A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

Exeter College MS. 5

Biblia; France, s. xiiex

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. (fols. 1r-337r)
Bible

A Bible in the following order (the numbers of the prologues refer to Stegmüller, Bibl.

[Fol. 1r] Genesis with Jerome’s general prologue (284) and prologue to the Libri historiales (285);

[fol. 1r] Genesis;

[fol. 15v] Exodus;

[fol. 26v] Leviticus; [fol. 34r] Numbers;

[fol. 45v] Deuteronomy, with prologue beg. ‘Verba que locutus est Moyses increpans Israhel …’;

[fol. 56v] Joshua, with prologue (311); [fol. 63r] Judges;

[fol. 70r] Ruth, with prologue (315,1);

[fol. 71r] 1 Kings, with prologue (323);

[fol. 81r] 2 Kings;

[fol. 88v] 3 Kings;

[fol. 97r] 4 Kings, with prologue beg. ‘Achozias[sic] . Beelzebub. Ignis de celo …’;

[fol. 105r] 1 Chronicles, with prologue (328);

[fol. 112v] 2 Chronicles;

[fol. 122r] Prayer of Manasses from ‘dedit michi dominus deus’ (Stegmüller, Bibl., 93,2); 1 Ezra, with prologue beg. ‘Cyrus in initio regni sui soluit captiuitatem populi Dei …’;

[fol. 124v] Nehemiah = 2 Ezra;

[fol. 131v] 3 Ezra, here called 2 Ezra (Stegmüller, Bibl., 94,1);

[fol. 139r] Tobit, with prologue (332);

[fol. 141v] Judith, with prologue (335);

[fol. 145r] Hester, with prologue (341);

[fol. 148r Job, with prologue (357);

[fol. 155r] Psalms;

[fol. 171r] Proverbs, with prologue (457);

[fol. 176v] Ecclesiastes, with prologue (462);

[fol. 194v] Isaiah, with prologue (482);

[fol. 207r] Jeremiah, with prologue (487);

[fol. 222r] Lamentations;

[fol. 223r] Prayer of Jeremiah; Baruch, with prologue (491); [fol. 225r] Ezechiel, with prologue (492);

[fol. 239r] Daniel, with prologues (494 and another beg. ‘De filiis captiuitatis iude elegit Nabuch’ rex ut litteras discerent’);

[fol. 245v] Prologue to minor prophets (500); Hosea, with prologue (507); [fol. 247r] Joel, with prologues (511, 510); [fol. 248v] Amos, with prologues (515, 512);

[fol. 250v] Obadiah, with prologue (519);

[fol. 251r] Jonah, with prologue (524);

[fol. 251v] Micah, with prologue (526);

[fol. 252v] Nahum, with prologue (528);

[fol. 253v] Habakkuk, with prologue (531);

[fol. 254v] Zephaniah, with prologue (534);

[fol. 255v] Haggai, with prologue (538); Zachariah, with prologue (539);

[fol. 258v] Malachi, with prologue (543);

[fol. 259r] 1 Maccabees, with prologues (547, 7058, 551);

[fol. 267v] 2 Maccabees;

[fol. 273r] Matthew, with prologue (591);

[fol. 281r] Mark, with prologue (607);

[fol. 286r] Luke;

[fol. 295r] John, with prologue (624);

[fol. 302r] Romans;

[fol. 305r] 1 Corinthians, with prologue (684);

[fol. 308v] 2 Corinthians, with prologue (699);

[fol. 310v] Galatians, with prologue (707);

[fol. 311v] Ephesians, with prologue (715);

[fol. 313r] Philippians, with prologue (728);

[fol. 313v] Colossians, with prologue (736);

[fol. 314v] 1 Thessalonians, with prologue (747);

[fol. 315r] 2 Thessalonians, with prologue (752);

[fol. 315v] 1 Timothy, with prologue (765, ‘scribens ei a Laodicia’);

[fol. 316v] 2 Timothy, with prologue (772); Titus, with prologue (780);

[fol. 317v] Philemon, with prologue (783);

[fol. 318r] Hebrews, with prologue (793); [fol. 320v] Acts, with prologue (637);

[fol. 329r] Catholic Epistles, beginning with James and with prologue (809);

[fol. 330r] 1 Peter; [fol. 331r] 2 Peter;

[fol. 331v] 1 John;

[fol. 332v] 2 John; 3 John;

[fol. 332v] Jude;

[fol. 333r] Apocalypse, with prologue (839).

