The _Oude Legende_ ends folio 44. Next follows:
"¶ Die historie van d[=e] aflaet van Sinte Maria van d[=e] enghelen diem[=e] porti[=u]kel heet,"
as the preface hath it. Some of your readers may have seen an advertisement respecting a series of Franciscan works (to be published, I think, by Richardson of Derby), entitled the _Portioncule Library_; and seeing in the above table of contents "Die aflaet van Portiunkel," or the Indulgence of the _Portiunkel_, they may be at a loss to know its meaning, so I shall quote a note from Mrs. Jameson's highly interesting and valuable work on the _Monastic Orders_, which is to the purpose:
"The term Porzioncula means literally 'a small portion, share, or allotment.' The name was given to a slip of land, of a few acres in extent, at the foot of the hill of Assisi, and on which stood a little chapel; both belonged to a community of Benedictines, who afterwards bestowed the land and the chapel on the brotherhood of S. Francis. This chapel was then familiarly known as the 'Capella della Porzioncula.' Whether the title by which it has since become famous as the S. Maria-degli-Angeli belonged to it originally, or because the angels were heard singing around and above it at the time of the birth of St. Francis, does not seem clear. At all events this chapel became early sanctified as the scene of the ecstasies and visions of the saint; here also S. Clara made her profession. Particular indulgences were granted to those who visited it for confession and repentance on the fifth of August and it became a celebrated place of pilgrimage in the fourteenth century. Mr. Ford tells us, that in Spain the term _Porzioncula_ is applied generally to distinguish the chapel or sanctuary dedicated to St. Francis within the Franciscan churches. The original chapel of the Porzioncula now stands in the centre of the magnificent church which has been erected over it."
In the "Legende" of St. Anthony of Padua, chap. vii. fol. ccxx., we have that saint's "sermo ad pisces" in the city of Rimini, _die vol ketters was_, and the conversion therefrom of the said _ketters_ or heretics.
The "Prologhe" to the narrative "van die vÿf Martelaren," fol. clxxviii., commences, "Ego quasi Vitis fructificavi suavitatem odoris alo cen[=e] wÿngaert," &c.: here we learn why the work is called _Den Wÿngaert_, or _The Vine_.