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

MS. Lat. class. e. 48

Summary Catalogue no.: Not in SC (late accession)

Miscellany; English, early 13th century

Contents

1. (fol.2, most of fol.1 torn out)
Valerius Maximus

Excerpts from , BK.I – IX, beg. imperf. Fol.19v was originally blank.

Incipit: ||Sequitur de So⟨m⟩pniis. ⟨C⟩alpurnia uxor Iulii Cesaris mater Augusti nocte vidit.
Language(s): Latin
2. (fol.20)
Chronicle from Augustus to early 7th cent.
Rubric: Exceptiones Bede Freculfi et Evangeliorum
Incipit: Octovianus imperator ab Octoviano patre dictus.

On fol.25v the compiler says that Constantine was created emperor ‘hic in Anglia’, Fol.35–5v is blank.

Language(s): Latin
3. (fol.36)
Collatio Alexandri Magni cum Dindimo

Pr. B. Kuebler, Teubner, 1888. Our MS. was not known to D.J.A. Ross, ‘A checklist of MSS. of three Alexander texts’, Scriptorium 10 (1956), 127–32.

Language(s): Latin
4. (fol.41v) (fol.43)
Letter
Rubric: Epistula magistri Roberti de Curzun ad Coventr. ⟨episcopum⟩
Incipit: ⟨U⟩t utar verbis Pauli ad Senecam
Explicit: Parisius penitus absortum eruatis. Vale.

The bishop of Coventry addressed was probably Godefridus de Muschamp, bishop 1198–1208. Fol.43v is blank.

Language(s): Latin
5a. (fols. 44–65)
Cicero, Orationes
(fol.44)

Pro M. Marcello

(fol.49)

Pro Q. Ligario

(fol.55v)

Pro rege Deiotaro

The MS. belongs to Clark's B family

Language(s): Latin
5b. (fol.62v)
Ps.-Cicero, Oratio pridie quam iret in exilium
Rubric: Or. M.T.C. ad populum Rom. pro propria persona
Incipit: Si quandoque inimicorum
Language(s): Latin
5c. (fol.65v)
Cicero, Paradoxa,

2 leaves missing (5 Accipies igitur - 18 non is quorum). Fol.72–3v were originally blank.

Language(s): Latin

Items 3 and 5 are found together in a MS. bequeathed to the abbey of Bec by Philippe de Harcourt, bishop of Bayeux, d.1163: no.94 in list ed. Omont in Cat. Gén DépartementsII, 1888, p.397.

There are annotations to the text in several hands of the 13th cent. and later. A 13th cent. hand or hands wrote theological notes in pencil on fol.iii, iiiv, 19, 19v, 65, 72v, 73.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: ⟨C⟩alpurnia uxor
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii (paper) + i (medieval parchment) + 73 + ii (paper)
Dimensions (leaf): 187 × 137 mm.
Dimensions (written): 135–40 (up to fol. 43); 133–8 (from fol. 44–73) × 80–4 (up to fol.43); 73–8 (from fol.44–73) mm.
Foliation: modern pencil: i-iii, 1–75

Collation

1 original flyleaf, 1(8) (1 almost entirely torn out), 2(8), 34 (4 canc.), 4(8) – 7(8), 8(8) (7–8 missing), 9(8)

Layout

long lines, ruled in crayon, 32 lines up to fol.43, 31 lines from fol.44–73; writing above top line

Hand(s)

Perhaps by one scribe writing in different styles (the rubrics are all in one hand)

Decoration

in items 1–3 small red initials occasionally touched in green; in item 5 larger initials, green flourished in red or red flourished in blue.

Binding

18th cent. speckled calf; the spine with a title-piece lettered 'MANU | SCRIPT'

History

Origin: 13th century, early ; English (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Fol.iii (13th cent.): ‘In hoc volumine continentur quedam excerpta de Valerio Maximo et quedam exceptiones Bede Freculfi et Evangeliorum. Et Tullius in Paradoxis’

Medieval shelfmark(?) '145:' immediately followed in blacker ink by '.Z. .18'.

Thomas Brudenell and his wife Mary Tresham, 17th century; inscribed with their names, coat of arms, and motto (fol. iii recto).

'Cardigan' (fol. iii recto) ( (?) for the above Thomas, cr. earl of Cardigan 1661)

Inscribed with a shelfmark: 'No.5. Cl.2. Sh:4' (upper pastedown).

Sold at Sotheby's, 12 Dec. 1966, lot 218; bought.

Record Sources

Typescript description by Bodleian Library staff, revised by Peter Kidd, late 1990s

Last Substantive Revision

2017-07-01: First online publication.