Exeter College MS. 1
Documenta Cisterciensia; England, s. xiii med
Contents
Physical Description
Collation
Binding
Sewn on six bands. Standard Exeter binding: simple and quite elegant, calf over millboards, the calf bearing blind decoration of a floral type, early 19th century. Red-sprinkled edges.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The addition to this volume of Cistercian statutes of items relating to Dore Abbey leaves no doubt that the book belonged to that house, on which see D. H. Williams, White Monks in Gwent and the Border (Pontypool, 1976), 1–58.
How it reached Exeter College is unknown. Despite its absence from Ecloga, it may have been in the College in the medieval period: see Watson, Exeter, Introduction, pp. xxii–xxiii. The reference in CMA, no. 36, ‘De conversation monachorum’, is inconclusive: it may be to this manuscript, for although no such title or rubric has been observed in the book it could have been there when CMA was compiled, or the first, conspicuous, rubric on fol. 1r, ‘Incipit usus monachorum’, may be its source.
Exeter library identifications, inside the front cover, are ‘Ex: Coll: Oxon’, ‘Q6—1 Gall’ (deleted), ‘173–H–10’, the book stamp, and ‘Coxe Cat. no. 1’ (pencil). ‘10’ is on a round label on the spine.
Exeter College MS. 1 – Part A
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Capitula to item 4 below; pr. Analecta Divionensia: Documents inédits pour servir à l’histoire de France ... tirés des archives et de la bibliothèque de Dijon, 10 (Dijon, 1878), 87–91.
A standard Cistercian calendar, closely resembling one in BNF, MS lat. 10431 of c. 1225–50, the most noticeable difference being our manuscript’s use of the term ‘missa’ where the BNF manuscript prefers ‘commemoracio’. To the basic text our calendar adds feasts and obits of local (and sometimes wider) significance and feasts introduced after our calendar was written. Since the obit of Philip II of France is in the original hand, the date of writing was certainly after 1223, but the danger of calculating a terminus post quem non from the absence from the original calendar of Dominic, canonized in 1234, is evident from the absence of the translation of Thomas of Canterbury from the original text when the obit of Philip II, dating from three years later, is present. A date c. 1240–50 is likely.
The following are the additions: 29 Jan. Julian; 7 Mar. Thomas Aquinas; 16 Apr. Paternus, bp. of Hereford; 29 Apr. Hugh abbot of Dore; 19 May Ivo bp. of Chartres and Solempnis anniversarium omnium monachorum ordinis ⟨nostri(?)⟩; 9 June transl. of Edward king and confessor; 16 June Richard of Chichester; 2 July Swithun and Visitation of BVM; 7 July transl. of Thomas of Canterbury; 11 July transl. of Benedict of Nursia; 12 July Anniversarium comitisse plesensis sedendo fiat; 26 July Anne; 5 Aug. Dominic OP; 25 Aug. Louis IX, king of France; 28 Aug. octave of Bernard; 26 Sept. obit of Walterus de Chabbenore; 2 Oct. transl. of Thomas of Hereford; 15 Oct. Edward king and confessor; 8 Nov. obit of Hugo de Lla (?; perhaps Ba or Ha); 18 Nov. Commemoracio parentum nostrorum; 19 Nov. Dedicacio ecclesie.
In the calendar ‘pape’ is usually erased and replaced by ‘episcopi’ but the feast of Thomas of Canterbury on 29 Dec. is not obliterated or erased. Walter of Chabbenore was presumably a benefactor or a local man but the reference to the ‘Comitissa Plesensis’ is not understood unless it be a reference to Margery, Countess of Warwick, d. 1253, who married John de Plessis, styled Earl of Warwick, d. 1263 (see G. E. C., Complete Peerage, 12/2 (1959), 366–7). The date of her death recorded there, 3 June, does not agree with the date of her anniverary in the calendar, 17 July, but the latter may be the date of her funeral.
On fol. 3v, below the calendar for Feb., is Anno domini 1515 apparuit cometa in parte occidentali per totum mensem februarij. Et eodem anno paulisper ante aparicionem[sic] dicte comete obiit Rex Lodowicus. qui duxit Mariam sororem Henrici illustrissimi Regis Anglie octaui sed minime cum ipsa convaluit.’
