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MS. Lat. th. e. 59

Summary Catalogue no.: Not in SC (late accession)

Michael of Massa, Vita Christi; Germany, 1443

Contents

⟨Michael of Massa⟩, Vita Christi
Rubric: Incipit Vita lhesu Cristi. Prologus
Incipit: (prologue) Fundamentum aliud nemo potest ponere preter id quod positum est quod est ihesus christus. Prima Chorinth. tercio. [i.e. I Corinthians 3:11] Cum sicut dicit Augustinus deus sit res sluime sufficiens et homo sit res summe deficiens
Rubric: De quibusdam incarnationem precedentibus [first chapter]
Rubric: Conclusio libri huius [last chapter]
Incipit: Habes ergo ex predictis vitam domini nostri ihesu christi
Explicit: aut si corrumpuntur sanes
Colophon: Deo gratias. Et sic est finis de quo deus est benedictus. Obsecro per christum te qui librum legis istum ut sis scriptoris memor in prece cordis et oris. Scriptus est iste liber per manus Iohannis Inder scholen aleas dictus Boickman. Et finitus Anno domini mo cccco xliij in profesto vincula petri

Followed by several words in red, all but the first erased: "Orate ..." (f. 158v), the erased words were transcribed by 19th-century owners as "Pro meis liberis liberalissime" (ff. ii, 159)

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper and parchment mixed, the inner and outer bifolia of each quire parchment, the rest paper, with perhaps three or four different watermarks, the only one of which is both clearly visible and distinctive is very close to Briquet no. 4639, dated 1438.
Extent: i (modern paper) + I (medieval parchment) + 159 + i (modern paper) leaves
Dimensions (leaf): 210 × 145 mm.
Foliation: i-ii, 1-160 in pencil

Collation

i-xii(12), xiii(16-1), last leaf cancelled without loss of text), catchwords and quire signatures in lower-case roman numerals survive in most quires.

Condition

Worm-holes in the first and last leaves, most leaves cockled and stained by damp, the parchment leaves also shrunk smaller than the paper ones, rarely if ever preventing legibility of the text.

Layout

Typically on 25-27 long lines (justification: c. 145 × 105 mm. ), frame ruled in plummet.

Hand(s)

Written in brown ink in a semi-cursive gothic script by Johannes Boikman.

Decoration

Rubrics in red, numerous paraphs, underlinings, and marginal notes and pointing hands in red.

Each chapter introduced by a three- or four-line initial in red.

The first initial six lines bigh with reserved foliate designs and penwork ornament.

Binding

Bound in brown leather and faux leather over pasteboards, probably early 20th century, with gilt spine title "Lebensgeschichte / Jesu Christi / Handschrift / von 1443′′ and with the binder's purple ink stamp on the lower pastedown "G(eor)g. Grob, Köln / Buchbinderei / Rotgerberbach 19".

History

Origin: 1443 ; Germany

Provenance and Acquisition

Signed and dated 31 July 1443 by the scribe Johannes Boikman, in an eight-line colophon immediately following the end of the text: "Deo gratias. Et sic est finis de quo deus est benedictus. Obsecro per christum te qui librum legis istum ut sis scriptoris memor in prece cordis et oris. Scriptus est iste liber per manus lohannis Inder scholen aleas dictus Boickman. Et finitus Anno domini mo cccco xliij in profesto vincula petri", followed by several words in red, all but the first erased: "Orate ..." (f. 158v), the erased words were transcribed by 19th-century owners as "Pro meis liberis liberalissime" (ff. ii, 159). Boikman refers to himself as "in der scholen" ("in the schools"), which suggests that he was studying at university when he wrote the text; this is most likely to have been Cologne University.

The Augustinian nunnery of Marienberg, Neuss, where it was inscribed in the 15th century, "Liber regularisaru(m) mo(n)tis ui(r)gine intra nussia(m)" (f. ii). Marienberg was founded in 1462 so this text, written by an Augustinian author, was doubtless acquired as one of their first indispensable books. The monastery was suppressed at the Secularization of 1802

Johann Heinrich Küpper (1767-1836), last rector of the Neuss grammar school, with a long inscription immediately beneath the Marienberg inscription, beginning "Gehort itzt Joh. Heinrich Küpper von Neuss" and ending with a transcription of the erased part of the colophon (f. ii'). A note on the back flyleaf, apparently copied from fol. ii' when it was more legible than it is today, refers to Küpper and includes the date 18 November 1826; this is quite possibly the date on which Küpper acquired it. In the years following the Seculariztion Küpper is known to have owned a number of manuscripts from Marienberg: identical Marienberg and Küpper inscriptions occur in the unique manuscript of Geert Grote's treatise Contra turriu Traiectorisem, for example. The present manuscript may have had a similar series of owners as the latter, which went after Heinrich Küpper's death to Sibylla Kamper-Küpper (d. 1851); to Josepha Schram-Kamper; to a series of members of the Schram family of Neuss. (On the Schram family and their manuscripts see Rosmarie Siepe, "Das Archiv Schram und die Familie Schram in Neuß," Mitteilungen der Westdeutschen Gesellschaft für Familienkunde, 27 (1975), pp. 47–51). The manuscript was still in the region of Cologne, perhaps in Neuss, when it received its present binding. Inscribed with former shelfmarks "H 3" (f. ii v) and "H 4" (f. i v, in blue pencil).

Les Enluminures, TM 373.

Purchased by the Bodleian, 2010.

MS. Lat. th. e. 59 - endleaf (fol. ii, former pastedown)

Contents

Unidentified: about 40 lines of partially legible text in German

Language(s): German

History

Origin: 14th century ; Germany

Additional Information

Record Sources

Adapted from the dealer's description by Les Enluminures (TM 373)

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2022-10-31: Record created.