The Latin Cartulary of Godstow Abbey

Godstow Abbey, on the south bank of the Thames a few miles north of Oxford, is now a fragmentary but picturesque ruin, famous, if at all, only as the burial place of Rosamund Clifford, Henry II’s mistress. In the Middle Ages it was a flourishing house of Benedictine nuns, possessing an extensive estate concentrated close to home but ranging across eighteen counties. The build-up of the estate is recorded in two cartularies, a previously published English version and a Latin version.

This first published edition of the Latin Cartulary of Godstow Abbey outside Oxford is an important text for the history of medieval religious women. Compiled in the early fifteenth century, and probably written by Godstow's prioress Alice of Eaton, it contains more than 900 documents written for and preserved by this well-known community of Benedictine nuns.

The contents include a unique Anglo-Norman verse life of Ediva of Winchester, whose dreams prompted her to found the abbey in the early twelfth century. Numerous early charters in the cartulary identify other twelfth-century nuns and their relatives, and shed light on the founding of the abbey, its royal and private patronage, and its extensive real estate holdings. Other documents in the volume are excellent sources for women's literacy and culture, religious practices in the diocese of Lincoln, social relations between the nuns and the larger community, and the local urban and rural economy in Oxfordshire and nearby counties. The volume's introduction examines the founding of the abbey, dating it earlier than has previously been done, and provides new information about the abbesses of Godstow. In the text, documents dating from about 1225 or earlier are printed in full, in the original Latin, with English introductions and notes; later documents have been fully summarized in English, with complete witness lists. This is also an invaluable text for local history, topography, and genealogy. This text is the original of the Middle English translation that was published in the early twentieth century.

read full text of "The English register of Godstow nunnery, near Oxford : written about 1450"

Oldest 'comic book' boasts all-woman cast

It’s been more than a millennium since one of the oldest, goriest and most action-drenched comic books of all time was published.  So, it’s probably safe to reveal a spoiler.  In "Psychomachia" or "Contest of the Soul," the bad guys get it in the end. They really get it.

Needless to say the book — an epic poem drawn by 10th century monks with a decidedly graphic novel flair — never fell under the ratings jurisdiction of the Comics Code Authority.  The poem was originally written by Prudentius, a 5th century governor who increasingly devoted his life to ensuring there was sufficient God-fearing sentiment in his jurisdiction.

read more here @ Mother Nature Network

Rare Caxton Print Found

Pages printed more than 500 years ago by William Caxton, who brought printing to England, have been discovered by the University of Reading.

There are no other known surviving examples of these two pages anywhere in the world, from a book believed to have been printed in London in the 1470s.

The pages had been "under their noses" unrecognised in the library's archives.

Erika Delbecque, special collections librarian at the university, described the find as "incredibly rare".

The two pages, with religious texts in medieval Latin, were produced by Caxton at his pioneering printing works in Westminster - and are now going on public display for the first time since they were sold from his print shop in the 15th Century.

According to The Independent, librarians at the University of Reading recently found two pages from a priest’s handbook called Sarum Ordinal or Sarum Pye, which had been pasted inside of another book to reinforce its spine. A librarian working to restore that book noticed and pulled out the pages from the priest’s handbook; they date to between 1476 and 1477.

Read more here @ BBC News and @ Atlas Obscura