Merton College MS. 249
Former shelfmark: B. 1. 7
VARIA; S. XIII in.
Contents
Language(s): Latin
f. iv blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Hand(s)
Art. 1 in an informal early gothic bookhand of French appearance. The rest is in English bookhands, except for additions on blank spaces, in anglicana hands of c.1300.
Binding
Standard Merton s. xvii, repaired and rebacked by Maltby; sewn on five bands; formerly chained from the usual position; fols. i-ii and 187–8 are modern paper blanks. f. 186 was formerly a pastedown in an earlier binding; the former front pastedown is now a stub. However, f. iii, conjugate with it, is now bound upside down; in its original position it appears that the present verso was pasted to the front board. Formerly a central strap from the front board and the large iron chain-staple at the rear, near the foot.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
English except perhaps for I, the whole given to the College by William Reed in 1374: UO49. 84. At the foot of f. 3 the rubricator has painted the monogram IR in blue. On f. iv ‘Liber M. Willelmi Reed episcopi Cicestrensis quem emit a domino Thoma Tryllek’ episcopo Roffensi. Oretis pro utroque’, followed by a table of contents. The ex libris is repeated almost verbatim, with a more detailed list of contents, upside down on f. iiiv, in the hand of Walterus Roberti, who also writes ‘Liber domus scolarium de Merton’ in Oxon’ in communi libraria eiusdem et ad usuam communem sociorum ibidem studencium cathenandus ex dono uenerabilis patris domini Willelmi tercii episcopi Cicestrie. Oretis igitur pro eodem et benefactoribus eiusdem et animabus fidelium a purgatorio liberandis. Walterus Roberti notarius.’ For William Reed, fellow from 1344 until at least 1357, d. 1385, see MS 8; for Trillek, bp. of Rochester, see MS 237.
At the head of f. 1 is the James no. ‘245’, s. xvi in., cropped. Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with ‘F. 6, 4’, s. xvii, canc.; a long table of contents, s. xvii; ‘P. 3. 16. Art:’, s. xvii, canc. and replaced with modern ‘B. 1. 7, in red; the College bookplate.
Merton College MS. 249 – Part I (fols. 1–11v)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Ed. E. Walberg (Lund and Paris, 1900); Dean & Boulton, no. 347.
At the foot of f. 11v a distich has been added in an anglicana hand ‘Nunquid natura conuersit sic sua iura | Vt uirgo pareret nisi uirginitate careret’.
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled with pencil in 2 cols of 37 lines.
Hand(s)
Informal early gothic bookhand of French appearance
Decoration
Art. 1 is accompanied by 46 unskilful unframed outline drawings illustrating the text, sometimes tinted red, yellow or brown; pencilled instructions for the artist are sometimes visible.
Red or blue initials, plain or flourished in the other colour. Art. 2 has red highlighting and paraphs.
History
Merton College MS. 249 – Part II (fols. 12–51v)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Ed. R. E. Lewis (Athens, GA, 1978); Bloomfield 17533. Followed, on f. 29rv, by a passage ‘De penis inferni. In inferno secundum maiorum traditiones ... qui consorcium ix. angelorum habere neclexerunt.
Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, ed. G. Alberigo et al. (2nd edn., Basel, 1962), pp. 206–47. Followed by a note on the membership of the Council, and Decr. 1. 9. 10. On f. 45v are two sets of verses: ‘Qui bene perpendit quam sit graue pondus honorum’ (6 lines), and ‘Est leuis et uacua fragilis radice lutosa’ (3 lines).
CPL 633 (Epist. 36); ed. M. R. James, C. N. L. Brooke and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1983), pp. 288–312.
Divided into eight chapters. Followed, in an anglicana hand, by an extract from Augustine, ‘In celo erit armonia angelorum sonans auditui ... Vnde versus Gustus olfactus auditus uisio tactus’ (WIC 7390).
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled with pencil in 2 cols of 36 lines.
Hand(s)
English bookhand.
Decoration
Arts 3, 5 brick-red initials; art. 4 dark red or blue initials.
