Saints’ Lives Attributed to Nicholas Bozon

SAINTS’ LIVES ATTRIBUTED TO NICHOLAS BOZON THE saints’ lives presented in the following pages are found in manuscript Cotton Domitian A XI of the British Museum.1 They are part of a series of saints’ lives in that manuscript, of which the others have already been printed.2 It is believed that these legends are the work of the Franciscan writer, Nicholas Bozon, who lived in die north of England, prob­ ably near Nottingham, during the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. The publishing of these legends will make available in printed form the last of the works thus far attributed to Bozon. Although the writings of this author are not few, he himself is still largely unknown, save for the meager information which is to be gathered concerning him from his works. Unlike many me­ dieval authors, Bozon frequently signed what he wrote. In his works he is referred to as "de ordine minorum,”3 and "de l’ordre de(s) freres menours.” Further than that, he is called "ordeynours.”4 The exact meaning of this term has been discussed by his editors in the hope of finding out what his duties within the order may have been, but so far there is no proof that he held any office in his order. The name is spelled variously Boiun, Bosoun, Boson, Bozon. The form Bozon is that adopted by his first editor, Paul Meyer, and has been accepted by later editors. Bozon is the spelling which occurs in the saints’ lives here considered. 1. This ms. has been described by Francisque Michel, Rapport au Ministre de l’Instruction Publique, 1838 ; by. L. Karl, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, XXXIV , 1910; and again by Brandin, cf. article referred to below. Paul Meyer calls attention to it in "Le ms. 8336 de la bibliothèque Phillips,” Romania, XIII, p. 539. 2. L. Karl, "La Vie de Sainte Elisabeth de Hongrie par Nicholas Bozon,” Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, XXX IV . A. J. Denomy, Old Saints Lives of Saint Agnes, Cambridge, 1938. L. Brandin, "La Vie de Sainte Agace,” in Mélanges offerts à Émile Picot, Paris, 1913. "La Vie de Sainte Lucie” was printed in Sainte Lucie vierge et martyre by A. Beaugrand, Paris, 1882, in the "annexes,” p. lxviii et seq. It is doubtful that Beaugrand knew from which ms. the verses were copied, for he says that they were sent to him copied from a ms. in the British Museum by a friend. E. Kiiter in a note (p. 24) of his edition of the sermons of Bozon, Prädigtmärlein des fr. Nicole Bozon, 1938, says that these lives were studied in a master's thesis at the University of London, but that they were not printed; unfortunately I have not seen the thesis. 3. So in the rubric of the Gray's Inn ms. 12: "Explicit tabula metaphorum secun­ dum fratrem Nicholaum Bozon de ordine minorum.” 4. E. Küter, op. cit., Sister Amalia, O. P., "Nicholas Bozon,” Speculum, XV, 1940. 79 80 FRANCISCAN STUDIES It was formerly thought that Bozon was an abbot of Bee — Bozon le Sage, who died in 1136; or possibly a certain Cardinal Bozon, who died in 1181. But — in addition to other evidence against these identifications — the Cotton manuscript in which the saints’ lives are found shows that he was not of the twelfth century. The manu­ script has been definitely dated as of 1304-05.5Moreover, one of the lives is that of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who died in 1275. The language, finally, is that of the first half of the fourteenth century. Bozon’s name is signed to two of the lives. As we have no manu­ scripts of his works later than about the middle of the fourteenth century, the presumption is that he was no longer living after that time. Bozon may have been an Englishman. To this supposition we are led by the quality of his French; for the language is full of Anglicisms. In some of his other writings there are actual textual citations in English. It is clear from Bozon’s other writings that he was fairly learned, though the saints’ lives give...