The Botulph Breviary fragments

Transcription of UBB MS 1549, 1b.

The so-called Botulph Breviary fragments is a group of four fragments from the same Breviary, written in England in the late thirteenth century. One of the fragments contains the readings six to nine for the Matins of St Botulph’s day (17 June, in Scotland 25 June). Nine readings constitute the highest degree of a saint’s feast. St Botulph was a popular saint in Eastern England and Scotland, and the Botulph breviary was therefore perhaps written in Eastern England. The lessons six to nine, more or less extant in our fragment a, describe Botulph’s discovery of Ikanho (possibly the present Iken in Suffolk, east of Ipswich), the exorcism of the area’s demons, the building of the monastery (in 654), and, finally, to the great lament of his fellow brothers, Botulph’s death (in 680). Apart from the readings of St Botulph’s day, the fragments contain parts of the liturgy of the feast days of the Annunciation (25 March) and of the Saints Philip and Jacob (1 May).