyer only give a fragment of the life of Saint Agnes. I have therefore thought it desirable to treat these two lives as unpublished, and to include them in the present study.