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

MS. Bodl. 859

Summary Catalogue no.: 2722

Physical Description

Composite: six parts
Form: codex
Extent: iv + 391 fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 12.125 × 9.5 inch.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Exeter Cathedral (?). See below, provenance of parts 1 and 2. MLGB3 accepts the whole volume as an Exeter Cathedral book.

Probably acquired by the Bodleian betweeen 1613 and 1620.

MS. Bodl. 859 – Part 1 (fols. 1–43)

Contents

1. (fol. 1)
Gilbert Stone, canon of Wells, Letter-book
Rubric: Copie quarundam epistolarum quas magister Gilbertus de Stone, ecclesie cathedralis Wellensis canonicus, venerabilium patrum nuper dominorum suorum, dominorum Roberti Weyuylle episcopi Sarum (et) Radulphi Erghum successoris sui ab ecclesia Sarisbiriensi ad Bathoniensem translati et Ricardi Clyfford Wygorniensis episcopi successiue cancellarius nomine dictorum dominorum et aliorum amicorum suorum ac eciam nomine suo proprio nuper scripsit etc.

Some theological notes on fols. iii verso, 42av, 226v, 260v, 310.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment, paper

History

Origin: 15th century, first quarter ; English

Provenance

Edmund Lacy, bishop of Exeter, -1455: ‘Hunc librum dederunt Executores Edmundi Lacy Episcopi Exoniensis Ecclesie Cathedralis Exoniensis. Cathenandum in magna libraria ibidem’ (fol. iv verso)

Exeter Cathedral (?) (see above; not in the 1506 Exeter inventory, but marks from a chain-staple (?) on fols. iii and iv.

MS. Bodl. 859 – Part 2 (fols. 44–225)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. (fol. 44)
John Bromyard, Distinctiones
Rubric: Distinctiones magistri Johannis Bromyard
Incipit: Ambulemus ... Primo solicite ad modum hospitancium

Preceded by an alphabetical index of subjects.

Incipit: Ab infancia bene viuens
(fol. 225v)
Colophon: Finitus hec breuis compilacio. in festo Sancti Valentini. Anno domini mºCCCC nono

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment and paper mixed
Dimensions (written): 300 × 220 mm.

Layout

1 col., c. 40–55 lines, written space c. 220–35 × 145–60 mm.

Decoration

Coloured initials.

History

Origin: 15th century, first quarter ; English

Provenance

Edmund Lacy, bishop of Exeter: ‘Hunc librum dederunt Executores Edmundi Lacy Episcopi Exoniensis Ecclesie Cathedralis Exoniensis. Cathenandum in magna libraria ibidem’ (fol. 225v)

Exeter Cathedral (?) (see above; not in the 1506 Exeter inventory).

MS. Bodl. 859 – Part 3 (fols. 227–296)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. (fol. 227)
Paschasius Radbertus, De corpore et sanguine Domini
Rubric: Pascasius de Corpore (et) Sanguine Domini

Followed by 23 separate chapters, as in Eton College MS. 83, , from which this copy probably derives (Ker, MMBL, II.698–9). The 23rd chapter is:

(fol. 258)
Augustine, Epistula ad Consentium de resurrectione (ep. 205)
Rubric: Epistola beati Augustini de sacramento Corporis Christi
Incipit: Dilectissimo fratri
Incipit: Quantum ad oculos
3. (fol. 261)
John Orum, Lectura super Apocalipsim in ecclesia Wellensi
Rubric: Lectura Iohannis Orum super Apocalipsim in ecclesia Wellensis
Incipit: In nomine Ihesu. Flecto genua mea .. Flectere igitur habet anima
4. (fol. 290)
Gregory, Homiliae in Ezechielem (extracts)
Incipit: Dilectissimo fratri
Incipit: Tua itaque dileccio
5. (fol. 292v)

Poems on the conflict between the University of Oxford and the City of Oxford in 1355

Incipit: Plangis in gemitu
Incipit: Cilla domat
Incipit: O Rex Anglorum
Incipit: Clerum sponsor odit
Incipit: Urgent ursina
Incipit: Lar demon Nero

ed. Collectanea III, Oxford Historical Society, 1896.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment, paper

History

Origin: 15th century, first quarter ; English

MS. Bodl. 859 – Part 4 (fols. 297–310)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. (fol. 297, cf. fol. 296)
Sermons on the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Seven sermons, first beg.:

Incipit: Veni ut docerem ... Karissimi, hodie sancte mater Ecclesia

Listed by S. Wenzel, Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England (2005), p. 425.

(fol. 309)

Single leaf, containing a letter from Gregory XII to Henry Bowet, archbishop of York, Lucca, 21 May 1408.

On fol. 310v is added a Latin citation by John Orum, chancellor of the University of Oxford, to John Rutteley, 1407 or 1411–12.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper

History

Origin: 15th century, first quarter ; English

MS. Bodl. 859 – Part 5 (fols. 311–331)

Contents

1. (fol. 311)
Sermons and notes
Incipit: (first sermon) Dispone domui tue ... Dilectissimi filij, triplicem legimus

Sermons listed by S. Wenzel, Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England (2005), pp. 425–6.

Language(s): Latin with some Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper

History

Origin: 15th century, first quarter ; English

MS. Bodl. 859 – Part 6 (fols. 332–80)

Contents

1. (fols. 332r-379v)
Rubric: Pecham super 4m Sententiarum
Incipit: Questio est de sacrifitiis, circa que queruntur .viij.

Sometimes treated as a work by Ps.-John Pecham, Quaestio est de sacrificiis; but identified as a collection of various quaestiones attributed to Alexander of Hales (or in some cases perhaps to Stephen of Poligny), including material from Hales's Quaestiones disputatae antequam esset frater and Quaestiones disputatae postquam fuit frater. For identification of contents see Magistri Alexandri de Hales Quaestiones disputatae antequam esset frater I (Quaracchi, 1960) 11*-12* and Doctoris irrefragabilis Alexandri de Hales Ordinis minorum Summa theologica IV (Quaracchi, 1948), cxli, with A. Horowski in Verum, pulchrum et bonum: miscellanea di studi offerti a Servus Gieben in occasione del suo 80 compleanno (Rome, 2006), esp. p. 340–1.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

Decoration

Penwork (Pächt and Alexander, addenda).

History

Origin: c. 1300 ; English

Provenance

‘precium .iiij. solidos’, fol. 380v.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description adapted (March 2019) from the following sources, and with reference to published literature cited in the description:
A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.435–1600 in Oxford Libraries (Oxford, 1984), no. 116 [part 2: physical description, origin, provenance]
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, addenda (by B. Barker-Benfield) (1974), pp. 10–11 [part 6: decoration, date]
Summary Catalogue (1922) [parts 1, 3–5; parts 1, 6: contents]

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2019-03-28: Revised to incorporate all information in Watson, SC and Pächt and Alexander.