Pr. Analecta Divionensia (as A(i) above), 91–245 at 104/25 et seq; also by H. Séjalon, Nomasticon Cisterciense, editio nova (Solesmes, 1892), 84–211, beg. at 94/40. Because of the loss of probably two quires, chs. 1–13 are lacking except for the last few lines of 13, and because of the loss of probably eight quires between fols. 33/34 the text jumps from Documents inédits 142/34 to 174/34, Séjalon 126/15 (ch. 53) to 175/9 (ch. 90).
A pica (pie), listing the order and nature of feasts throughout the year, Jan. to Dec. Continued at *D(ii) below. On this type of work see A. Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A Guide to their Organization and Terminology (Toronto, 1982), 299–300.
Physical Description
Layout
A(i)two columns, 26 lines;
A(ii), one column, c. 34 lines;
A(iii), one column, 31 and 34 lines;
A(iv), 2 columns, 25 lines;
A(*v), two columns, c. 40–50 lines.
Hand(s)
A(i), a large gothic semiquadrata bookhand, punctuated by low point;
A(ii), the original hand and some additions in a gothic semiquadrata bookhand but other additions in quadrata;
A(iii), gothic semiquadrata bookhand, punctuated by low point and punctus elevatus;
A(iv), gothic quadrata bookhand, punctuated by low point and punctus elevatus.
Decoration
A(i), red figures, red and blue 1-line capital letters; A(ii), red and blue capitals; A(iii), rubrics, parts of text in red; A(iv), 2-line red and blue capitals, some extended, flourished in the other colour; A(*v), no decoration.
Exeter College MS. 1 – Part B
Contents
Language(s): Latin
ed. J.-M. Canivez, Statuta capitulorum Generalium Ordinis Cisterciensis, i (Louvain, 1933), xxvi–xxxi; J. Turk, Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis, iv (1948), 109–14; Analecta Divionensia (as A(i) above), 79–84; J. de la Croix Bouton and J. B. Van Damme, Les plus anciens textes de Cîteaux, Cîteaux. Commentarii Cisterciences Studia et Documenta, ii (Achel, 1974), 89–102. For Harding see Sharpe, Latin Writers.
Ch. 33
ed. Canivez (as B(i) above), 20–1; Analecta Divionensia (as A(i) above), 259–60.
Physical Description
Layout
B(i–ii), one column, 33 lines.
Hand(s)
B(i–ii), gothic semiquadrata bookhand, punctuated by low point.
Decoration
B(i–ii), plain red 2-line capitals, some extended, rubrics.
Exeter College MS. 1 – Part C
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Letter of Urban IV (‘Correctorium ordinis Cisterciensis’) addressed to the bp. of Troyes, the abbot of St Martin(?), Tours, and fr. Galfridus de Bello Loco, OP, 1264, on the election of abbots and visitations.
Pr. Reg. Urb., 1, no. 862. Not in Potthast.
Letter of pope Clement IV, issued at Perugia, 9 June 1265.
Potthast, 19185; pr. A. Tomassetti, Bullarum Romanorum pontificum editio, 24 vols. (Augsburg, 1857–88), iv (1859), 729–33; Séjalon, Nomasticon ii. 367–76; C. Cocquelines, Bullarum Romanorum pontificum collectio (Rome, 1740), iii. 429–33; Reg. Clem., no. 84.
Pr. Canivez, ibid. iii 1935), 31–2.
Letter of John Tolet, OCist., cardinal, bp. of Porto, citing articles of Guido, cardinal of S. Laurentius in Lucina, addressed to the abbots of La Ferté-sur-Grosne, Pontigny, Clairvaux, Morimond, Savigny, Preuilly, and Chiaravalla and communicating the terms of a letter of Clement IV of 28 Dec. 1265, concerning new statutes of the order. The letter appears not to be recorded in Reg. Clem. or Potthast and the statutes are not those ed. Canivez, ibid. iii (1935), 32–5. For references to Tolet see Sharpe, Latin Writers.
Letter of Clement IV concerning fugitives from the Cistercian order and the calling in of the secular power, 1265.
Pr. Reg. Clem., no. 123.
Letter of Clement IV, permitting the absolution of suspended or excommunicated monks, 1265.
