St John's College MS 115

Bibliography: Jerome, Gennadius, Isidore, Cassiodorus

Language(s): Latin with some Greek annotations

1. Fols. 1–26v:

Rubric: Incipit proemium beati IERONIMI presbiteri ad dextrvm virvm illvstrem prefectorium […] de catalogo virorvm illustrivm

Incipit: Hortaris Dexter ut tranquillum sequens ecclesiasticos scriptores in ordinem digeram […]

Rubric: [fol. 1v, the text] Incipit catalogus virorvm illustrivm

Incipit: Simon petrus filius iohannis prouiniciȩ galilee uico bethsaida frater andreȩ

Explicit: nunc habeo in manibus et necdum expleta sunt

Final rubric: Explicit liber beati IERONIMI presbiteri de catalogo uirorum illustrium

JEROME, De uiris illustribus (CPL 616), ed. Ernest C. Richardson, TU 14 (1896), 1–56.

2. Fols. 26v–44v:

Rubric: Incipit liber GENNADII massiliensis presbiteri de catalogo uirorum illustrium

Incipit: Iacobus cognomento sapiens nizibenȩ nobilis persarum modo ciuitatis episcopus fuit

Explicit: epistolam de fide mea misi ad beatum gelasium urbis romȩ episcopum

Final rubric: Explicit [as the opening rubric]

GENNADIUS, De uiris inlustribus

CPL 957, ed. Richardson, 61–97.

3. Fols. 44v–58:

Rubric: liber YSIDORI [expanded by Gascoigne to ‘incipit liber ysidori episcopi de libris noui ac ueteris testamenti’]

Incipit: De librorum novi ac ueteris testamenti plenitudine quam in canone catholica recipit ȩcclesia

Explicit: Apocalypsim Iohannes euangelista scripsit eodem tempore quo ob euangelii predicationem insula pathmos traditur relegatus Hij sunt scriptores sacrorum librorum diuina inspiratione loquentes […] pro sanctorum etiam librorum numerum postulata sequentia prenotabo

Final rubric: [Gascoigne adds:] finis sancti ISOIDORI [as the opening rubric]

Isidore of Seville, In libros ueteris et noui testamenti prooemia

CPL 1192, ed. PL 83:155–78, with both Acts and Apoc. truncated to a single sentence each and a concluding paragraph (beginning ‘Hij scriptores’) not in the edition. Divided into Old and New Testament sections by a large capital on fol. 53v, with some material on Old Testament apocrypha inserted into the New Testament account.

4. Fols. 58–76:

Rubric: [the rubric Gascoigne’s] Incipit liber eiusdem de ortu uita et obitu sanctorum patrum qui in sacra scriptura nominantur

Incipit: Qvorumdam sanctorvm nobilissimorumque uirorum ortus uel gesta cum genealogiis suis

Explicit: ad instruendas cretȩ ecclesias misit prefatus apostolus ibique et in pace sepultus est [Gascoigne in the margin:] hic est finis sancti ISIDORI episcopi de patribus veteris ac noui testamenti

Isidore of Seville, De ortu et obitu patrum

CPL 1191 ed. César Chaparro Gómez (Paris, 1985), 103–221.

5. Fols. 76–93v:

Incipit: Orosio suo YSIDORUS salutem Quedam notissima nomina legis et euangeliorum que sub allegoria imaginarie obteguntur

Explicit: in qua omnes sancti per cristum eterne beatitudinis refectione saturabuntur

Final rubric: Explicit liber YSIDORI SPALENSIS episcopi de significationibus quorundam uirorum sanctorum

Isidore of Seville, ‘Allegoriae quaedam Sacrae Scripturae’ (CPL 1190), ed. PL 83:97–130. Gascoigne explains (fol. 76, lower margin): ‘Incipit supra ibi opus aliud sancti ISIDORI de patribus noui et ueteris testamenti quis cuius tipum gesserit et dicitur allegoria veteris et noui testamenti per ISIDORUM.

