MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 172
Summary Catalogue no.: 19158
Origen, Homiles on Numbers, etc.; southern Germany, 12th century
Contents
Rufinus’s Preface
(The original name erased, replaced in brown ink with ‘Hieronimi(?)’, and subsequently overwritten with ‘Origenis’)
Capitula list
Only 26 numbered items due to the fact that one title is skipped between ‘xvii De prophetia eiusdem [Balaam] tercia’ and ‘xviii De visione .v. Balaam’.
Homilies 1–26
The first 12 homilies with added running headers ‘om prima’, ‘o ii’, ‘o iii’ etc., ‘o. xxiiii’.
Homily 8 ends on a half-sheet, blank on the verso; Homily 9 begins on a new leaf (fol. 38r).
Baehrens, op. cit. 3–255; Stegmüller, ibid.
With staveless neumes.
CANTUS ah53197 pr. Analecta hymnica, liii (1911), pp. 318–19 no. 197, citing 7 MSS. of which 5 are collated, including the present one (siglum ‘B’).Added by a different scribe to the blank last page of a larger-than-normal quire; Homily 27 starts on a new quire.
Homilies 27–28
Homily 27 with divisions numbered ii–xxxiiii; Homily 28 runs on from it, with only a small initial, as section ‘xxxv’.
ed. Baehrens, op. cit., pp. 255–85.These homilies are treated as separate on the label on the front cover; in the edition they are titled ‘De mansionibus filiorum Israel’ and ‘Quae sit terrae sanctae descriptio terminorumque eius et finium’, yet in the manuscript the title of the second is given to the first, and the second has no title.
The lower half of fol. 188 excised; fol. 188v blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled in blind for 27 lines per page. Ruled space 205 × 120 mm.
Hand(s)
Pregothic bookhand, apparently mostly by a single hand (despite the division into two codicological units), with sometimes-extensive corrections by other hands, e.g. fol. 138r.
Diastematic neumes, fol. 170v
Decoration
Two fine large foliate initials drawn in orange ink introduce the prologue and first homily, 8 and 10 lines tall respectively (fols. 1r, 2v). Not in Pächt and Alexander.
Other homilies with plain red 4-line initials.
Binding
Medieval binding: late-medieval brown leather with blind-stamped decoration, on the front: rosette and script (apparently twelve minims) forming a saltire, with leafwork border; the same on the back but with a border of arches; the rosette and script stamps also on the spine. The same stamps attributed by Einbanddatenbank to the 'Halbkreis Ornament' workshop (w002843) [Czech Republic, c. 1474], documented only from Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Cod. theol. et phil. fol. 17 [recte 27].
Earlier (?) sewing and boards: sewn on three slit bands, laced and pegged into horizontal channels in thick wood boards, square cut, with pink-stained parchment at the inner corners of each board covering the endband lacing. Traces of lost strap-and-pin clasp with leather strap running from back-cover fore-edge to central pin on front, and of four large circular bosses on each cover; late-medieval parchment title-label at upper centre of front cover (cf. MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 188), inscribed ‘AE’ in red and ‘Omelie Origenis i[n Numer]orum | cum descripcione mansionum filorum Israel’. Added green spine-label and gilt lettering, with minor repairs, 18th century, Italian. 286–288 × c. 178–180 × c. 82 mm. (book closed).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Presumably written for a house with a special veneration for, and perhaps dedicated to, St Nicholas (fol. 170v).
12th–15th-century readers: the main text with frequent ‘Nota’ marks and other annotations, corrections, etc. (e.g. fol. 27r–v), often ‘Cave’ or ‘Caute’.
Unidentified 14th/15th-century German library: the front cover label with shelfmark(?) ‘AE’.
Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805, Jesuit and bibliophile of Venice; source of acquisition not known (not Soranzo); from whom his manuscripts passed to his brother:
Giuseppe Canonici , -1807, and on the latter’s death to their nephew, Giovanni Perisinotti, from whom over 2,000 were:
Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817
MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 172 - endleaf (former pastedown) (fol. i)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
12th-century and later inscriptions and pen-trials include ‘Origenes’ twice in large bold majuscules, ‘probatio incausti vel pergame[..]’, ‘Incaustum dum penna probat [ … ]’, ‘Ave Maria’, an alphabet, etc.
A rhymed respond
Unidentified. The text is upside-down and extends into the gutter fold, suggesting that the leaf was written before it was bound in the present volume.
Physical Description
Layout
Unruled, 6 lines of text and music on verso
Hand(s)
Late Caroline formal documentary script
Staveless neumes
History
MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 172 - endleaf (former pastedown) (fol. 189)
Contents
Waste leaf, with part of the office for Christmastide. Readings include: ‘Legimus in Levitico fratres quia ⟨omne⟩ masculinum adaperiens vulvam sanctum domino vocabitur [Luc. 2:2] …’
Noted chant includes: ‘Invocabit me aevia pater meus es tu aevia Exultabunt omnia lig[na sil]varum ante faciem domini …’
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled in blind for at least 27 lines per page (the top edge cropped)
Hand(s)
Pre-gothic bookhand in two sizes
Chant (written in smaller script) with staveless neumes
Decoration
Spaces for coloured initials
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Printed descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2021-05: Description fully revised for Polonsky German project.