Stephen Langton’s chapter divisions are used. As compared with the common set of sixty-four prologues (see Ker, MMBL i. 96–7) this has fifty-six. There is only one each for Esther, Job, and Obadiah but Ruth and 4 Kings are extra; Daniel has a second, unidentified prologue; 1 Ezra has an unidentified prologue instead of 330; 1 Maccabees has 7058 for 553; Matthew has 591 for 589 or 590; 1 Cor. has 684 for 685; Acts has 637 for 640. Ends fol. 337r.

2. (fols. 337v-339v)
Rubric: ⟨Hec sunt interpretaciones hebre⟩orum nominum incipientium per .A. littera.
Incipit: ⟨Aa⟩z in hebreo latitio dicitur apprehendens uel apprehensio. ⟨Aa⟩d testimonium uel testificans. ⟨Aa⟩lma uirgo abscondita
Explicit: Azoride. incendium vel ignis patruelis ||
Stephen Langton

Stephen Langton, Interpretationes nominum hebraeorum, also attributed to Bede and Remigius of Auxerre. After the first page only two leaves containing about 600 heads survive out of a quire of perhaps ten. Our text runs from (fol. 337v) ‘Aaz’–Achazib’, (fol. 339rv) ‘Asbaal’–‘Azozide’, fol. 338 with text ‘Falon’–‘Satham’ being interpolated. Whether it was the long or the short version is not clear; for the former see Bedae opera iii (Cologne, 1688), 371–480; Stegmüller, Bibl., 7708, 7709. On Langton see Sharpe, Latin Writers.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: ui sacerdotij.
The book falls into three sections, fols. 1–104, 105–272, 273–339. The incomplete use of the final verso of the first two sections perhaps indicates that all three were written simultaneously.
Form: codex
Support: parchment HFFH
Extent: 339 leaves preceded by two 18th-century paper flyleaves and two medieval membrane flyleaves and followed by two 18th-century paper flyleaves.
Dimensions (leaf): 245 × 170 mm.
Dimensions (column): 165 × 45–50 mm.

Collation

1–410 54 6–2710 288 29–3110 32s 3310 34–358 3610 (wants 8 leaves). Quire numbers on last versos.

Layout

Two columns; 1, 60 lines; 2, c. 66 lines. Ruled in crayon.

Hand(s)

1, written below top line in several small, neat, gothic bookhands; 2, written in a more documentary but still neat hand. Both punctuated by low point.

Decoration

Good 6/9-line lombards, some with extenders, bows filled with delicate arabesques; also simple red initials flourished blue and one-line red and blue initials.

Running titles and book numbers are written in mixed red and blue. Rubrics.

Binding

Sewn on five bands between millboards covered with marbled paper (s. xviii). Standard Exeter calf spine: simple and quite elegant, calf over millboards, the calf bearing blind decoration of a floral type, early 19th century.

History

Origin: s. xiiex ; France

Provenance and Acquisition

Judging by script and decoration, the book was probably written in France and the absence of English hands from the many 13th-century marginalia suggests that it may have stayed there during the medieval period.

Rust holes and stains at the foot of fols. 1–4 indicate that it was once chained in a library.

W: Howard’ on fol. ivr, at the head of a contents list, is the autograph of Lord William Howard of Naworth, d. 1640, the owner of a considerable library, on whom see for the present DNB and D. Mathew, ‘The library at Naworth’, For Hilaire Belloc: Essays in Honour of his 72nd Birthday, ed. Douglas Woodruff (London, 1942), 117–30, which is largely based on Howard’s household accounts published in Surtees Society 68 (1878), 469–87. A detailed study by Richard Ovenden is in progress. An obliterated name on fol. iiir may also be Howard’s.

Identifiable with CMA, no. 49 by the quotation of the opening words of Jerome’s prologue on fol. 1r.

Exeter library identifications, on the front pastedown, are bookplate 2, ‘Z 8—Gall’ (deleted), ‘Q6—5 Gall’ (deleted), ‘174–k–5’ altered to ‘170–I–5’; and ‘Coxe v’ (pencil).

Record Sources

Andrew G. Watson, A descriptive catalogue of the medieval manuscripts of Exeter College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 2000.

Availability

For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Exeter College Library.

Funding of Cataloguing

Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Rector and Fellows of Exeter College.

Last Substantive Revision

2020-04-29: First online publication

See the Availability section of this record for information on viewing the item in a reading room.