6. Fols. 93v–101v:

Rubric: Incipit liber eiusdem de catalogo uirorum illustrium

Incipit: Ossivs cordvbensis civitatis episcopus scripsit ad sororem de laude uirginatus epistolam

Explicit: composito sermon Sed et multa alia scriber dicitur que necdum legi

Isidore of Seville, De uiris illustribus (CPL 1206), ed. Carmen Codoñer Merino (Salamanca, 1964), 133–53.

7. Fols. 101v–45:

Rubric: In nomine domini incipiunt capitula sequentis operis […] | [fol. 102] Incipit liber magni AURELII CASSIODORI senatoris de institutionibus diuinarum litterarum

Incipit: Cvm studia secularium litterarum magno desiderio feruere cognoscerem ita ut multa pars

Explicit: utile esse promittitur si pro nobis inuicem pio domino supplicemus [Gascoigne adds:] explicit CASSIODORUS de institucione diuinarum scripturarum

Cassiodorus, Institutiones

CPL 906, book 1 only; ed. R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1937), 3–85. Preceded (fols. 101v–2) by a table of chapters.

Added texts:

a. Fol. 145:

Rubric: nota de laude sancti paule […]

Incipit: Sanctus paulus apostolus Virgo fuit in tota vita sua ad mortem suam

Explicit: remotis partibus occidentis scilicet hispania et in finibus aquilonis et austri

Added by Gascoigne in the lower margin following item 7.

b. Fol. 145v:

Incipit: Piissimo patri et domino Vrbano dei gracia sancte ⟨et⟩ uniuersalis ecclesie pastori dignissimo Ianuenses consules de quem debitam in omnibus cum subiectione reuerentiam Ex celis fame uolatij sanctissime pater et lugubri ciuis nostri de transmarinis partibus redeuntis

Explicit: ad sanctitatis uestre noticiam peruenisse non dubitamus mandatis uestris tamquam patris et domini nulla ratione deerimus

A letter from Genoese ambassadors to pope Urban III, announcing the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin (1187), ed. Karl Hampe, Neues Archiv 22 (1896), 227–80.

c. Fol. 145v:

Incipit: Frater TERRICUS paupermme [sic for pauperimme] domus templi dictus magnus preceptor omnisque fratrum pauperimus et fere omnino adnichilatus conuentus

Explicit: residuas ciuitates nostro fulti amminiculo saluare possimus Valete

A letter from TERRICUS, preceptor of the Templars, on the same subject, ed. PL 201:1408–10. These two texts written in a single late s. xii hand.

d. Fol. 146:

Incipit: Ludovicus dei gratia Romanorum Imperator […] Saladino presidi Saracenorum quondam uiro illustri Ierusalem fugere exemplo faraonis Deuotionis tue litteras multis retro

Explicit: dies illa plena reuerentie et iocunditatis triumpho cristi prefixa te docebit

In fact a letter of emperor FREDERICK I challenging Saladin, ed. F. Liebermann and R. Paul, ‘ex Itinerario peregrinorum auctore Ricardo Londoniensi’, MGH Scriptores, 27:197. (Richard does not appear in Sharpe.) Written in a transitional protogothic bookhand/gothic textura, s. xiii in. Fol. 146v is blank.

e. Fols. 147ra–8ra:

Incipit: Ex insperato et in transitu mihi \dei/ gratia propitiante nuper innotuit quod ad uos erat

Explicit: non potest esse ambiguum qui uarias scripturas sollerti indagatione [the first letters reinked] diligentius perscrutatur

JOHN OF SALISBURY (Sharpe, no. 872 [309–10]), , epistola 305, describing the death of Becket; ed. W. J. Millor and C. N. L. Brooke, John of Salisbury: The Letters, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1979), 2:724–39. In double columns, written in transitional protogothic bookhand/gothic textura, s. xii/xiii. Most of fol. 148ra and all of the second column blank.

f. Fols. 148v–9:

Incipit: Ideo in ecclesia dei antiquam patrum consuetudinem concilia congregantur ut hii qui constituti sunt

Explicit: urgentissima interueniente necessitate pro bono pacis talis coniunctio toleretur

The preamble and canons of the council of Westminster (May 1175),

ed. D. Whitelock, M. Brett, and C. N. L. Brooke, Councils and Synods, I, ii (Oxford, 1981), 983–91; our MS mentioned at 972.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: coronatus

Form: codex

Support: Vellum (HSOS/HFFH).

