The miscellany may have been later owned by English mathematician and antiquarian Sir Thomas Allen (1542-1632), who was an avid collector of works of history and sciences from monastic centres. 3r)įollowing the Dissolution of the abbey in 1538, the books of the library were destroyed or dispersed with many volumes acquired by private individual owners. Opening page of De excidio Troiae historia by Dares Phrygius (TCD MS 514, f. He later donated this book to the abbey and the volume is recorded as item number 900 on the 15th-century library catalogue of St Augustine’s Abbey (now TCD MS 360) explored in a previous blog.

1290-133), a monk of St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury. This manuscript was compiled in the early 14th century by John of London (fl. The Trinity miscellany is made up of 15 separate texts relating to history and theology, including Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (‘The History of the Kings of Britain’), A history by Dares Phrygius on the fall of Troy, Pope Innocent III’s De miseria humanae conditionis (‘On the Misery of the Human Condition’), and Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger’s Naturales quaestiones (‘Natural Questions’).

In this post, we explore the ways of identifying the separated manuscript portion through written and visual signs. One such example is a miscellany book of historical and religious works ( now TCD MS 514), with a section of text missing and now part of a second compilation manuscript ( now Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 77).

When modern readers encounter medieval books, they are not always in their original form and the contents of many manuscripts have been altered over time by owners and institutions.

Folio medieval manuscripts