Jesus College MS. 4
Anselm, Boethius, and mathematical extracts; England, 12th and 13th centuries
Physical Description
Collation
Binding
Whittawed leather, late 13th or 14th century. This indicates that the booklets were put together sometime during the late medieval period.
Boards recovered with leather, 1940s × 1970s, with the original covering pasted over it.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Sir John Prise: known to have obtained books from the monasteries of Wales and the border shires of England immediately after the Dissolution. The manuscript was recorded in the list of the books donated by him to the College as ‘Liber Anselmi Archiepiscopi Cant.’ Since he owned at least two other manuscripts with a Pershore provenance (Oxford, Bodleian Library Laud. misc. 114, olim Jesus, and Jesus College 47), he probably obtained this one too from the monastery.
Gregory Price (1535–1600): willed to Jesus College.
Pressmarks and labels: spine, ‘J Arch 1–4’ (ink on paper); ‘MS. Jesus Coll. D. 4’ (printed on paper). Upper board, ‘Anselmi opus 17’ (John Prise, 16th cent.). Upper pastedown, ‘17’; ‘(70)’; ‘2036–17’. Lower board, ‘Quedam opuscula Anselmi arc’ (16th cent.). Fol. 1r, ‘17.’; ‘(70)’; ‘J Arch. 1–4’.
Jesus College MS. 4, fols. 1–57
Contents
Tracts by Anselm of Canterbury: a sequence of his works not known elsewhere.
Language(s): Latin
This and the two following tracts were meant to be transmitted together, hence the rubric ‘Tres tractatus’.
Ed. F. S. Schmitt, SAO, i, 169–99.Physical Description
Layout
Ruled in dry point. 31–38 long lines, ruled space 185 × 95 mm.
Hand(s)
Anselm’s works are in an uneven English protogothic hand. A different hand corrected the text, another hand added the rubrics, and an expert scribe was responsible for a few short portions of text (e.g. 3v and 11r). The same hand that copied the first booklet of Anselmiana was probably also responsible for the following two booklets (fols. 58–95), although since the hand has a variable appearance, this is hard to determine.
Decoration
Decorated initial in green and red (fol. 34v); red initials with faces (fols. 23v–24r).
Flourished three-line initial in yellow-gold (fol. 10v).
Coloured initials alternating between red, green, and yellow-gold, one to three lines.
Since a rubric on fol. 10v refers to Anselm as beatus , these postdate his death and almost certainly the publication of the Miracula to his Vita, both by Eadmer, which has been dated to the mid-1120s. The rubrics can be dated to the second quarter of the 12th century. They do not meticulously follow the original instructions (visible e.g. on fols. 18r and 46v) and may have been added later. (The incipit labelling Anselm as ‘beatus’ might have been the rubricator’s own wording.)
History
Provenance
Benedictine abbey of St Edburga, Pershore. Inscribed, ‘Liber Anselmi Archiepiscopi G. Pⁱ’, 13th cent. (fol. 1r). References to Gil⟨bert⟩ the prior (fols. 1r and 58r) and comparable entries in other books that are known to derive from the monastery. Such inscriptions occur also in Cambridge, Emmanuel College 38, and Oxford, St John’s College 96, both connected to Pershore (Ker, ‘Sir John Prise’, p. 489).
Jesus College MS. 4, fols. 58–79
Contents
Language(s): Latin
blank
The text was never finished; fol. 77v is blank.
Ed. G. Friedlein (Leipzig, 1867, repr. 1966); CPL 880; manuscripts listed in A. Masi, ‘Manuscripts containing the De Musica of Boethius’, Manuscripta, 15 (1971), pp. 89–95.blank
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled in dry point. 35–38 long lines, ruled space 190 × 120 mm.
Hand(s)
Protogothic.
Decoration
Lacks most initials and all diagrams.
History
The texts in fols. 58–79 and fols. 80–95 attest to a considerable interest in the subjects of the quadrivium. The diagrams, clarifying argumentation in several other witnesses to these texts, remain unexecuted, suggesting that the booklets were never much used. The short notes Ca–j immediately follow B1 in about ten continental and English manuscripts in varied combinations.
Provenance
Benedictine abbey of St Edburga, Pershore. Inscribed, ‘liber Gill. pri’, 13th cent. (fol. 58r). ( s . xiii).
Jesus College MS. 4, fols. 80–95
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Unidentified.
Unidentified; cf. London, British Library, Royal MS. 15 B. ix, fol. 72v, ‘Maiores itaque orbem in partes, partes in pronuincias, prouincias in regiones … uncias in digitos diuiserunt.’
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled in dry point. 36–37 long lines, ruled space 190 × 115 mm.
Hand(s)
Protogothic.
Decoration
Space for unexecuted initials and diagrams.
Marginal annotations in green or red borders (fol. 93r–v).
History
Jesus College MS. 4, fols. 96–106
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Addition
In Izydorczyk’s categorization, the prologue represents the second version while the text is the B version.
Ed. C. von Tischendorf, Evangelia apocrypha, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1876, pp. 333–432; H. C. Kim, The Gospel of Nicodemus. Gesta Salvatoris, Toronto, 1973; D. J. Lewis, ‘A Short Latin Gospel of Nicodemus Written in Ireland’, Peritia, 5, pp. 262–75. Manuscripts listed (and earlier editions mentioned at p. 1) in Zbigniew Izydorczyk, Manuscripts of the ‘Evangelium Nicodemi’: A Census, Subsidia Mediaevalia, 21, Toronto, 1993.Physical Description
Layout
Ruled in dry point. 30–38 long lines, ruled space 185–190 × 100–120 mm.
Hand(s)
Two hands from the turn of the thirteenth century, both writing textualis of average quality.
The last lines on fol. 106v are in a thirteenth-century hand.
Decoration
Coloured initials, fol. 96v.
History
Jesus College MS. 4, fol. 107
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Fragment, mounted in reverse.
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled in crayon, 12 long lines, ruled space 180 × 105 mm.
Hand(s)
Protogothic.
Decoration
Incomplete initials.
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Description by Samu Niskanen (April 2011), revised by Andrew Dunning (December 2022). Previously described:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2022-12-09: Andrew Dunning revised description by Samu Niskanen.