A List of Cistercian Manuscripts in Great Britain

Extract

The list of manuscripts dealing with the work of Cistercian writers is not the result of any systematic search into the possibilities of English libraries, but rather the by-product of work, carried out over a number of years, on the writings of Saint Bernard and Saint Ailred of Rievaulx. In scanning the pages of manuscript catalogues or in examining the manuscripts themselves, one naturally came upon a number of Cistercian texts, which, though irrelevant to one's studies at the time, were noted down on scraps of paper in case they might prove interesting later on when one had more leisure. As the notes increased and the hoped-for leisure grew less and less as the days went by, the possibility of using them within a reasonable time seemed extremely slender. On the suggestion of my friend and collaborator, Dom Jean Leclercq, they are being printed now in case they may prove useful to other students who are interested in the same group of writers and who may be glad to find, within a small compass, information that must otherwise be hunted for throughout many books.