Facsimile
Transcription
Bt. by D. at Dr. Monro’s sale, 23 Apr. 1792 lot 1907 9/6
2 woodcuts taken from Douce adds 125 ?
The fragment of the English metrical life of Saint Margaret that I have inserted at the end, seems to have been printed by Pynson. See the old English life of this Saint in Hickes’s Gram. Anglo-Sax. 224. The French metrical life occurs in a MS. book of prayers &c. marked letter A. in my possession. I have another printed copy, not quite so ancient. It occurs at the end of “Les quinze effusions de sang de nostre Sauveur &c.” In M. Leyden’s edition of “the complaynt of Scotland” p. 308 is a long and curious extract from a MS legend in verse of the life of S. Margaret preserved in the Advocates Library at Edinburgh. It corresponds very nearly with that in Hickes.
A French metrical life of S. Marg. at the end of “Heures de n. Dame” p. by Jacques Heuser 1573 S. resembling the present but with much variation.
Douce M M.4934
I have seen a MS of it 14. centy with no variation but ocas.y in others
vonden werdt / het welcke dese Historie voor de leecke- nen vertoont. Somwijl heeftse den drommel by het hayr gevat en getrocken. Want in dieu tijd en quamen sulcke kale ende geschore duyvels in de Kloosters niet als wel in later tijden. Ende Pater Molanus heeft groot ongelijck / wanneer hy meynt dat alle de duyvelen soo kael zijn als de ratten / ende dat mense daerom met geen ruyge steerten magh schilderen.
Oock verhaelt de Legende / dat op sekeren tijt eenen Draeck St. Margareta is ontmoet / die haer geheel heeft ingeswolgen. Het welck apparent de duyvel is geweest / die oock (soo geseght werdt) daer van geborsten is. Als nu de duyvel sagh / dat hy met alle sijne macht niet en vorderde / soo heeft hy dese listigheyd gebruyckt. Daer was een deurwaerster aen de poorte van het Klooster / die hy tot overspel heeft verlockt. Als nu haer lichaem soo begonde te swellen / datse hare misdaed niet langer verbergen konde / soo zijn de Monnicken en- de Nonnen van beyde de t'samen-gevoeghde Kloostersv seer ontstelt ende beschaemt geworden; Ende men heeft met gemeyne stemmen Pelagium veroordeelt / als de schender van de Nonne / om dat hy gemeynsaem metv haer placht om te gaen / ende over haer was gestelt ge- weest. Derhalven is Pelagius (met dien naem sullen wy nu dese heylige maeghd noemen) uyt het Klooster gebannen / ende in de speloncke van een rotse gebracht / daer hy in blijven moeste; hebbende by sich eenen stren- gen Monnick / die hem wat gersten-brood en water al- daer gaf in een sobere portie. Welck gedaen zijnde / is Pelagius alleen gelaten. Maer hy verdroegh dit alles met groot geduld / danckende God / ende nemende de Heyligen tot een exempel en voorbeeld. Wanneer hy nu vernam dat sijnen sterf-dagh naerderde / soo schreef hy eenen Brief aen den Abt ende de Monnicken van het voorsz Klooster / die aldus luyde: Wanneer ick noch in
A aden p.370DEN ROOMSCHENden wereldlijcken staet was, soo wierdt ick Margarita ge- heeten; Ende om dat ick de Zee (Pelagus) der tentatien socht te boven te komen, heb ick mijn selven Pelagius ge- noemt. Ick en heb door bedrogh niet gelogen, als ick my voor een mans-persoon heb uytgegeven. Want ick heb met ’er daed getoont, dat ick een mannelijcke kloeckmoe- digheyd hadde. De misdaed van een ander heeft my deugd gedaen; ende onnoosel zijnde heb ick boete gedaen. Nu bidde ick, alsoo ick een vrouw-persoon ben (het welck de mannen niet geweten en hebben) dat de heylige Susterkens my begraven mogen, op dat soodanigen vertooninge van den dooden Pelagius moge strecken tot een rechtveerdigin- ge van den levenden: Ende dat de vrouwen mogen sien dat ick een maeghd ben, die de Lafteraers als eenen overspeel- der hebben veroordeelt en verdoemt. Desen Brief ont- fangen en gelesen zijnde / zijn alle de Monnicken ende Nonnen uytgeloopen na de speloncke; ende Pelagius is van de vrouwen bevonden een vrouwe ende ongeschon- den maeghd te zijn. Doende derhalven penitentie over haer lichtveerdigh ende onrechtveerdigh oordeel / heb- bense Ste. Margarita in het Maeghden-klooster eerlijck begraven.
