MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 60

Provenance and Acquisition

Inscription, fol. 136v (transcribed in full in Watson) recording the completion of the binding in 1178 at the expense of Adelbard, provost of the Augustinian priory of Ranshofen, and Liutold, treasurer of Ranshofen, and its gift to the priory. This provides a terminus a quem for the writing and decoration of the manuscript; while a considerable interval between writing, decoration and binding is possible, most recent literature favours a date in the 1170s.

Liutold the treasurer was identified in earlier scholarship with the scribe and artist Liutold of Mondsee, an identification that is no longer accepted. Nevertheless the Ranshofen Gospels are associated on art-historical grounds with the Mondsee Gospels written and partly decorated by Liutold of Mondsee (Vienna, ONB, Cod. 1244, ), and with other manuscripts in the so-called 'Liutold Group' (notably a breviary-collectar, Munich, BSB, Clm 8271, , and a copy of Gratian's Decretum, Munich, BSB, Clm 13004, ), associated with Salzburg and the Benedictine abbey of St Peter (E. Klemm, Die romanischen Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek I (1980) pp. 165–6, ); Schmidt attributes the Ranshofen Gospels themselves to St Peter's although Holter favoured a secular workshop (K. Holter, 'Die mittelalterliche Buchkunst der Chorherrenstifte am Inn', repr. in his Buchkunst - Handschriften - Bibliotheken (1996) II.887–913 at 892–3).

Possibly to be identified with the gospel book (‘Matheus’) listed in the mid-fourteenth-century library catalogue of Ranshofen (Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Österreichs, V.90).

Presumably seen at Ranshofen by Johannes Turmair (Aventinus) between 1519 and 1521: his Chronicon Ranshofense refers to ‘Alhardus, qui integre Adelhardus, evangeliorum vetustum codicem faciundum curavit’ (Johannes Turmair's genannt Aventinus sämmtliche werke I (1881) 68)

Mentioned by Hieronymus Mayor, canon of Ranshofen, in his 1650 Antiquarium Ranshovianum (Schmidt, Ranshofener Evangeliar, 4).

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805, acquired at an uncertain date.

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817.