TCD 347. Late 13th century. Vellum.
The Franciscans were noted for their activities as confessors and preachers and they organised an educational system to train novices for these roles. They produced a variety of texts and reference works for friars and other clerics to assist them in their pastoral work. This manuscript is a good example of the compact, portable commonplace or vade-mecum book used by mendicant friars and mainly includes model sermons and other material for preachers. The volume is also significant because it contains the thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman Annals of Multyfarnham and the earliest surviving copies of some of the writings of St Francis including the saint's Testament.
