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

MS. Laud Misc. 135

Summary Catalogue no.: 1554

Augustine, De civitate dei. Würzburg, Domstift, or Niederaltaich, c. 825–55.

Contents

This description is abbreviated from Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from Würzburg in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue (Oxford, 2014), pp. 444–50. For purposes of scholarly citation, reference to the printed catalogue is requested.

fols. i–ii recto–verso blank, except for a 17th-cent. note of contents, and some notes.

(fols. 1r–218v)
Augustine, De civitate Dei (bks. viii–xviii; bks. i–vii are MS. Laud Misc. 120)
Language(s): Latin
(f. 192r)
Gloss

Added s. ix (after 842), interlinear pen gloss in Old High German.

Language(s): Old High German (East Fraconian)

fols. 219r–220v blank.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii + 219 + ii
Dimensions (leaf): c. 290–300 × 218–224 mm.
The margins trimmed, affecting marginalia and quire signatures.
Foliation: i–ii, 1–81, 82a, 82b, 83–220

Layout

Ruling in one column of 28–32, mostly 30 lines in hard point. Ruled space c. 230–55 × 163–82 mm.

Hand(s)

Carolingian minuscule, c. 825–55, likely 825–842, by several hands belonging to the second Gozbald group and originating in the abbey of Niederaltaich.

Decoration

Monochrome initials, c. 825–55. (Pächt and Alexander i. 9). Simple two- to four-line initials, in the ink of the text; on fol. 1r a three-line initial, the body filled with ink; on fol. 158r a nine-line initial P with interlace.

Binding

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

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Written between 825–855, at the order of Bp. Gozbald: inscribed, fol. 218v. Based on the script it is likely that the copy was written when Gozbald was still abbot of Niederaltaich Abbey, i.e. between 825 and 842.

Würzburg, Domstift St Kilian: 13th-century ex-libris, f. 1r; 15th-century shelfmark, fol. 1r

William Laud, 1573–1645: his ex libris, 1637, fol. ii verso.

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

Last Substantive Revision

2019-06-27: Description revised for Polonsky digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.