Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/561

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Ercj&acologfcal EntdUgcncc Cambridge Antiquarian Society. — Nov. 4, 1850. The Rev. C. Hard- wick, V.P., in the Chair. Mr. C. W. Goodwin, M.A., communicated an account, with a translation, of an Anglo-Saxon legend concerning St, Veronica, preserved in a MS. in the Cambridge University Library. It is in the splendid volume which contains the Anglo-Saxon Gospels, and was part of the library presented by Bp. Leofric to the Cathedral of Exeter, in the early part of the fourteenth century. The Society is about to publish this Legend, with one concerning St. Andrew, accompanied by translations, notes, and introduction by Mr. Godwin. The antiquity of the legend of St. Veronica is matter of dispute. The chronicler, Marianus Scotus, who wrote about the middle of the eleventh century, states that Tiberius was cured of leprosy by Veronica, who displayed to him the miraculous portrait of our Saviour. The Jesuit Henschenius commences his account of St. Veronica, in the Acta Sancto- rum, with this statement from Marianus, and assumes that Methodius, quoted by the latter as his authority for the legend, was the Bishop of Tyre, who flourished in the third century. There was, however, another Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople in the eleventh century, whose writings were more likely to have been seen by Marianus. That Marianus did not invent the legend is shown by the fact that it is 200 or 300 years older than his time. The story is found at greater length in a Latin nar- rative, probably the source from which he drew his notice, and which may, in the MS. used by him, have been attributed to Methodius. This Latin narrative is evidently apocryphal, and is discarded by Henschenius, who was zealous for the authenticity of Veronica, and the sudarimn. Of this narrative there are several early manusci'ipts : Manso had a copy, which he asserts to have been of the eighth century ; Philo mentions one in the Paris library of the ninth century. In the early narratives there is much confusion about the name of the woman ; also whether the portrait was painted or embroidered, and the miraculous impression is of later invention. A short communication concerning some medieval seals in the possession of the Society, by Mr. Albert Way, was also read. One of these, a brass matrix, recently added to the collections, was found at Shclford, Cambrido-e- shire. The device is the Agnus, with the legend, ^s'iaqvit ru-ornec, or, possibly, S'laqui Triforncc. It may probably be Flemish. December 2, 1850. — Rev. C. Haudwick, V. P., in the Chair. — A letter from A. W. Franks, Esq., was read, containing, amono-st other matter, a notice concerning some casts from a seal of Edward III., recently found at Winchester, and supposed to be impressions of the lost seal E. mentioned by Professor Willis in his paper upon the gi-eat seals of that king. Archaeological Journal, ii. 37. Mr. Babington objected to this identification, from the legend on this seal being " FRANCIE ET ANGLIE," and the shields quartering France and England, as on seal F, The real E ought to have " ANGLIE ET FRANCIE," and to bear England in the first quarter. The device of