St John's College MS 8

Biblical books: Job, Acts, and the Catholic Epistles glossed

Language(s): Latin

1. Fols. 1^ra–147:

Incipit: Cogor per singulos scripture libros diuine aduersariorum Respondere […] [fol. 2^ra] Qve⟨.⟩dam historice hic dicuntur et allegorice […] [fol. 4^rb, the text] Vir erat in terra hus \quasi diceret bonus inter malos/ nomine iob et erat uir […] [fol. 4^ra, the marginal gloss] In terra quidem habitasse iob auxitidem in finibus ydumee et arabie

Explicit: [fol. 145^vc, the text ends] mortuus est senex et plenus dierum […] [the gloss ends] et infirmus cum perfectis ad regnum assumitur

Incipit: Nvmquid poterit coniungere micantes pliades pliades ab oriente

Explicit: uehemor soluitur dum ad maximas uirtutes per minora commissa trahit

Final rubric: Explicit liber iob

Job

With Jerome’s standard prologue (Stegmüller, Bibl. 344) and the gloss beginning with a second (Stegmüller, Bibl. 349), the text accompanied by the ordinary gloss (Stegmüller, Bibl. 11800 [9:485–6]). Following the text proper is a sequence of additional readings (beginning ‘Nvmquid’), and a further gloss appears after the explicit: ‘Gregorius hoc modo opere precium credo quod fraternis auribus hoc quod in me latenter reprehendo in cunctanter aperio’. Fol. 147^v is blank. Throughout our MS, chapter numbers of the text are noted in the bottom right corner of rectos in the ink of the text.

In the first portion of the manuscript (fols. 1–147), several final versos of quires have notations ‘correctus’, in the lower left corner. In fact, corrections appear throughout, usually small corrections written in informal hands marginally and connected to the text by signes de renvoi ; a few are written in a formal hand in marginal blue-ink boxes (e.g., fol. 82^ra), and at fol. 230, an informal correction has been written by the scribe in an inked box.

2. Fols. 148^ra–238:

Incipit: Lucas medicus antiocensis greci sermonis non ignarus scripsit euangelium sectator pauli […] [fol. 148^vb, the text] Primum quidem sermonem \id est euangelium/ feci \id est scripsi/ de omnibus […] [fol. 148^va, the marginal gloss] Actus apostolorum nullam uidentur habere uel sonare hystoriam

Explicit: [fol. 237^vb, the text ends] cum omni fiducia sine prohibitione […] [the gloss ends] id est ultimo neronis anno retentus ab eo martyrio coronati sunt |

Incipit: Fluuius egrediebatur de loco uoluptatis ad irrigandam paradysum qui inde

Explicit: ut continuet diceda [sic for dicenda] his que dixerat in euangelio dixit primum quidem etc.

Acts,

with a prologue, Stegmüller, Bibl. 631, and the ordinary gloss (Stegmüller, Bibl. 11831 [9:529–31]). Stegmüller (9:531) cites the additional passage (beginning ‘Fluuius’) as a prologue to a gloss on Acts derived from the ordinary gloss.

3. Fols. 238^vb–98^rb:

Incipit: Iacobus cognomento iustus filius marie sororis matris domini post passionem […] [fol. 239^rb, the text] Iacobus \Celebris persona luctatorum/ dei et domini nostri ihesu cristi seruus […] [fol. 239^rc, the gloss] Iacobus iste ecclesie ierosolimitane post apostolos ad predicandum missos curam

Explicit: [fols. 297^vb–8^ra, the text ends] et nunc et in om | omnia secula seculorum Amen

Final rubric: Epistole canonice expliciunt […]

Explicit: [the gloss ends] magus gaudium est super uno peccatore penitentiam agente quam super nonaginta etc.

The Catholic epistles, with the ordinary gloss (Stegmüller, Bibl. 11846–52 [9:547–53]), beginning with two prologues, the first not in Stegmüller, followed by the standard prologue to the epistles, RB 809 and James. The remaining texts follow, in the usual order: 1 Peter (at fol. 254), 2 Peter (267^v), 1 John (276^v), 2 John (291), 3 John (292^v), Jude (293^v), none with prologues. Most of fol. 298 and all its verso are blank.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: -minibus non haberi

Form: codex

Support: Vellum (FSOS/FHHF).

