MS. Add. A. 263
Summary Catalogue no.: 29383
Guillelmus de Tocco, Ystoria sancti Thome de Aquino, with offices for Thomas Aquinas and Corpus Christi. Germany, 14th century (after 1318)
Physical Description
Binding
Contemporary binding. Sewn on four pairs of twisted parchment bands, laced and pegged separately into horizontal channels in wood (beech?) boards, covered with undecorated tawed(?) skin, overlapping the edges of the leaves; two strap-and-pin clasps (closing from the back to the front board); the front cover inscribed with a shelfmark in bold 15th-century characters ‘Y.22.’; the top of the spine inscribed ‘Legen|da S. | Thom| ae(?) ....... | & | S. Aug. | S. Ambr.’ (worn; readings uncertain; cf. fols. 49–54).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Contents suggest that the manuscript was written for a Dominican house in Germany; it was perhaps still there in the 15th century.
Annotated in German, 14th(?)-century: ‘in götlicher veruck.. ’ (fol. 24v, lower margin).
Unidentified library, with its 15th century shelfmark ‘Y .22.’ inscribed on the front cover and fol. 1r, the latter altered from ‘M .12.’.
Unidentified 19th(?)-century collection, doubtless German: inscribed in ink ‘N XXIV’ and ‘N 24’ (fol. ii r).
Unidentified 19th-century German-speaking owner/bookseller: with an inserted slip inscribed in pencil ‘Beide Theile dieser Codex 14 saec.’ (attached to fol. ii r); his(?) number ‘173’ inside the back board and on a slip of paper attached to the back board.
H. Grevel & Co., London bookseller: their(?) inventory number ‘9157’ in pencil (fol. iir upper right; fol. 1r, top left; fol. 64r, lower left); their Catalogue 4, Catalogue of rare manuscripts and early printed books … (1884), item 6; pencil price ‘£4’ (fol. iir):
Purchased by the Bodleian on 24 March 1884, for £3 10s; inscribed in pencil ‘Grevel 1884’ (fol. iir). Former Bodleian shelfmarks: ‘MS. Bodl. Adds. A. 263’ (fol. 1r, lower margin; cancelled by encircling).
MS. Add. A. 263 – Part A (fols. 1–48)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
At cap. 66 (incipit ‘Post hec autem cogitans predictus abbas. quod notus erat locus in quo corpus dicti doctoris erat humatum’; fol. 32r) are added marginal notes by three different hands: ‘De translacione sancti Thome de Aquino ordinis fratrum predicatorum leccio prima’, ‘translacio sanctus Thom⟨as ordi⟩nis predicatorum’ and ‘leccio prima’; the successive passages marked ‘leccio ii’ – ‘leccio ix’ (fol. 34r). The relics were translated in 1369.
Psalms, capitula, hymns, etc., for first vespers, matins (with nine lessons in three nocturns), and from lauds to vespers.
First vespers, matins to vespers, and the octave.
Hymns (only) for vespers, matins, and lauds; capitula, responsories, and versicles for terce, sext, and none; antiphons and psalms for vespers; antiphons for the octave; compline is omitted and its antiphon is added at the bottom of fol. 48r: ‘O panis vite veneranda refectio rite. …’
Fol. 48v ruled, otherwise blank
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled in ink for 34 lines; fols. 44r–48r written in two columns. Ruled space 190 × 120–5 mm.
Hand(s)
Formal gothic bookhand; it is common that insufficient space has been left for the rubrics, which are absent after fol. 26r.
Decoration
One 4-line puzzle initial in red and blue, with red and blue penwork, accompanied by red and blue penwork border in the outer margin (fol. 1r).
2-line initials in plain red.
