MS. Laud Misc. 139
Summary Catalogue no.: 1572
Augustine, Tractatus in evangelium Iohannis (part 2); Germany (Niederaltaich and Würzburg), c. 825–850
Contents
Language(s): Latin
This description is abbreviated from Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from Würzburg in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue (Oxford, 2014), pp. 453–65. For purposes of scholarly citation, reference to the printed catalogue is requested.
Made up of an original core of 23 quires, probably written at Niederalteich (fols 1r–21v; 39r–49v; 71r–96v; 98r–123v/1; 124r–125v; 140r–189v/16; 199r–234v) which contained an incomplete selection from the second part of the Tractatus (tract. 14–16, 19, 23–32, 36–45, 48–54 in modern numbering; numbered in the manuscript 14–16, 19, 18–27, 28–37, 38–44). Lacunae and the ten missing tractates were supplied by several almost contemporary hands associated with Würzburg and Niederalteich.
One leaf lost before fol. 70, with loss of text. Leaves in quires 16–18 misbound: the sequence should be fols. 138, 124r-125v/3, 139rv (fol. 139 is an inserted leaf supplied text originally omitted on fol. 125v), 125v/3–40, 140r (etc.).
Physical Description
Layout
Ruling in hard point, one column of c.27–30 lines. Ruled space c. 223–35 × 123–34 mm.
Hand(s)
Carolingian minuscule, written by several hands; the script of Egino identifiable on fols. 7v/5ff, 22r.
Decoration
Diagram (Sphaera Pythagorae, unfinished). (Pächt and Alexander i. 17)
Initials in the ink of the text; one red initial, fol. 138v.
Binding
Brown tanned calf over laminated pulpboard for Abp. Laud, 1637–1639; rebacked.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
The nucleus probably written in Niederalteich (script of fols. 3v/1–7, 40v/1–24, etc., associated with the Gozbald school), the supplement at Würzburg, by hands associated with both Niederalteich and Würzburg. Part of a three-volume set, vol. 1 = Würzburg UB M.p.th.f.74, vol. 3 = MS. Laud Misc 124.
Würzburg, Domstift St Kilian: 12th-century ex-libris inscription, fol. 1r; 15th-century shelfmark of the Domstift, fols. 1r and 2r, upper right-hand margin; perhaps identifiable in the booklist of the Domstift St Kilian from c. 1000 ('Iohannem Augustini').
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.
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Bibliography
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2020-05-15: Description revised for Polonsky digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.