Extent: Fols. iii + 298 + ii (numbered fols. iv–v).

Dimensions (leaf): 391 × 270 mm.

Collation

1–11¹² 12¹⁴⁺¹ (+15, fol. 147, apparently anchored around the following quire, where a stub shows after fol. 159) [fol. 147, a production boundary] | 13¹² 14¹⁰ 15–23¹² 24¹⁰ 25¹⁰⁺¹ (+11, fol. 298, apparently pasted to the preceding leaf). Catchwords in the gutter. Virtually no signatures (a partial one in red, fol. 139, and three in crayon in the final quire in booklet 2). In the concluding quire 25, three bifolia, already signed, were rearranged during production, without textual disruption. Fols. 290–2 were originally signed ‘iiii’, ‘v’, and ‘iii’ respectively, but fol. 291 now bears the additional (accurate) crayon signature ‘d’. A similar signature ‘a’ appears on fol. 288, the first leaf of the quire.

Layout

In a flexible page format to accommodate text and gloss, ranging from long lines of variable sizes up to three columns (in the double-column format of opening folios, about 13 mm between columns). A generally fixed sense of the writing area as 225 × 142 mm. , in 41 lines of the gloss hand, 21 lines of the double-sized text hand. No prickings; bounded and ruled in black and bluish ink.

Hand(s)

Written in gothic textura, a large display semiquadrata or prescissa for the text and a half-sized quadrata for the glosses. Punctuation by point and occasional punctus elevatus.

Decoration

Headings in red.

At the head of the books, 6- to 8-line red and blue lombards on flourishing and with extended bar borders of the same.

Similar initials of 3 and 4 lines at the heads of chapters.

Marginal chapter numbers in roman in alternate red and blue (guides for these generally survive).

Sections of the gloss introduced by large alternate red and blue paraphs; within the text, alternate 1-line red and blue lombards on flourishing of the other colour.

Running titles with book names in alternate red and blue lombards.

Binding

A modern replacement. Sewn on five thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf, a modern paper flyleaf, and a medieval vellum flyleaf, half a bifolium whose stub shows before it; at the rear, a modern paper flyleaf and another marbled paper leaf (iv–v).

History

Origin: s. xiv in. ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

‘Ego Henr’ de Walton’ Archidiaconus Richemond Istum librum de vita Iob do lego et assigno Henr’ de Walton’ scolari nepoti meo in proprietatem et dominium perpetuo possidend’ dat’ London’ xvj^o die Iulij Anno domini M^lo CCC lix^o’ (fol. iii^v); neither is in BRUO, but Walton’s service as archdeacon in York diocese 1349–59 is noted by John le Neve, ed. B. Jones, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541 VI Northern Province (London, 1963) 25.

An erased ex-libris ‘Liber ecclesie ⟨nearly the full line gone⟩ dedit e’ (fol. 1, lower margin).

‘Liber Collegii Sancti Iohannis Baptistae Oxon’ ex dono Venerabilis virj Rich Butler Doctoris Theologiae Archidiac’ Northampt procurante Reuerendo in Christo Patre Iohanne Episcopo Roffensis 1613’ (fol. 1; below, along the leading edge, a brief list of contents, identifying the work as ‘Hieronimi Commentarius’). For Butler as a College benefactor, see Hunt, 63 and 65.

Record Sources

Ralph Hanna, A descriptive catalogue of the western medieval manuscripts of St. John's College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)

Availability

For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact St John's College Library.

Bibliography

A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 vols. (Oxford. 1957–9).

Richard Hunt, 'St John's College Donors: Donors of manuscripts to St John's College Oxford during the presidency of William Laud 1611–1621'. In Hunt ed al. (eds.), Studies in the Book Trade in Honour of Graham Pollard. Oxford Bibliographical Society Publications NS 18 (1975), pp. 63–70.

John le Neve, ed. B. Jones, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300–1541 VI Northern Province (London, 1963) 25.

Friederich Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi, 11 vols. (Madrid, 1950–80).

Funding of Cataloguing

Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Thompson Family Charitable Trust

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2021-11: First online publication

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