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MS. Auct. F. 3. 6

Summary Catalogue no.: 2666

Prudentius; England, before 1072

Contents

Language(s): Latin, with some glosses in Old English

1.
(fol. ii verso)
Incipit: Hec lege qui rectum

Fourteen elegiac lines on the Passio romani (item 5).

Incipit: ⟨Au⟩rilius Prudentius Clemens iste

Latin account of Prudentius, his poems, and their metres.

2. (fol. 1)
Prudentius, Cathemerinon (with preface)
4. (fol. 43v)
Prudentius, Hamartigenia
5. (fol. 43v)
Prudentius, Peristephanon (no. 10)
Rubric: Incipit passio Romani
6. (fol. 89)
Prudentius, Psychomachia
7. (fol. 111)
Prudentius, Peristephanon (nos. 1–9, 11–14)
8. (fol. 146v)
Prudentius, Contra Symmachum
9. (fol. 188v)
Prudentius, Dittochaeon

All except item 1 copiously glossed, some glosses in Old English; two Old English charms on fols. ii recto, iii verso.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii + 193 + iv fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 250 × 180–90 mm.
Dimensions (written): c. 170–5 × 110–15 mm.

Layout

1–2 cols., 24 lines.

Hand(s)

Two scribes: (i) fols. ii-iii verso, 2–88v, 111–93v (ii) fols. 89–110v.

Musical Notation:

Neums.

Decoration

Coloured initials, rubrics (some in minium).

History

Origin: 11th century (before 1072) ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

Given to Exeter cathedral by Leofric, bishop 1046–72: 'Hunc librum dat leofricus episeopus ęcclesię sancti petri apostoli in exonia ad sedem suam episcopalem pro remedio animę suę ad utilitatem successorum suorum Siquis autem ilium inde abstulerit perpetuęe; maledictioni subiaceat Fiat', with a similar record in Old English, fol. iii verso. At the time of the gift the volume was probably in three parts (foll. 2-88, 89-110, 111-end), see the list of the gifts, printed from no. 2719 in Warren's edition of the Leofric Missal (1883), p. xxiii.

"Probably presented by the dean and chapter of Exeter in 1602, although there seems to be no trace of it in Bodleian records till 1620."

Record Sources

Description adapted from the following sources:
A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.435–1600 in Oxford Libraries (Oxford, 1984), no. 56 [physical description, origin, provenance]
Summary Catalogue (1922) [contents, music, provenance]
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2, part 1, p. 480
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2, part 1, p. 481

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (45 images from 35mm slides)

Surrogates

Matthew T. Hussey, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile (Binghamton, NY: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2014), vol. 22: Exeter Manuscripts

Bibliography

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2018-10-24: Fully revised to incorporate all information in Watson and SC.