2025-07-14
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The manuscript from which the work of Thomas of Monmouth is printed here,
and it is the only copy of his work which is known,
formed part of a library bequeathed about the year 1700 to the parish of Brent Ely in Suffolk by a certain Mr. Edward Coleman,
sometime of Trinity College, Cambridge.
The collection included some nine manuscripts, and among them were two of no ordinary interest.
One was the Gospel Book of Saint Margaret of Scotland,
which was purchased by the Bodleian Library in 1887.
The other was the volume containing the life of Saint William.
Seven out of the nine manuscripts are now in the University Library at Cambridge.
And since I'd been myself, to some extent, instrumental in procuring these books, it was with...
You're doing so well, Dominic.
You're doing so well.
It was with extreme pleasure that on examination I discovered first that here was a copy of Thomas of Monmouth's Life of St. William,
and next that no other copy seemed to be known.
It is written in a fine hand, or two hands, on good parchment in double columns.