Extent: Fols. ii + 149 + ii (numbered fols. iii–iv).

Dimensions (leaf): 235 × 165 mm.

Dimensions (written): 180–5 × 103 mm.

Collation

1–17⁸ 18¹⁰ 19⁴(–4), the last of these quires supplied later to hold the added texts. No catchwords. A few early quires signed with a roman numeral on the last verso; in this system, quires 2–7 = II–vii.

Layout

In long lines, 26 lines to the page. No prickings; bounded and ruled in black ink.

Hand(s)

Written in caroline; a good many titles either explicated or provided by an anglicana/secretary hand, s. xv med., that of Thomas Gascoigne (for him, see BRUO 745–8). Punctuation by medial point and punctus elevatus.

Decoration

Headings in red, especially frequent in the margin in text 2; the first is in rustic capitals, as are the openings of some texts.

At the heads of the texts, 6- and 7-line red and green arabesque initials, with plant designs including blue and gold.

At divisions, alternate 2-line red and green arabesque initials.

See AT, no. 57 (9).

Binding

Dark brown leather over millboards, with a stamped fillet on both boards, s. xvii. Sewn on four thongs. Gold ‘115’ at the head of the spine; in black ink on the leading edges, also spattered with a bit of red. Pastedowns modern paper, a College bookplate on the front pastedown. At the front, two modern paper fly- leaves; at the rear; two more (iii–iv).

History

Origin: s. xii med. ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

In Oxford s. xv med. and annotated by Thomas Gascoigne, chancellor of the university; his customary marks ‘ihesus maria’ frequently at the upper edges, e.g. fols. 1–4v, 5v (partly Greek), 7v, etc. For him and his bequests of books, see BRUO 745–8 (our MS unnoted in a long list of books he owned and annotated) and Winifred A. Pronger, ‘Thomas Gascoigne’, English Historical Review 53 (1938), 606–26, our MS mentioned at 623 n. 6.

‘deo gracias quia legi totum librum \istum/ anno gracie 1487. infra spacium x. dierum ab eius inceptione finem faciendo 19. die septembris circa mediam noctem’ (fol. 145, lower margin).

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

Alexander, J. J. G. and Elźbieta Temple, Illuminated Manuscripts in Oxford College Libraries, the University Archives and the Taylor Institution (Oxford, 1985).

Chaparro Gómez, César (ed.), Isidore of Seville, De ortu et obitu patrum (Paris, 1985).

Codoñer Merino, C. El 'De viris illustribus' de Isidoro de Sevilla (Salamanca, 1964).

Dekkers, Eligius and Aemilius Gaar, Clavis patrum latinorum, 3rd edn. (Turnhout, 1995).

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

Hampe, Karl, Neues Archiv 22 (1896), 227–80.

Liebermann F. and R. Paul, ‘ex Itinerario peregrinorum auctore Ricardo Londoniensi’, MGH Scriptores, 27:197.

Migne, Jacques-Paul (ed.), Patrologia Latina 83 (Paris, 1850).

Migne, Jacques-Paul (ed.), Patrologia Latina 201 (Paris, 1855).

Millor, W. J. and C. N. L. Brooke (eds), John of Salisbury: The Letters, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1979),

Mynors, R. A. B (ed.) Cassiodori Senatoris Institutiones (Oxford, 1937).

Pronger, Winifred A., ‘Thomas Gascoigne’, English Historical Review 53 (1938), 606–26.

Richardson, Ernest C. (ed.), Hieronymus liber De viris inlustribus; Gennadius liber De viris inlustribus. Texte and Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 14 (Leipzig, 1896).

Sharpe, Richard, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 1 (Turnhout, 1997).

Whitelock, D., M. Brett, and C. N. L. Brooke, Councils and Synods, I, ii (Oxford, 1981).

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

2023-07: First online publication

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