St John's College MS 149
Theological miscellany
Physical Description
Binding
A modern replacement. Sewn on three thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf and two modern paper flyleaves; at the rear, two modern paper flyleaves and another marbled paper leaf (iv–vi).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Pen-trials, including ‘Robertus ⟨? de lorde⟩’ (fols. 197 and 205v; mixed anglicana/secretary, s. xv).
Booklet 1 = Fols. 1–81
Contents
Language(s): Latin and Old English
Sharpe, no. 62 (28–30), ed. PL 195:737–90. A list of chapters intervenes between Aelred’s letter and the text (fol. 3rv).
Sharpe, no. 1(1–4), ed. Michael Winterbottom, Three Lives of English Saints, Toronto Medieval Latin Texts 1 (1972), 67–87; see further Antonia Gransden, ‘Abbo of Fleury’s Passio sancti Eadmundi’, Revue bénédictine 105 (1995), 20–78.
ed. Rosalind C. Love, Three eleventh-century Anglo-Latin saints' lives: Vita S. Birini, Vita et miracula S. Kenelmi and Vita S. Rumwoldi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), pp. 49-89, where our MS is represented by sigla J. The Vita et miracula recension corresponds to BHL 4641 n, p and r (Love 1996, p. xc, n. 8).
In the margin, fol. 76, partly cut away, written in insular, ‘Kenelm kinebern inne clenc⟨o⟩ dene under þa þorne lið hefd⟨es⟩ bereved’ (as transcribed in Love 1996, p. 66). Not included in IMEV.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Writing area 152–7 × 100 mm. . In long lines, 25 lines to the page. Frequent prickings to fol. 59, thereafter none; bounded and ruled in black and brown ink to fol. 59v, thereafter in brown ink.
Hand(s)
Written in protogothic bookhand, s. xii3/4 or ex., by two scribes, one responsible for item 1, the second for items 2–3. Punctuation by point and punctus elevatus (both scribes).
Decoration
Headings in red.
Both the preface and item 3 introduced by 6-line red and blue initials with leaf-like decorative patterns in the same colours and a line of alternate red and blue ‘uncial’ lettering.
In item 1, 2-line arabesque capitals, red, green, and blue, on flourishing of a contrasting colour, at chapter heads.
One-line text ink capitals to divide the text.
Partial added running titles ‘sancti Edwardi’ etc. s. xiv in.
History
Booklet 2 = Fols. 82–98
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Cf. BHL 1748–57 [Catalogue encoder's note added in 2023: Love 1996 p. cxxvii n. 204 cites BHL 1756]
cf. the version ed. J. E. Cross and C. J. Tuplin, ‘An Unrecorded Variant of the “Passio S. Christinae”…’, Traditio 36 (1980), 161–236 at 187–203. Other copies appear at Angers, BM, MS 813, fol. 1; and Rouen, BM, MS 260, fol. 179.
BHL 2970, unpublished.
Physical Description
Layout
This booklet and the next were produced together. Writing area 157 × 100 mm. . In long lines, 25 lines to the page. Prickings; bounded and ruled in brown ink.
Hand(s)
Two scribes: the first writing transitional protogothic bookhand/gothic textura (fols. 82–94), the second protogothic bookhand (fols. 94–113v). Punctuation by point, punctus elevatus, and punctus interrogativus (both scribes).
Booklet 3 = Fols. 99–113
Contents
Language(s): Latin
BHL 3678b (in the supplement) [Catalogue encoder's note added in 2023: Love 1996 p. cxxvii n. 206 cites BHL 3677]. Another copy appears at Douai, BM, MS 870, fols. 118v–19v.
Physical Description
Collation
Decoration
Headings in the same hand as the previous booklet.
A 5-line red arabesque capital with blue flourishing and leaf-patterns at the head of item 4; a 5-line blue arabesque capital with red decoration and flourishing and a part of the opening line in alternate red and blue ‘uncial’ at the head of item 6.
Smaller arabesque capitals elsewhere.