History
MS. Add. A. 263 – Part B (fols. 49–64)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Nine lessons for the feast day (which was proposed by Thomas Aquinas and falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday); three each for Friday for Saturday; six for Sunday, with rubric ‘Gregorius in libro iiij dialogi’; three each for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the latter with a rubric ‘Ambrosius in primo libro de sacramento’; and nine for the octave, the sixth with a rubric, ‘Item Ambrosius in secundo libro de sacramento’, and the ninth with ‘Item Ambrosius in eodem’.
Abbreviated: antiphons, responsories, versicles, capitula, etc; psalms, hymns, etc. given by cue only.
Fol. 64v ruled, otherwise blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled in ink for mostly 25 lines; ruled space 175 × 110–5 mm.
Fols. 63r-64r in 2 cols. of 26-8 lines.
Fols. 62r-64r written above top line.
Hand(s)
Formal gothic bookhand
Decoration
1- and 2-line initials in plain red.
History
MS. Add. A. 263 - front pastedown
Contents
Part of a legal document, dated 1318, relating to a dispute involving abbess Hildegund of ‘Rore’ (the Benedictine nunnery of Rohr, about 10km east of Meiningen), concerning the presentation to the vicarage of ‘Kaltensuenthein’ (Kaltensundheim; about 35km west of Meiningen).
About 35 lines preserved, trimmed on all four sides, written in cursive documentary script.
Physical Description
Hand(s)
Cursiva antiquior
History
MS. Add. A. 263 - front pastedown
Contents
A narrow vertical parchment strip of a 14th-century document in German, perhaps relating to a gift to a nunnery: preserving no more a few words per line, apparently including several personal names: beginning ‘]g die schenk...’; refers to a sub-prioress (suppriorin); the legal term 'selbedritte' occurs frequently.
Short parts of 31 lines preserved, written in gothic bookhand.
Physical Description
History
MS. Add. A. 263 - fol. ii verso and inside back cover
Contents
Most of an appeal by Matheus de Vriburg, as proctor for the Dominican friars of ‘Zouingen’ (Zofingen, Aargau), written in a neat Italian (?) documentary hand, apparently relating to a dispute with the collegiate church of St Maurice in Zofingen (‘prepositus et capitulum Zouin⟨gen⟩’, inside back cover, line 15). The document refers also to ‘fratres predicatores et minores in Constant.’ (l. 4), ‘ecclesie sancti Stephani’ (the collegiate church of St Stephan in Constance) (ll. 4, 5), ‘domino Io. dei gratia Tusculano episcopo apostolice sedis legati’ (Giovanni Boccamazza, sedit 1285-1309) (ll. 13, 21), ‘anno domini Mo. CCo. lxxxviijo … in die sanctorum Innocentium’ (ll. 21–22), C(onrad), prior of the Dominicans in Constance, and Hugo, lector of the same, ‘H. de Arbona de Brenburg, fratre C. de Arbona, fratribus ordinis predicti, domino Walthero sacerdote’ (l. 23), ‘R⟨udolf⟩ dei gratia Constantiae episcopus [1274–1293]’ (l. 26, cf. l. 3).
For the short-lived Dominican convent at Zofingen, founded in 1286, immediately in dispute with the collegiate church of St Maurice, then partly destroyed in 1288, and apparently permanently dissolved by 1304, see Helvetia Sacra 4: Die Orden mit Augustinerregel 5: Die Dominikaner und Dominikanerinnen in der Schweiz (1999), I.459-465; ibid., I. 415 for Hugo lector of Constance Blackfriars.
Physical Description
Hand(s)
Cursive documentary script.
History
MS. Add. A. 263 - fol. iii
Contents
A late 14th century slip, sewn to fol. ii verso, with a rhyming verse epitaph for Thomas Aquinas
18 lines; close to the text pr. by A. Birkenmajer, Vermischte Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der mittelalterlichen Philosophie (Münster, 1922), p. 35, lines 1–36.
Physical Description
Hand(s)
Formal Gothic bookhand
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
2021-06-07: Description fully revised for Polonksy German digitization project.