Jesus College MS. 51
Contents
Language(s): Latin
ed. D. Hurst, CCSL 119A (1969), pp. 1–139; CPL 1354; Sharpe, Latin Authors
an excerpt from Isidore, Etymologiae xvi, 25–6
ed. Schmitt, SAO, v, Ep. 401.
The letter was circulated, probably shortly after the battle of Tinchebray in October 1106, as single-sheet copies that were textually independent of the various compilations made of original in Anselm’s archives in Christ Church. Another such text is known from Gloucester; Hereford Cathedral, P. I. 3. fol. 101r. The specimen here may well have been circulated with the following in a single piece of parchment. H. F. Doherty, ‘La bataille de Tinchebray et les actes d’Henri Ier’, Tinchebray 1106–2006. Actes du colloque de Tinchebray, 28–30 septembre 2006, ed. V Gazeau & J. A. Green (Rouen, 2009), 167–88.
ed. H. W. C. Davis, ‘A Contemporary Account of the Battle of Tinchebrai’, EHR, 24 (1909), re-edited, with corrections, ibid . 25 (1910), 295–6. No other copies of this letter are known. For its transmission, see the item above.
Verses 1–7 were copied on the space left vacant on the right in a ?12th-cent. hand.
Unprinted. Also in Shrewsbury School MS 322, fol. 85v (12th- or 13th-cent.); UB Erfurt, Dep. Erf. CA. 8º 8, fol. 114v (12th cent., entitled ‘Versus de gradibus affinitatis compositi’).
ed. A. Brian Scott (2001).
Also in Eton College 21 (mid-12th cent.)
Also in Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 33, fol. 1v (12th-cent.).
"Nos dominus saluet qui solus cuncta gubernat | Seria sepe uolo studio discernere solo"
"Sit tibi linea subcontraria prima secunde. | Tercia que sequitur contradictoria prime. | Prima subest quarte uice particularis habens se | Hanc habet ad seriem se lege secunda sequentem | Pugnat cum quarta contradicendo secunda | Tertius est quarto semper contrarius ordo."
A version of the poem is printed in Norman Kretzmann, William Sherwood’s Introduction to Logic (Minnesota 1966), p. 49, note 91.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled in dry-point, 30 long lines. Pricking visible in outer margins, ruled space 185 × 110 mm.
Hand(s)
The original contents, i.e. Bede’s works, is in one good book English hand from the early 12th cent. He wrote also part of Jesus College MS 69.
The text was corrected by another hand, although the text scribe executed a few corrections.
The two letters, items 4 and 5 on fol. 104r, were added by a scribe from the first half of the 12th cent., who wrote part of Jesus College MS 54.
Although items 6 and 7, the poem and the table, differ from each other in terms of their palaeographical aspect, they are possibly in one hand from the first half of the 12th cent.
Items 8 and 9, the poems by Hildebert on fol. 105r, are in one hand from the first half of the 12th cent.
Item 10, the prophecy, on the same folio is apparently a new, contemporaneous hand.
Items 11 and 12, the eulogy of psalms and the exegesis, on fol. 105v are in one hand, likewise from the first half of the 12th cent.
The final inserts, items 12–14, are in one hand from the second half of the 12th cent.
There are several pen trials on z1, some from the second half of the 12th cent.
Two pen trials copy text from item 12, indicating that the flyleaf had been attached to the book before or during the second half of the 12th cent.
Bede’s texts were commented by at least three late medieval readers.
Decoration
Initials are mainly in red ink and rarely in green. Arabesque initial in green, red, and purple on fol. 27v; in purple and red on fol. 67v; and in purple, silver, and red on fol. 100v. The first two signal breaks between books of item 2 and a break between items 2 and 3.
A winged reptile with a crowned human head in brown and red ink in the lower margin of fol. 77r (20 × 50 mm). A casually sketched human figure standing on an object, perhaps a snail, in brown ink below on the empty lines at the bottom of the text block on fol. 103r (2 × 4 cm). Two casual sketches in (an early) modern hand(s) in crayon: a crowned head on fol. 33v and a swordsman on fol. 35v.
Binding
Medieval binding.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Evesham Abbey: chainmark at foot of second cover (as Jesus College MSS. 54, 93). Similar marks are in the same position on the boards of two Evesham manuscripts, Auct. D. 1. 85 and Queen's College 302, but this form of chaining is otherwise known only on manuscripts from some Oxford colleges.
Thomas Gascoigne: annotations on fols. 25v, 26r. Known to have preached at Evesham.
Record Sources
Description by Samu Niskanen (March 2011), revised by Andrew Dunning (December 2022). Previously described:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2022-12-15: Andrew Dunning revised description by Samu Niskanen.