Booklet 4 = Fols. 114–92
Contents
Language(s): Latin
ROGER OF FORD (Sharpe, no. 1364 [588]), selected excerpts from ELIZABETH OF SCHÖNAU’S Visiones or Revelationes, the whole ed. F W. E. Roth, Die Visionen und Briefe der hl. Elisabeth, 2nd edn. (Brunn, 1886). The contents of Roger’s abbreviation are summarized by Ruth J. Dean, ‘Elizabeth, Abbess of Schönau, and Roger of Ford’, Modern Philology 41 (1944), 209–20 at 216–17. See further Dean, ‘Manuscripts of St Elizabeth of Schönau in England’, Modern Language Review 32 (1937), 62–71 at 62, 64–6; and the description of our MS in Kurt Köster, ‘Elisabeth von Schönau: Werk und Wirkung im Spiegel der mittelalterlichen handschriftlichen Überlieferung’, Archiv für mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte 3 (1951), 243–315 at 261–2.
ed. A. G. Rigg, ‘Roger of Ford’s Poem on the Virgin: A Critical Edition’, Cîteaux 40 (1989), 200–14, where our MS is collated.
BHL 5306, ed. Elizabeth A. Francis, ‘A Hitherto Unprinted Version of the Passio Sanctae Margaritae’, PMLA 42 (1927), 87–105 (a reference to our MS at 88).
BHL 8430a (in the supplement); see further Wilhelm Levison, ‘Das Werden der Ursula-Legende’, Bonner Jahrbücher 132 (1928), 1–164 at 96–8, 163. Fols. 191v–2v were originally blank.
Added text:
The ‘Decreta synodalia’ within HESSO, ‘Relatio de concilio Remensi’, ed. MGH Scriptores, 12:426–7, with a list of those excommunicated at the end of the text. Written in protogothic bookhand, s. xii ex. in a writing area 160 × 100 mm. , 24 lines to the page.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
To fol. 181v: writing area 158 × 100 mm. . In long lines, 25 lines to the page. No prickings; bounded and ruled in brown crayon.
From fol. 182 (nearly all the final item, the last two quires): writing area 148–72 × 90 mm. In long lines, 25 lines to the page. Prickings; bounded and ruled in stylus.
Hand(s)
To fol. 181v: written in protogothic bookhand, s. xii ex. by three scribes, respectively responsible for fols. 114–54v, 155–81, fol. 181v (this hand the rubricator).
From fol. 182 (nearly all the final item, the last two quires): written in another protogothic of a much more mid-century mien. Punctuation by point and punctus elevatus (all three scribes).
Decoration
The same rubricator and decoration as the previous booklet; many unfilled spaces for headings in Elizabeth’s Liber viarum.
History
Booklet 5 = Fols. 193–7
Contents
Language(s): Latin
The ‘Liber Pitaleon’, proverbial verses (Walther, no. 12163); Walther cites other copies at Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.56, fols. 31–4v; and Douai, BM, MS 749, fol. 103v. Fol. 197v is blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Writing area 155 × 115 mm. . In long lines, 24 lines (fols. 193–4) and 36 lines (fols. 194v–7) to the page. Prickings; bounded and ruled in brown and black ink.
Hand(s)
Written in a single transitional protogothic bookhand/ gothic textura, s. xiii in. Punctuation by a medial point at the caesura.
Decoration
A heading in red, and a 2-line red lombard with blue flourishing.
History
Booklet 6 = Fols. 198–205
Contents
Language(s): Latin
A Vita Quiriaci (Judas), not in BHL. Fol. 205v is blank. [Catalogue encoder's note added in 2023: Love 1996 p. cxxvii n. 210 identifies an approximate correspondence to BHL 2059a].
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Writing area 155 × 105 mm. . In long lines, 23 lines to the page. Prickings; bounded and ruled in brown crayon and black ink.
Hand(s)
Written in a late protogothic bookhand/gothic textura, s. xiii med. (below top line), the first page in a different hand from the remainder. Punctuation by point and punctus elevatus.
Decoration
Two-line red lombards with penwork flourishing; red slashed capitals to divide the text.
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact St John's College Library.
Bibliography
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
2023-10: First online publication