Hymnus, of Lof-sangh eens Catho- lijcken Priesters, ter eeren van Ste. Margareta.
Desen Hymnus kan oock in 't Duytsch van de Roomsche Uylen gerolt, of gesongen worden op de wijse als volght.
Translation
About
About this text
Identification
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce MM 493Contents
Front and rear endleaves: Two woodcuts of the life of St Margaret taken from Pedro de la Vega's 'Flos sanctorum', Medina del Campo, 1578. Whilst the catalogue entry mentions MS Douce adds. 125, it does not in fact contain any image of St Margaret. However, having examined the three copies of this Spanish text held by the Bodleian libraries, I did find that MS Douce C. subt. 249 contained the rear woodcut, matching it exactly in terms of the image's content and textual positioning. [It can be found on fol. clxl with the header 'Julio / Començia la hysteria de sancta Margarita / virgen y martyr.']
ff. A2r - B8v: A printed Middle French 'La Vie de sainte Marguerite' from c.1495? with woodcuts throughout. It, however, is missing folio A8.
ff. 2r - 5v: Folios 2 and 5 of a printed Middle English 'Life of Saint Margarete', suggested to be from 1493. I later found another transcription of this very text which could fill in the textual holes via a 1530 edition of the text. It also contains Latin marginalia of a contemporary hand. Although I have not transcribed it, it does appear to be repetitive phrases which suggests these folios may have been used as scrap parchment to practice on. There is also another marginal note of an early seventeenth-century hand on fol. 5r.
Lower flyleaf: Contains a cut-out image of St Margarete which has been stuck onto the page.
pp. 369 - 372: Two folios from a Dutch book 'Den Roomschen Uylen-Spiegel', ed. J. Lydius (Dordrecht, 1671), containing a hymn for St Margaret in Latin and in Dutch.
History
Origin
[1493-c. 1495?]
About this edition
This is a facsimile and transcription of La vie de sainte Marguerite. It is held by the Bodleian Library (shelf mark Douce MM 493).
The transcription was encoded in TEI P5 XML by Lucian Shepherd.
Availability
Publication: Taylor Institution Library, one of the Bodleian Libraries of the University of
Oxford, 2022. XML files are available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . Images are reproduced from Digital Bodleian https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/c849868a-18b4-4f5f-8f86-97575cc1460e/surfaces/90bef27f-8f99-40f6-a54c-f8620bb03dc5/.
Source edition
La vie de sainte Marguerite [s.l.], [s.n.], [1493-c. 1495?]
Editorial principles
Created by encoding transcription from manuscript.
I decided to create both a diplomatic and standardised transcription to capture the text itself strictly as well as make it more readable and searchable. This led to some key editorial choices:
1) u/v distinction — As the distinction between 'u' and 'v' was not consistent, I always used 'v' in the diplomatic version so that you could search for a word without the need to think of all possible u/v permutations. In the standardised transcription, all u/v cases were normalised as well.
2) i/j distinction — For the very same reasons, I always used 'i' in the diplomatic version and in the standardised transcription, all i/j cases were normalised.
3) u/n printing error — As became apparent during transcription, 'u' and 'n' is frequently mixed up which (along with the lack of u/v distinction) made comprehension less than simple. As a result, I have normalised the spelling in the standardised version but retained the original in the diplomatic.
4) Punctuation — In the diplomatic version, all punctuation is as in the original text. For the standardised transcription, I have added some occasional apostrophes for readability but this was minimal. In the Middle French 'La Vie de sainte Marguerite', the printer uses a unique symbol for 'et' ['and'] whenever space becomes tight. As it was hard to accurately reproduce it, I have used ampersand (&) to stand in its place. Similarly in the English 'Life of Saint Margarete', there is a symbol on fol. 5v for 'and' which is also represented by ampersand (&).
5) Special characters — Wherever possible, I have tried to find a Unicode equivalent for the macron and ꝰ, meaning '-us' here. However, there was one case which could not be encoded in Unicode. On fol. A5v, the correcting brown-ink hand #H6 has added a stroke beneath two y's. This unique feature was thus encoded descriptively with the 'g' element with the id 'ystroke'.
6) And lastly, on a very minor note, I have always split the name 'iesucrist' into 'Jesu Crist' in the standardised transcription.
A 'y' with a horizontal stroke beneath itDownloads
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XML files are available for download under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .