MS. Hamilton 46
Summary Catalogue no.: 24476
A: Ortolf von Bayrlandt, Hugh of St. Victor, etc.; B: the 'Oxford Boethius', etc.; C: theological collection. Germany, 15th century, middle
Physical Description
Binding
Later brown leather quarter covers over original wooden boards, five bands. Latch marks on the upper and lower covers, latch lacking.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Dating and localisation based on watermarks and content. All parts were bound together in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, in the same region where they had been produced. See Daniela Mairhofer (2017) p. 208–09.
Medieval provenance not known; not identifiable in the late-fifeenth-century catalogue of the Erfurt Carthusians, or the 1783 catalogue of the Benedictine abbey of St Peter in Erfurt, but later ownership by Bülow (see below) may well suggest Erfurt provenance, and the manuscript may have reached the Carthusians after the catalogue was compiled.
Friedrich Gottlieb Julius von Bülow, 1760-?1831 (?): almost certainly identifiable as 382 in the catalogue of his sale, 1836: 'Tract. de mysteriis ecclesiae, de virtutib. etc. - Apocalypsis. - Quatuor novissima. - BOETIUS De consolat. philosoph.'
Sir William Hamilton, 1788–1856
Presented to the Bodleian Library by his sons and received in 1857.
MS. Hamilton 46 – Part 1 (fols. 1–60)
Contents
Fol. 1r, contents list to the whole volume, but not including fols. 1v-13v, followed by verses ('Dat vinum purum septem tibi commoda...') and note 'Gloria patri propter tria. Primo quia nos creavit...'.
It retains blocks of the German original, and is interpolated with extracts from other sources, notably the Latin ‘Secretum Secretorum’. German passages are located at 1v, lines 16–20, and 2r, lines 1–21 and 39–42. (Mossmann c. 2003, unpublished description).
Alphabetical index to the remaining folios of part 1 (fols. 'xxxvi' to 'xlv).
PL 176.993–8, here beginning imperfect at 995B.
In the hand of a later scribe, this is a German addition between two short, theological pieces; it is in a late 15th century cursive script, in brownish-black ink, and is but poorly legible. It consists of 157 verses of the first part of a lengthy ‘Conversio’ narrative, with the ‘Nativitas’ section added, and is therefore a German text within the ‘Conversio I’ group of Latin verse narratives. This text is in a version not attested in either conspectus of Lives of Catherine of Alexandria: cf. Williams-Krapp, Werner, Die deutschen und niederländischen Legendare des Mittelalters, Texte und Textgeschichte 20 (Tübingen 1986), pp. 425f., and Assion, Peter, ‘Katharina von Alexandrien’, Verfasserlexikon 4 (Berlin and New York 1983), pp. 1055–73. (Mossmann c. 2003, unpublished description).
Perhaps cf. München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 28602, fol. 127ra.
Followed by short texts on the orders of angels ('Angelus est primus...'), on the three arks ('Temporibus tres esse tribus...), , on metals ('Septem sunt nomina metallorum...').
Various notes and verses: on the Annuciation ('Hec est dies illa dominus quem fecit in ista...'); mnemonic for the order of the gospels ('Purpura cenat...'); on the ages of the world ('Incipiens ab adam quem...', WIC 9182); grades of consanguinity; 'Eusebius dicit in cronica...'; WIC 2058 (Urban V, 'Balsamus et munda'); WIC 11550 (Pius II (?), 'Misticus agnus').
Note at the end: 'Residuum quere in aliis duobus foliis...'.
Physical Description
Layout
1 col., c. 39–42 lines . Written space c. 185–195 × 120 mm.
Hand(s)
Cursive.
Decoration
No decoration or rubrication.
MS. Hamilton 46 – Part 2 (fols. 61–222)
Contents
Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae, with glosses, commentary, and partial German translation. Edition by D. Mairhofer forthcoming, June 2020.
Translated into German are sporadic sections (fols. 115r–139r) of book 3 (that is p. 1, m. VIII, and p. 9), book 4 as a whole, and book 5, with the translation breaking off at fol. 211r (5. p. 4, 31). (D. Mairhofer, "Bodleian Library, MS. Hamilton 46. 'Der Oxforder Boethius. Edition und Studie'," Oxford German Studies 46 (2017), p. 206 n. 1)
Two Latin colophons within the German text allow us to date the translation to 1465. On fol. 132v we find: In die b(ea)te Margarete [13th July], vere margarite, preciose gemme, que castitate niuea et candida est, expositum uel translatum est istud metrum. d(eo) g(ratias). On fol. 202v, we find: Datum in die solis in die dominica post Michaelem [6th October] anno domini mºccccºlx quinto in Buchen. d(eo) g(ratias). Gaudeat creatura in terra quia semper videtur oculis misericordie adulcissimo creatore. 'Buchen' is likely, given the other place-names to be found in this manuscript, to be one of the three small towns named ‘Buchen’ in the region immediately north and north-west of Siegen. (Mossmann, c. 2003).
An added leaf to allow the addition of a Latin text (on the verso), mentioning ancient gods, probably relating to the Boethius text which surrounds it. On the back of this leaf (on the recto), is preserved part of a letter in German to the anonymous author’s younger brother, asking for a loan. It contains a considerable amount of autobiographical information and mentions the abbey of Flechtdorf, between Paderborn and Siegen, in Westphalia. It is in a very similar hand and style as the Life of Catherine of Alexandria text in the first manuscript above. (Mossmann, c. 2003).
The free space at the bottom of fol. 220r is filled with a text in a hand very similar to that of the Life of Katherine of Alexandria text in the first part above. The text continues into the margin on the left hand side of the leaf. (Mossmann, c. 2003).
Between the large stub of 222v and the pasted-in leaf that is 223 are a series of five small stubs, evidently full leaves that have been roughly cut out. On the verso sides of the first two and all of the third it would appear that the text relating to Peter Denrich continues, judging by the similarity of the hand and the various words that have survived.
Written bottom left to top right across the page.
Written bottom left to top right across the page. Fol. 220v begins with a Marian Latin hymn, which is followed, after a space, by a six-strophe macaronic hymn. The hymns continue in Latin on fol. 221r and finish on the stub which is 222r. They are written in a 15th century bastard hand, in black ink; the scribe has added some musical staves and melody on 221r. At the end the hymns are signed ‘Sibellin(us) rorbach genit(us) in Sygen’ (fol. 222r). (Mossman, c. 2003).
(macaronic: Latin and German)On the recto side of the first stub is a macaronic hymn, in a different, cursive hand to that which transmitted the earlier hymns that are fully extant. Inc: Satiros non vereor / ich armes dulles wicht / ergo crucem mereor / daz ich doch halden licht /. The rest of the text is obviously cut away.
Similarly the recto side of the second stub contains a German hymn, in the same hand: Sicherlich in rüwen / begin ich sere czü gan / vnd gude werk czü buwen. The rest of the text is cut away.
The fourth stub is blank on the recto side but contains a scrap of German verse on the verso side, in a tiny cursive hand: Ach nu ach nu spade vnd … layt vns daz wol bedencken · daz myr myt sunden crencken ·
The fifth stub is barely extant, and contains no text.
Physical Description
Layout
Text of Boethius typically long 16 lines per page, with space for interlinear glossing, in a written area of c. 160 × 80 mm.
The German translation written around the Latin text in 'textus inclusus', occupying the remaining space of the page.
The commentary on two columns of c. 54 lines, written space c. 190 × 120 mm.
Hand(s)
Cursive.
Added neums, fol. 221r
Decoration
No decoration; rubricated.
MS. Hamilton 46 – Part 3 (fols. 223–368)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
PL 210.440–1
Theological notes
On Joachim of Fiore and Hildegard of Bingen, chiefly extracts from Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale .
Interlinear and marginal commentary, including for example commentary on precious and semiprecious stones on fols. 275r-277r (fol. 276v blank).
Prologue to Apocalypse (cf. Stegmüller, Bibl. 834)
The first reading, Job 7.16b-21, with beginning of the responsory 'Redemptor meus vivit'
cf. Innocent III, De missarum mysteriis (PL 217.891)
Imperfect, followed by the stub of another folio of text; fol. 281v has been inked over.
Fols. 282r-301r, cf. Giles of Rome I.ii.9-I.iii.11; fols. 301r-307v, cf. I.i.1-I.i.12; fols. 307v-319ar, cf. I.iv.1–7, 18, 23; II.ii.5–6, 10, 13; III.ii.17, 18. The prologue does not derive from Giles.
Verses
Hans Rheinfelder, 'Materialien zu dem mittelalterlichen Gedicht "Multi sunt presbyteri"', Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie (1951), 125–130, here stanzas 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 11, 15, 18, 19, 22.
Five verses; Charland, Artes Praedicandi, p. 100
Verses on the number of Christ's wounds
Three verses
Three verses
Fol. 319bv blank.
In places varying considerably from Garland's text, in places very close to it; ends at l. 582–3 as ed. F. W. Otto, Commentariii critici in codicis bibliothecae academiae Gissensis (Giessen 1842), pp. 147; cf. fol. 367r below.
Notes on the Mass, priesthood, etc., including verses (the first two from Ps.-Bernard, Floretus):
On the seven virtues
On hospitality
On dying
As pr. [c. 1471] (GW 7469), here abbreviated in places. Secundum novissimorum, fol. 338r; tercium, fol. 348v; quartum, fol. 358v.
Extracts from Augustine, Gregory, Bernard.
On the Virgin Mary, the Annunciation and the Incarnation
Extracts from John of Garland, De mysteriis, lines 570–5, 607, 595–8, 604–5, 608–15, 620–3, in Otto's edition.
Ed. F. W. Otto, Commentariii critici in codicis bibliothecae academiae Gissensis (Giessen 1842), pp. 147–48.
Physical Description
Layout
Text of the Apocalypse c. 13–14 long lines, with space for interlinear glossing, in a written area of c. 155–60 × 75–85 mm. ; a marginal column of 35 mm. for commentary, the commentary as written also extending into the upper and lower margins.
Fols. 282–368: usually 1 col., c. 43 lines, c. 195 × 115 mm.
Hand(s)
Cursive.
Decoration
No decoration or rubrication.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2020-12-16: Additional physical description.