History
Merton College MS. 249 – Part III (fols. 52–75v)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
PL 217. 773–916. Followed by:
cf. M. Andrieu, Le Pontifical de la Curie Romaine [Studi e Testi 87: Vatican City, 1938], pp. 418–20.
typological notes on Matthew, Abraham, Aram
Added in an anglicana hand, prayers to Mary Magdalene and Nicholas
A note, in a very rough and scratchy hand, recording a transaction between Alicia Molote and Gerard Croftun of Salisbury, dated 1324.
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled with pencil in 2 cols of 40 lines.
Hand(s)
English bookhand.
Decoration
Art. 7 brick-red initials and highlighting of lemmata.
History
Merton College MS. 249 – Part IV (fols. 76–79v)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Basically Sarum, with some interest in northern England: note Werburga, Wilfrid (coloured), Botulf, Paulinus.
Each month is preceded by the common calendrical verses, beg. ‘Prima dies mensis et septima truncat ut ensis’ (WIC 14563).
On f. 79v are legal notes in an anglicana hand.
Physical Description
Hand(s)
English bookhand.
Decoration
KL in red or blue flourished in the other colour; on fols. 77v-8 the flourishing was apparently omitted, later made good with square diapered grounds; red or blue as required in the text.
History
Provenance
Additions in the Calendar mainly of s. xiii ex, show that it then belonged to a clerk in the W. Midlands, perhaps to a man in the household of the Luddington family (Warws.). The additional entries include references to the battles of Lewes and Evesham, and obits of SS. Edmund of Canterbury, Modwenna of Burton, of Salomon, archdeacon of Leicester (d. 1274), of William of Stocton, chaplain, and of Ralph of Luddington, lord of Drayton (Warws.), with marginal notes on the deaths of the last two in 1273.
A hand of s. xv has noted the names of ‘persone tot uenerabilis istius domus de Merton in Normannia cum rege nostro illustrissimo Henrico 5to’, 1417 (pr. G. C. Brodrick, Memorials of Merton College [OHS, 1885], p. 38).
A hand of s. xvii, probably Anthony Wood’s, has noted the obit day of his brother Edward (21 May 1655).
Merton College MS. 249 – Part V (fols. 80–186v)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Capitula
CPL 1712; PL 77. 13–128.
Made by perhaps three different writers for Laurette d’Alsace, s. xii2; part ed. C. J. Liebman, The Old French Psalter Commentary ... (Canandaigua, NY, 1982), S. Gregory, The Twelfth-Century Psalter Commentary in French for Laurette d’Alsace (MHRA Texts & Dissertations 29: London, 1990); Dean & Boulton, no. 451.
Followed by verses in an anglicana hand, beg. ‘Nectareum rorem tellus instillat Olimphis’ (14 lines; WIC 11711), and on the death of Robert Grosseteste, ‘Anni cum Domini transissent mille ducenti’ (4 lines; WIC 1074).
Unpr.; Schneyer 1–65
Partial ed. BO 9, pp. 8–21; Charland, pp. 77–80, this copy p. 79; Sharpe, Handlist, pp. 514–15. Followed on fols. 179v-80 by verses ‘Cui satis quod habet satis illum constat habere ... Presbiter infirmos connubia uult citarista’ (WIC 3504).
Glossed
Ed. Goering, William de Montibus, pp. 107–38; WIC 13564; Bloomfield 3804–21.
Followed by verses added in an anglicana hand ‘Numquam natura conuersit sic sua iura’ (11 lines; WIC 12412).
Near the head of f. 186, s. xv, ‘Vinco labor parte sed multum iuor ab arte quod Ar’. f. 186v, much of which has another thin sheet of parchment pasted over it, is blank.
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled with crayon in 2 cols of 37–40 lines.
Hand(s)
English bookhand.
Decoration
Art. 9 brick-red initials.
Arts 10–11 red or blue initials, plain or flourished in the other colour;
arts 12–15 brick-red initials, plain or flourished in ink of text, red paraphs and underlining.
History
Merton College MS. 249 - flyleaf (f. iii)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
A cut-down opened-out bifolium from a liturgical book, bound in sideways.
Physical Description
Layout
Written in long lines.
Hand(s)
A large protogothic bookhand.
Decoration
Red and red-filled initials. On the verso are a number of later pen-trials.
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Merton College Library.
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Warden and Fellows of Merton College .
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2019-10-01: First online publication