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St John's College MS 54

Radulphus Ardens, Homeliae, etc.

Physical Description

Composed of three originally separate MSS
Form: codex
Support: Composed of three originally separate MSS, all paper with the outside and centre bifolia of each quire vellum.
Extent: Fols. iii + 80 + iii (numbered fols. iv–vi).
Dimensions (leaf): about 300 × 220 mm.
(The sheets are of slightly different sizes.)

Decoration

No decoration in any of the three books; the scribes all left blanks with guide letters for capitals at text divisions, none of them filled.

In Manuscript 1, unfilled blanks for rubrics; occasions for the sermons and biblical sources added in the margins in a contemporary hand; one original rubric in text ink at fol. 43ra.

Binding

Plain brown leather, with a simple gold fillet on both boards, s. xvii. Sewn on five thongs. ‘54’ on a paper lozenge pasted to the head of the spine and in black ink on the centre of the upper board. Pastedowns modern paper, with a College bookplate on the front pastedown. At the front, three modern paper flyleaves; at the rear, three modern paper flyleaves (iv–vi).

History

Origin: England

Provenance and Acquisition

‘Iohannes Whyte dedit hunc librum Thome White de London’ Militi ad vsum Colegij per ipsum de nouo erecti in Oxon’ Anno 1555’ (fol. 1, the lower margin).

Manuscript 1 = Fols. 1–48

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. Fols. 1ra–48vb:
Incipit: || cristum natum ostendentes C Breuiter autem notandum est quod pro natiuitate saluatoris varijs modis a die natiuitatis vsque ad octauam Epyphanie
Explicit: Non solum fratres karissimi omnes [CW: quotquot sumus] ||
RADULPHUS ARDENS, Homeliae,

from various series (Schneyer, 5:1–2, 4–6, 13–14). The MS includes the following blocks of material:

Fols. 1ra–12vb: Schneyer, nos. 1–9, = Homiliae in epistolas et evangelia dominica, 1–9, ed. PL 155:1671 C7–1696 C2. Most of the fragmentary first sermon is not from Radulphus; the ninth breaks off at the foot of fol. 11vb and is succeeded, following six lines of text at the head of fol. 12ra, by a folio of material again not from Radulphus (and not indexed in Schneyer), ‘⟨T⟩ercia dominica post epyphaniam nos mouet adorare cum angelis vnum regem dicens in introitu Adorate dominum—in primo euangelio scilicet quod legitur in prima dominica post […] ’

Fols. 13ra–24vb: Schneyer, nos. 44–52, = Homeliae in epistolas 44–52, ed. PL 155:1826 A7–1854 D7.

Fols. 25ra–36vb: Schneyer, nos. 59–66, = Homeliae in epistolas 59–66, ed. PL 155:1883 A6–1911 C5.

Fols. 37ra–48vb Schneyer, nos. 160–7, = Homeliae de tempore 39–44, Homeliae de sanctis, 1, ed. PL 155:1460 A9–1493 A5.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: unde et subdit (fol. 2ra)
Support: Paper: all quires are composed of four full sheets folded in folio within a double-sized vellum sheet folded in quarto so as to form the inner and outer bifolia (FSOS/FHHF). There are four stocks, in part overlapping:

A Drache/Basilic: relatively anonymous, but resembles more closely examples from the first quarter of the fifteenth century e.g. Piccard X (Fabeltiere), 2 nos. 279–95; the four sheets of quire 1.

B Blume/Fleur: of the type Piccard XII (Baum), nos. 1289–1313, widely dispersed in the period 1410 × 1422; the three outer sheets of quire 2, the four sheets of quire 3, and the outermost sheet of quire 4.

C Hirsch/Cerf: closely resembles Piccard XV (Vierfüssler), 1 nos. 83, 84, 86, 92, 96–102, all from Braunschweig 1409 × 1411; the innermost sheet of quire 2, the second and third sheets of quire 4.

D Stern/Étoile: not identical with any mark in Briquet, but most like no. 6042, from Perpignan 1408 × 1412; the innermost sheet of quire 4.

