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

MS. Bodl. 563

Summary Catalogue no.: 2347

Physical Description

Composite: three parts, bound together in the early seventeenth century.

Binding

Blind-tooled, centrepiece Pearson no. x; Oxford, early seventeenth century (centrepiece in use ?1600–1610)

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Part 1 acquired by 1602; parts 2 and 3 acquired then or soon after.

MS. Bodl. 563 – Part 1 (fols. 1–191)

Contents

(fols. 1ra-191vb)
Nicholas de Byard, Distinctiones theologicae
Rubric: Distinctiones fratris Nicholai de Byart
Incipit: Absconditur malum a dyabolo
Final rubric: (fol. 185rb) Expliciunt distinctiones fratris nicholai de byart. Deo Gratias. Amen.

Fols. 185va-191vb: table of distinctions.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: Luc. xi. Nemo
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 191 fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 235 × 150 mm.

Layout

2 cols., 45 lines, written space c. 190 × 120 mm.

Decoration

Red-and-blue initials with flourishing in red and blue at the beginning of each alphabetical section; elsewhere alternating blue and red initials with flourishing in the contrasting colour.

History

Origin: 14th century, first half ; England or France

Provenance and Acquisition

Identified by Madan and Craster with a manuscript catalogued at New College, Oxford, by Thomas James (Ecloga, no. 239, ); Madan and Craster further identified James as the probable donor of the manuscript to the Bodleian, although this was queried by Hunt (Summary Catalogue I, p. 85, ). But the volume of Byard's Distinctions given to New College by William Wykeham had a different second folio (‘Congregare’), and so cannot be identified with the present manuscript ( pace R. M. Thomson and J. G. Clark, The university and college libraries of Oxford (2015), UO70.160).

Acquired by 1602 when listed in the first Library catalogue.

MS. Bodl. 563 – Part 2 (fols. 192–197)

Contents

Index of subjects to a theological treatise (incomplete: D-end)
Incipit: Descensus christi 4x cº 7º
Explicit: Ymago trinitatis cº 11
Colophon: Herford 1455
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo folio lacking (formerly ‘num’, see fol. 197v)
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 6 fols.
Dimensions (leaf): c. 235 × 155 mm.

Layout

1–2 cols., c. 23–26 lines, written space c. 170–5 × c. 125 mm.

Hand(s)

Perhaps written by ‘Herford’, perhaps John Herford OP (on whom see Emden).

Decoration

Coloured blue initials.

History

Origin: 1455 ; England, Oxford (?)

Provenance

Fol. 197v, cautio notes: 1480 by William Wryght for 8s.: in 1481 by the same in the Selton chest, for 8s. (2o folio ‘num’), redeemed in 1482 for 6s.; in 1484 deposited by the same in the same chest for 8s., and redeemed in 1485 by mr. Crow (probably Richard Crow) for 6s. Monogram of Thomas Hunt, the university stationer.

MS. Bodl. 563 – Part 3

Contents

Language(s): Latin

(fols. 198ra-350vb)
Thomas the Cistercian, De praeparatione cordis (imperfect)
Incipit: Si ergo preparata sunt corda nostra domino ut ueraciter dicamus Paratum cor meum
Explicit: ubi homo preparati cordis suscipetur cum leticia a domino quem dilexit ut in thronum sedeat cum principibus scilicet apostolis et sanctis et solium glorie teneat. amen.

Otherwise known only in Le Mans, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. 3, . The present copy lacks the first quire, containing the first eighteen chapters, and ends, apparently complete, at Le Mans, MS. 3, col. dxxxvi (the le Mans text continuing to col. dclv.) Here divided into divided into eleven books (ten in le Mans).

Followed, fols. 350vb-353rb, by a list of the 618 chapters, numbered as far as 615, with a note of the quires in which they occur.

(fol. 353va-b)

List of Sunday gospels from Pentecost to Advent

Physical Description

Secundo folio lacking
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c. 240 × 155 mm.

Layout

Written above top line. 2 cols., 39 lines, written space 170 × 120 mm.

Decoration

Alternating red and blue-green capitals, with penwork in the contrasting colour.

Accompanying Material

Endleaves (fols. i-ii, 354–355) now MS. Lat. misc. d. 48, fols. 1, 2, 11, 12.

History

Origin: 13th century, first half ; England or France

Provenance

Probably in England by the fifteenth century (annotation, fol. 247v).

Additional Information

Record Sources

Adapted by Matthew Holford (August 2019) from the following sources, with additional description of parts 1 and 3:
Summary Catalogue (1922)

Last Substantive Revision

2019-08-15: Description revised with reference to Watson, SC, and examination of MS.