Not recorded in Reg. Clem. or Potthast.
Letter of Clement IV, addressed to the Cistercian abbots of Pontigny, Clairvaux, and Morimond, permitting the absolution of excommunicated monks of their order, 1265.
Not recorded in Reg. Clem. etc., but mutatis mutandis the text is the same as the letter of the same date addressed to the Premonstratensian Order printed in Bullarium ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum, ed. T. Ripoli, i (Rome, 1729), 451. A similar letter of Alexander IV to the prior of the Carthusian Order of 20 June 1255 is printed in Les Régistres d’Alexandre IV ..., ed. C. Bourel de la Roncière et al., Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, sér. 2, XV (Paris, 1902), no. 899.
Letter of Clement IV to the Cistercian Order, 1265, concerning recent disputes which have affected the Order. It specifies the procedures to be used in electing 25 diffinitores to resolve disputes at annual General Chapters and sets up procedures for examining and resolving the special grievances of the abbot of Clairvaux and his supporters.
Letter of 13 Apr. 1372 from one T. W. to Abbot Nicholas Lytlington of Westminster or Thomas Pyk, archdeacon of Westminster, reporting the execution of their writ of 18 Mar. 1372 ordering the arrest of S. and T. to answer to the charge that they have despoiled the abbey of Dore. On Lytlington and Pyk see E. H. Pearce, The Monks of Westminster (Cambridge, 1916), 85 and 94 respectively.
A form of letter from Richard, abbot of Dore, recommending two monks, N. and N., to Phillip, bp. of Worcester, i.e. Philip Morgan, bp. 1419–26. Followed by a pen-trial.
A mandate of Benedict XIII, 1337, against those who molest members of the Cistercian Order contrary to statutes of Innocent IV and Boniface VIII.
Pr. Benoit XII (1334–1342) Lettres communes, ed. J.-M. Vidal, Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, sér. 3, ii bis (Paris, 1903), no. 4872. The abbey De Parco Lude is the Cistercian abbey of Louth Park, Lincolnshire. Eustacius filius Willielmi occurs in the confirmation charter of Henry III, 1224 (see W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, new edn., 6 vols. in 8 (London, 1817–30), v. 414). In a hand of s. xiv.
A noted offertorium on a 4-line stave for feasts of the Blessed Virgin, SM 307 n. 9. In a hand of s. xvin. At the top of the page are three names in hands of s. xv, Thomas Clebery (a man of that name was elected abbot of Dore in 1516 but the hand seems too early to permit an identification with him), Thomas Sanbasch, and Dan Water Herforde.
Physical Description
Layout
C(iii), one column, 41 lines; remaining items are of various dimensions. Ruled in crayon.
Hand(s)
C(i–ix), several gothic bookhands which have, however, documentary elements such as longer ascenders, punctuated by low point;
C(*x)–C(*xii), several documentary hands.
A noted offertorium on a 4-line stave (added, s. xvin).
Decoration
C(i–ix), plain red 2-line capitals, rubrics, paraphs, stroking. Thereafter there is no decoration.
Exeter College MS. 1 – Part *D
Contents
Language(s): Latin
A record of nineteen agreements made at ‘Cochardisacre’, 1312. Witnesses to the last item include obedientiaries of Dore Abbey. After this there follow (a) a pen-trial ‘Nouerint vniuėrsi per presentes quod Ego Thomas Minton de Monke Moille pro Johanne de Hato’ (s. xv); (b) another pen-trial, ‘Indentura facta inter abbate et conuentus monasterij Beate Marie de Dora ex una parte et Johannes lyyttefoot Ex alia parte scilicet quod predicti abbas et conuentus una voluntate Et consensu rediderunt et ad firmam demiserunt Predicto iohanni videlicet’ (s. xv); (c) a prayer beg. ‘Domine dominus noster quam admirabile est nomen tuum …’ (s. xv); (d) a three-line pen-trial, apparently in Latin but perhaps gibberish (s. xv).
Part of A(*v).
Physical Description
Hand(s)
*D(i)-(ii), several documentary hands.
Decoration
None.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Exeter College Library.
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Funding of Cataloguing
Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Rector and Fellows of Exeter College.
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2020-04-29: First online publication