Miniature from BL Eg 877, f. 12

Miniature of a woman lying in a bed screened dby a curtain, with a swaddled infant held by a midwife, the miniature smudged by kissing, with the text above: beginning ‘Exi infans, Christus te vocat.’ (‘Come forth infant, Christ summons you in the name of the Son. Come forth infant, Christ guides you in the name of the Holy Spirit. Come forth infant, Christ guides you and invites you to baptism, [he] who suffered for you and from his side produced the water of baptism, and made baptism red by his blood. Elizabeth bore John, Anna bore Mary, the Virgin Mary bore Christ the saviour of the world, who will free you [name] from birth and your pains, Amen. If you are male or female, living or dead, come forth, for Christ summons you, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. The Father is alpha and omega, the Son is life, the Holy Spirit is medicine. Thanks be to God.’) Image taken from f. 12 of Passion of Margaret. Written in Latin.

The Egerton Manuscript Collection is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Egerton (1540-1617), 1st Viscount Brackley, was a lawyer, statesman, and patron of the arts during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I of England. He served as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and later as Lord Chancellor of England, holding high positions in the legal and political realms.

Sir Thomas Egerton acquired a substantial number of historical and literary manuscripts. In 1617, shortly before his death, Sir Thomas Egerton bequeathed his collection of manuscripts to the British Museum, which was the precursor to the British Library.