The Royal Prayer Book (London, British Library Royal MS 2.A.XX) is a collection of prayers believed to have been copied in the late eighth century or the early ninth century. It was written in West

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...

, likely either in or around Worcester. It is one of four early Anglo-Saxon prayerbooks—the others being the

Book of Cerne The Book of Cerne (Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Ll. 1. 10) is an early ninth-century Insular or Anglo-Saxon Latin personal prayer book with Old English components. It belongs to a group of four such early prayer books, the others ...

, the

Harley Prayer Book The Harley Prayer Book (British Library, Harley MS 7653) is one of a group of four early Anglo-Saxon prayer books produced in Mercia, likely around Worcester. The others are the Royal Prayer Book, the Book of Cerne, and the Book of Nunnaminster. ...

, and the

Book of Nunnaminster The Book of Nunnaminster (London, British Library, Harley MS 2965) is a 9th-century Anglo-Saxon prayerbook. It was written in the kingdom of Mercia, using an " insular" hand (as used in the British Isles), related to Carolingian minuscule. It was ...

—all of which have some textual interrelationships. The prayers are mainly in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

but have some

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

and Greek elements. Its general theme "would appear to be Christ as the healer of mankind", and its concern with physical healing is sufficient to suggest that it "might have functioned as a devotional, and practical, tool for a physician". Folio 45v contains what seems to be the first manuscript attestation in any Germanic language of the common noun '' elf''. The manuscript also contains detailed Old English glosses from the tenth century in the Mercian dialect of Old English.

References

9th-century Latin books Christian illuminated manuscripts Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts 9th-century Christian texts Christian prayer books 9th-century Latin writers 9th-century English writers {{British-Library-stub