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MS. Laud Misc. 155a

Summary Catalogue no.: 473

Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Ezechielem

Incipit: Dei omnipotentis asspiratione[sic] de Ezechiel propheta locuturus

Explicit: perpetuam perducit. Sit itaque gloria […] per omnia secula seculorum

Final rubric: Explicit Omelia X Gregorii

Without the prologue.

Book I ends on fol. fol. 66r (‘Explicit omelia XII Gregorii papae’); fol. 66v is blank; Book II begins on fol. 67r.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: -lius res ipsa

Form: codex

Support: parchment, with some uneven edges but rarely holes in the text area

Extent: i (later parchment) + 126 + i (later parchment)

Dimensions (leaf): 355 × 245 mm.

Foliation: i, 1–127, in pencil, in the usual style for Laud MSS.

Collation

Uncertain: too tightly bound. No catchwords or quire signatures survive.

Layout

Ruled in plummet for two columns of 40 lines (Muzerelle 2-2-22/ 0/ 2-2/ JJ). Ruled space c. 270 × 175 mm. with 25 mm. between columns.

Hand(s)

Several pre-gothic book hands; rubrics in orange majuscules (sometimes oxidised to a silvery appearance); marginal diples shaped like ‘ss’ highlight quotations. Changes of script occur at, e.g., fol. 58r.

Decoration

Large decorative initials in the inks of the main text and rubrics, usually outlined with lines of dots in the Insular manner, sometimes with rudimentary foliate or geometric ornament, occasionally with a pale yellow background wash (e.g. fol. 77r). 'Good archaizing initials' (Pächt and Alexander i. 46, pl. IV).

Binding

Laudian binding. Sewn on five bands laced into pasteboards covered with polished brown leather, each cover stamped in gilt with the arms of Archbishop Laud, with vestiges of two ties; rebacked. Several medieval fore-edge tabs made of parchment knots using MS. waste (see e.g. fol. 14r–v).

History

Origin: 11th century, end, or 12th century, early ; German, Lotharingia (according to Pächt and Alexander)

Provenance and Acquisition

Medieval shelfmark ‘.C.9.’ (fol. 1r, upper margin).

15th-cent ‘Nota’ marks, manicula, and other marginalia (e.g. fols. 51v, 101r).

William Laud, 1573–1645, with the usual inscription, here dated 1638 (fol. 1r, lower margin).

Donated to the Bodleian Library in 1641 or later (Quarto Catalogue, p. xxxix). Former Bodleian shelfmarks: ‘A. 175’ (crossed through), ‘Laud 155’ (cancelled by encircling) (inside front cover), ‘A. 175.’ (fol. 1r).

Record Sources

Description (May 2021) by Peter Kidd, edited by Matthew Holford. Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Laudian Manuscripts, Quarto Catalogues II, repr. with corrections, 1969, from the original ed. of 1858–1885).

Quarto Catalogue, col. 146

Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 24

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2021-05: Description revised for Polonsky German digitization project.

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