A Pre-Conquest English Prayer Book

This is an edition of British Library, Cotton MSS Galba A.xiv and Nero A.ii, together an early eleventh-century book of private devotion, compiled over a period of time (1029-46) in several hands of greater or lesser skill. It provides a reconstruction of the manuscripts, which were severely damaged in the Cotton Library (Ashburnham House, Westminster) fire of October, 1731. It is an idiosyncratic and unique text that offers an insight into the devotional life of monks and nuns in the eleventh century. It was compiled in the wake of the tenth-century Monastic Reform and is relevant for subjects 106-024, 106-029 and 106-405.

"This new edition is therefore to be welcomed, including as it does an informative introduction in which the author rehearses his reasons for regarding the first quire of Nero A.ii as part of Galba A.xiv, as well as discussing other evidence relevant to its dating and provenance." [Manon Jenkins, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 45 (1990)]

"A part son intérêt, car il fait mieux comprendre l’influence de la liturgie sur les dévotions  et sur les méthodes d’éducation en cour dans les monastères anglais, le manuscrit renferme un nouvel exemplaire du poème Altus prosator et un autre poème commençant par Adiutor laborantium, tous les deux attribués à S. Columba …un volume édité …avec grand soin." [Dom Charles Fitzsimmons, Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique, 84 (1989): 619-20.]

"Anyone who has ever contemplated the pathetic remnants of MS Cotton Galba A.xiv in the Department of Manuscripts Students Room at the British Library will be immensely grateful for, and profoundly astonished at, the Henry Bradshaw Society's volume for 1988. For somehow, though Galba suffered terribly from both fire and water in the Cotton conflagration, Bernard Muir has managed to construct an edition of the early eleventh-century prayerbook now divided between Galba and fos. 3-13 of MS Cotton Nero A.ii. …[I]t is a rare and auspicious, though by no means unique, occasion when the Henry Bradshaw Society makes a significant contribution to Women's Studies. This edition deserves a warm welcome, and wide circulation among not only liturgiologists but also all those interested in the history of women in the medieval Church." [Alexandra Barratt, Journal of Theological Studies, 40 (1989): 655-6.]

"…Heureusement, B.J. Muir a poursuivi son travail jusqu'au bout, car le text qu'il présente méritait qu'on s'appliquât à l'examiner de près et à éditer avec soin. …B.J.M., qui a entamé ce délicat travail à Toronto et l'a achevé à Melbourne, a réussi à identifier presque toutes les pièces et à les éditer soigneusement, le cas échéant en comparaison critique avec d’autres témoins connus par ailleurs. Recevoir un volume de l'honorable Henry Bradshaw Society est chaque fois un plaisir renouvelé: d'avance on sait que la présentation distinguée y est mise au service d'un contenu de valeur." [P.V., Revue Bénédictine, 98 (1988) 411-12.]