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

OR BROWSE BY

MANUSCRIPTS
WORKS
PEOPLE
PLACES

MS. Laud Gr. 35

Summary Catalogue no.: 1119

Contents

This description is abbreviated from Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from Würzburg in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue (Oxford, 2014), pp. 120–33. For purposes of scholarly citation, reference to the printed catalogue is requested.

1. (fols. 1ra-226rb)
Acts of the Apostles ('The Laudian Acts')

Parallel Greek-Latin text, Greek on the right, with a pre-Vulgate version (VL 50) on the left.

Language(s): Greek and Latin
2. (fols. 226v-227v)

Added texts:

2i. (fol. 226v)

Apostle's Creed, added in Continental uncial script, s. viii. Marginal scribbles in Carolingian minuscule.

Language(s): Latin
2ii. (fol. 226v)

Note on the oracle of Delphi, added in cursive majuscule, s. vii.

Language(s): Greek
2iii. (fol. 227r)

Invocations to the Virgin Mary, added in cursive majuscule and minuscule, s. vii.

Language(s): Greek
2iv. (fol. 227v)

Edict of Flavios Pankratios (fl. 638 × 668), dux Sardiniae, added in cursive majuscule, s. vii.

Language(s): Greek

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii (modern paper) + i (17th century parchment) + 227 + i (17th century parchment) + ii (modern paper), foliated i-iii, 1–230
Dimensions (leaf): c. 244–72 × 207–18 mm.

Layout

Ruled in hard point, before folding; 2 columns of 24–26 lines; ruled space c. 188–210 × 151–75 mm.

Hand(s)

Uncial by one scribe.

Additions in Continental uncial, cursive majuscule, cursive minuscule, and Carolingian minuscule.

Additions: Occasional marginalia in Carolingian minuscule, 9th century (?).

Binding

Brown tanned calf over laminated pulpboard for Abp. Laud, 1637–1639.

History

Origin: late 6th or early 7th century ; Italian, Sardinia (?), or Rome (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

The edict on fol. 227v may suggest that the manuscript originated in Sardinia or that it was there at an early date; for historical and palaeographical arguments in favour of a Roman origin, see Lai, 2017.

Wearmouth-Jarrow, before 735: correspondences between the text of this manuscript and the text of Acts quoted by Bede in his commentaries on that book make it virtually certain that this manuscript was used by Bede; perhaps brought to Northumbria from Rome by Benedict Biscop or Ceolfrith.

Hornbach abbey, by the late 8th century: inscription, fol. 226v (‘Mariae uirginis Gamundum’)

Fulda abbey (?): perhaps referred to in the Fulda (?) booklist of c. 800 (M. Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Library (2006) p. 151 no. 2, ‘Actus apostolorum’)

Würzburg, Domstift St Kilian (?): perhaps referred to in the booklist of c. 800, no. 1 (‘Actus apostolorum’), perhaps one of the copies of Acts referred to in the booklist of c. 1000, no. 93 (‘II Apostolorum’), but both identifications are uncertain, and ultimately depend on the assumption that Laud acquired the manuscript from Würzburg.

William Laud, 1573–1645: his ex libris, 1636, fol. 1r.

Given to the Bodleian as part of his third donation, dispatched on 28 June 1639.

Record Sources

See above. Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae pars prima recensionem codicum Graecorum continens, Quarto Catalogues I, 1883, repr. with corrections 1969).
Quarto Catalogue, col. 517
Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 48

Availability

To ensure its preservation, access to this item is restricted, and readers are asked to work from reproductions and published descriptions as far as possible. If you wish to apply to see the original, please click the request button above. When your request is received, you will be asked to contact the relevant curator outlining the subject of your research, the importance of this item to that research, and the resources you have already consulted.

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (4 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2019-01-22: Description revised for Polonksy digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.