A Witness to the Virtutes apostolorum in the Speculum augustinianum by Thomas Elmham

This article examines a description of a passional in Thomas Elmham’s list of books in the early library of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, included in his fifteenth-century Speculum augustinianum. The main proposal is that the passional described contained the collection of apocryphal acts of the apostles known as the Virtutes apostolorum. By situating the description of the passional among other identifications of books in Elmham’s booklist and knowledge of the influence of the Virtutes apostolorum on early English scribes and authors, this article brings together evidence pointing to the existence of a manuscript of the collection of apocryphal acts once held in the library of St. Augustine’s. Since there is no surviving manuscript known to have been in England before 1100 that contained the full Virtutes apostolorum, Elmham’s description provides substantial evidence for a material witness to the collection of apocryphal acts in St. Augustine’s before the Norman Conquest.