Pembroke College : Private Prayers of Lancelot Andrewes

Andrewes, Lancelot, 1555-1626

Pembroke College

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The manuscript contains the <i> Private Prayers of Lancelot Andrewes</i> (<i>Preces Privatae</i>), bishop of Winchester (1555-1626). This manual of private daily prayer, composed in Greek and Latin, is one of Andrewes' most popular works. The manuscript contains the Greek version of the manual, copied by Samuel Wright, Andrewes' secretary when he was bishop of Winchester. The bishop himself donated a manuscript copy of his Private Prayers in Greek to William Laud (for this manuscript see Burn 1908, p. xxii, where the codex, indicated as ms. i, is said to be " in the possession of the Rev. R.G. Livingstone, Rector of Brinkworth"). Due to significant omissions in the text of the Pembroke manuscript in comparison with the manuscript donated to Laud, Brightman 1903 assumed that " Wright's copy was prepared for an edition adapted to more or less popular use" ( Brightman 1903, p. xxvii). Wright, later, when he was Registrar to Matthew Wren, bishop of Ely, donated the book to the Cambridge Laudian Richard Drake. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Dr Erika Elia</p>