Christ Church, Allestree Library MS. M.1.10
Augustine, De doctrina christiana and three further works; England, s. xiimed
Contents
Language(s): Latin
CPL, 263, ed. Joseph Martin, CC, 32 (1962), 1–167. Preceded by the discussion in Augustine’s Retractationes 2.4, ed. Almut Mutzenbecher, CC, 77 (1984), 92–93. Last four lines of fol. 70 are blank.
CPL, 264, ed. K.-D. Daur, CC, 32 (1962), 187–260. Last nine lines of fol. 103 left blank.
CPL, 307, ed. Zycha, 621–59. Bottom half of fol. 115 left blank.
Cf. CPL, 284; ed. C. Lambot, CC 41 (1961) 100–151.
This manuscript has been previously described by Ker, MMBL, 3:596–97.
Physical Description
Collation
Condition
Layout
In long lines, 28 lines to the page.
Very rare signs of full pricking (eg. fol. 122); bounded and ruled in lead.
Hand(s)
Written in protogothic bookhand.
Punctuation by point, punctus elevatus, and punctus interrogativus; punctus versus at ends of chapters and texts.
Decoration
Headings in red. At the openings of the texts and the book divisions of item 1 (fol. 14, 33 and 48), four-line (six for the prologue to item 1) arabesque initials in red, blue, or green, with flourishing or floral patterns in the other colours. Similar two-line examples at the openings of the chapters of item 1 (usually without flourishing). The texts are divided by larger capitals in the text ink, by ochre-slashed capitals in texts 2 and 4.
Binding
Brown leather over millboards, late s. xvii, apparently rebacked. Sewn on five thongs. In the top spine compartment, in gilt on a brown leather label, ‘S. Augustini De doctrina christiana etc.’. Pastedowns later paper, with printed labels of the Allestree Library and the Regius Professor on both (s. xix).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
There are some signs of use to this volume. There are small pieces of string sewn through the parchment to mark the opening of books (fol. 1, 14, 48, 70, 103, 115); a large nota monogram appears repeatedly (s. xiii: fol. 8, 8v, 9v, 10, 37, 56v, 63v, 76, 93, 97v, 119 etc); there is one note in pencil (s.xiii: fol. 43), and three in a fifteenth-century script (fol. 13, 17, 65v); this script seems earlier that the table of contents added at fol. iiiv (bastard anglicana, s. xv ex.).
One sixteenth-century owner reveals his identity: ‘Reginaldus Metcalfus’ signs notes at the foot of fol. iiiv, compiled from his reading the book which began on 16 April 1598; fol. 126 apparently celebrates the conclusion of his reading ‘per [for ‘perlegi’?] 1598 Julij 7’. He also adds two marginalia (fol. 36v, 65v) and, at fol. 126v, a note on Jerome (paraphrasing Isidore, Etymologiae, VI.4) and headed ‘Liber regularum’. He is possibly the graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, who matriculated in 1570 and was ordained deacon in 1575; he may also have been the vicar of Elmstead, Essex from 1588 until the early 1620s [AC1, 3:179; CCed, both sub Medcalfe]. Considering the date of his reading, Metcalf is unlikely to have been the first post-Dissolution owner of this manuscript, and its earlier provenance remains to be discovered.
Thereafter, the manuscript provides no information until its bequest by Allestree, printed labels of ‘The Regius Professor of Divinity’ and of the Library (as in the two preceding MSS) (the front and back pastedowns). In addition, an accurate s. xx typed description (presumably by Neil Ker) is pasted to fol. ii.
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Christ Church Library.
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.