St John's College MS 84

Sallust, Works

Language(s): Latin with some Middle English glosses

1. Fols. 1–25^v:

Rubric: [the scribe’s direction for a rubric in the lower margin:] SALUSTIUS in catilinam

Incipit: Omnes homines qui sese student prestare ceteris animalibus summa ope niti decet

Explicit: leticia meror luctus atque gaudium agitabantur

ed. L. D. Reynolds, C. Sallvsti Crispi… (Oxford, 1991), 5–53. The first chapter has extensive English interlinear glosses, s. xvi in.

2. Fols. 25^v–75^v:

Rubric: SALUSTIUS in Iugurtham

Incipit: Falso queritur de natura sua genus humanum quod inbecilla etas

Explicit: Ex ea tempestate spes atque opes ciuitatis in illo site sunt

SALLUST, ‘De bello Iugurthino’,

ed. as the previous, 54–149. The following fol. iv is blank but bounded, both recto and verso.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: vexabat

Form: codex

Support: Vellum (FSOS/FHHF).

Extent: Fols. iii + 76 (numbered fols. 1–75, iv) + iv (numbered fols. v–viii).

Dimensions (leaf): 274 × 185 mm.

Dimensions (written): 165–70 × 87 mm.

Collation

1–9⁸ 10⁶ (–5, –6, both probably blank; fol. v may belong to the final quire, but the MS is too tightly bound to determine which leaves are conjoint). Catchwords at the centre of the leaf. All leaves in the first half of each quire signed with a letter and an arabic numeral, many now cut away; in this system, quires 1–10 were = a–k.

Condition

Fols. 53 and 54 are uneven pieces of vellum and lack the lower leading edge.

Layout

In long lines, about 26 lines (some variation) to the page. No prickings; bounded in black ink and brown crayon, no rules.

Hand(s)

Written in mixed anglicana/secretary, the duct often showing influence of humanistica. Punctuation by point, punctus elevatus, and double virgula. The same scribe copied our MS 87.

Decoration

Five-line blue lombards on red flourishing at the heads of the texts; 2- and 3-line similar capitals for chapters.

Blanks for rubrics unfilled (many of the scribe’s directions survive in the lower margins).

Binding

A modern replacement. Sewn on five thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf and two modern paper ones; at the rear, one medieval vellum flyleaf, two modern paper ones, and another marbled paper leaf (v–viii). The vellum leaf at the rear, as well as the preceding fol. iv, has holes from either a clasp or, given that the mark is single, a chain-staple in Watson’s position 5; fol. v may have been a pastedown earlier.

History

Origin: s. xv med. or xv^3/4 ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

‘Is mihi dicit Explicit Salustius | O god whiche arte my Righttuousnes o lorde here me when I Calle Thou hath set me at liberty W’ (a translation of Ps. 4:2; fol. 75^v, after the explicit, s. xv/xvi).

‘Fenrother [mark] le Ric xx s’, ‘Fenrother’ (fol. v, contemporary with the preceding).

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

L. D. Reynolds (ed.), C. Sallvsti Crispi… (Oxford, 1991).

Andrew G. Watson, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts of All Souls College Oxford (Oxford, 1997).

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

2021-08: First online publication

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