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Thomas Wolsey's Epistle and Gospel Lectionaries: Unanswered Questions and New Hypotheses

Professor James P. Carley, Fellow at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto; Professor of the History of the Book at the University of Kent; Honorary Research Fellow, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Published on 11/05/2017 | Originally published Bodleian Library Record, 25 August 2016

The history of Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey’s epistle lectionary (Oxford, Christ Church, MS. 101) and gospel lectionary (Oxford, Magdalen College, MS. lat. 223), perhaps the two finest surviving examples of his cult of magnificence in its final phase, continues to be elusive in spite of all the scholarship devoted to them. Much remains unclear about the context of their production, about their intended destination, about where they were stored after Wolsey’s fall, about why they were not destroyed during the Edwardian purges of these sorts of books, and how they found their way to their present repositories.

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Biographical details:

James P. Carley has written extensively on the royal library during the reign of Henry VIII and on the fate of medieval manuscripts during the dissolution of the English religious house. The first volume of his annotated edition and translation of John Leland's *De uiris illustribus* appeared in 2010.