Collation

1–1412, non-consecutive quires in their original MS. Boxed catchwords under the inner columns; in quires 1–3, all leaves in the first half of each quire signed with a letter and arabic numeral (quires 1–3= a?, f, h).

Layout

Written in double columns, each column 220 × 70 and 75 mm. , with 14 mm between columns, in 36–44 lines. No prickings; bounded in reddish-brown ink, no rules.

Hand(s)

Written in mixed anglicana/secretary, s. xv in. or xv1, the hand typified, in spite of shifts of duct, by a 9-shaped secretary g and fairly regular use of anglicana r. Punctuation by point and occasional double virgula.

History

Origin: s. xv in. or xv1 ; England

Manuscript 2 = Fols. 49–68

Contents

Language(s): Latin

2. Fols. 49–68v:
Incipit: ⟨Q⟩vando timore pene non amore iusticie fit bonum nondum fit bene bonum nec fit in corde
Explicit: prout superius est notatum mirum nisi timeat eos omnis homo
An anonymous text on four kinds of fear,

the single example cited at Bloomfield, no. 4907 (reading ‘Quomodo…’)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: fecit (fol. 50)
Support: Paper: eight full sheets folded in folio within a vellum sheet (FSOS/FHHF), as previously. On a single paper stock:

E Waage/Balance: generally of the type Piccard V, 1, nos. 20–182, widely dispersed, especially in the 1440s and 1450s.

Dimensions (written): 233 × 168 mm.

Collation

520. Neither catchword nor signatures.

Layout

In long lines, 47 lines to the page. Pencil bounds on the vellum sheets, but otherwise there is no visible page preparation.

Hand(s)

Written in anglicana with a pronounced secretary duct and some secretary letter forms (e.g. regularly a and r), s. xv med. Punctuation by medial point and double virgula.

History

Origin: s. xv med. ; England

Manuscript 3 = Fols. 69–80

Contents

Language(s): Latin

3. Fols. 69–80v:
Incipit: ⟨E⟩piscopus Conclusio Pauli papa multis modis et nominibus appellatur adde supra de const’ c.j. in v’ pontifex per acid libro vjo
Explicit: preiudicium 3a conclusio Io protestem u’ toll’r nisi vi factum in passione sbse2 ||
Apparently a canon-law commonplace book,

various terms glossed with directions to commentaries.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: conclusio (fol. 70)
Support: Paper: four full sheets folded in folio within a vellum sheet (HSOS/HFFH), as previously. On a single paper stock:

F Dreiberg/Monts: rather anonymous, but most resembles Piccard XVI, nos. 365–473, a mark in use for something like sixty years, examples clustering 1425 x 1440.

Dimensions (written): 235 × 160 mm.

Collation

614 (–13; –14, a stub). The lower corners of all the leaves have been worn away, and there is no evidence whether the book was signed.

Layout

Written in long lines, 46 lines to the page. No prickings; bounded in black ink, no rules.

Hand(s)

Written in secretary s. xv med. Punctuation by point and medial point.

History

Origin: s. xv med. ; England

Additional Information

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

    Morton W. Bloomfield et al., Incipits of Latin Works on the Virtues and Vices, 1100–1500 A.D., Including a Section of Incipits of Works on the Pater Noster (Cambridge Mass., 1979).
    C-M Briquet, ed. Allan Stevenson, Les filigranes: Dictionnaire historique des marques du papier des leur apparition vers 1292 jusqu'en 1600: A Facsimile of the 1907 edition with supplementary material contributed by a number of scholars, 4 vols. (Amsterdam, 1968)
    Jacques-Paul Migne (ed.), Patrologia Latina 155 (Paris, 1854).
    Gerhard Piccard, Die Wasserzeichenkartei Piccard im Hauptstadts-archiv Stuttgart: Findbuch, currently 17 vols. (Stuttgard, 1961– ).
    Johannes Baptist Schneyer, Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters für die Zeit von 1150–1350, 11 vols. (Münster i. W., 1969–90).

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

2022-11: First online publication

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