An Early-16th-Century Prayer Roll and the Holy Rood of Bromholm

Abstract

This article gives notice of an important illuminated prayer roll linked to Bromholm Priory in Norfolk, a popular pilgrimage destination during the Middle Ages thanks to its miraculous relic of the Cross. Known hitherto only from its brief appearance on the market in the 1960s and 1970s, the roll has never before been closely examined or published in its entirety. Identification with John, bishop of Chalcedon, fixes a date for the roll between 1505 and 1535. It includes two images of the relic, and another with Christ nailed to the Cross. A fourth miniature shows the Three Nails to scale, the Crown of Thorns and the Five Wounds, and thus relates the Bromholm roll to Arma Christi rolls. Votive antiphons in Latin and English separate the illuminations, together with papal and episcopal indulgences and the amuletic Seven Gifts. The roll sheds new light on late medieval devotion, pilgrimage and the cult of the Cross at Bromholm.