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

MS. Laud Misc. 173

Summary Catalogue no.: 778

Saints’ lives. A) Mainz Charterhouse s. xv1 || B) Germany, s. xiv2 || C) Germany, s. xivin || D) Mainz Charterhouse (?); s. xiv2 || E) France (Paris?), s. xiv3/4

Physical Description

Composite: A) (fols. 1–64) || B) (fols. 65–70 & 73–90) || C) (fols. 71–72) || D) (fols. 91–108) || E) (fols. 109–134)
This description is abbreviated from Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from the Mainz Charterhouse in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue (Oxford, 2018), pp. 407–421. For purposes of scholarly citation, reference to the printed catalogue is requested.
Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: ii (17th-cent.) + 134 + ii (17th-cent.) leaves
Foliation: i-ii, 1-136

Binding

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

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: Five, originally separate, parts. The late medieval tab markers to parts A, B, D & E and the 15th-cent. list of contents, which itemizes the contents of these four fascicles, are evidence that at least parts A, B, D & E were already bound together in the 15th century at the Mainz Charterhouse. The volume was originally larger, containing three more items.

William Laud, 1573–1645: his ex libris, 1638, fol. 2r.

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

MS. Laud Misc. 173 – Part A (fols. 1-64)

Contents

1. (fols. 2r–64r)
Dietrich of Apolda, Vita s. Elisabeth (with prologue, epilogue, and appendix)

Fol. 64v blank

BHL 2496
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: et ordinaui (fol. 3r)
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c.145–56 × 100–14 mm.

Layout

Ruling in ink, one column of 21–26 unruled lines. Ruled space c.108–13 × 67–73 mm.

Hand(s)

Textualis, with features of bastarda, Mainz Charterhouse, by a single scribe,

Decoration

Rubrication by the scribe

History

Origin: s. xv1 ; German, Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael (Judging from script.)

Provenance

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: 15th-cent. list of contents at the upper half of fol. 1r, inserted at the Mainz Charterhouse, listing all items of the present volume, except for item 3 (= part C). Identifiable as B XIX Qr in cat. ii.

MS. Laud Misc. 173 – Part B (fols. 65–70 & 73–90)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

2. (fols. 65r–70v)
Passio s. Barbarae BHL 913; cf. also BHL nov. suppl. 917m

The text differs in part from the edition.

For item 3 (part C), see below.

4. (fols. 73r–75r)
Passio s. Margaritae (seu Marinae)
Rubric: de sancta Margareta
Incipit: Beatissima margareta theodosii gentilis patriarche ydola colentis filia in prima natiuitate spiritu sancto repleta in ciuitate quadam

Incipit cf. Ps.-Theotimus, Passio S. Margaretae

BHL & BHL nov. suppl. 5303
5. (fols. 75r–76r)
Passio s. Sixti II papae
Rubric: de sancto Syxto
Incipit: Sub decio imperatore et ualeriano prefecto beatos legimus syxtum episcopum felicissimum et agapitum dyaconos passos
Explicit: et sepelierunt beatum sixtum in cripta in cimiterio c\a/listi sanctos vero felicissimum et agapitum sepelierunt in cymiterio pretextati.

explicit cf. BHL 7801

6. (fols. 76r–78r)
Passio s. Bartholomaei BHL 1002; Stegmüller, Bibl., 207,1
7. (fols. 78r–80r)
William of Saint-Thierry, Vita s. Bernardi (recensio A) BHL 1211
8. (fols. 81r–90r)
Passio s. Christophori,

fol. 90v blank

BHL1766-1767

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c.75–156 × 108–13 mm.

Layout

Ruling in faint lead point or ink, one column of 12–23, mostly 20 lines. Ruled space c.120–29 × 82–88 mm.

Hand(s)

Large German textualis by a single hand.

Minor corrections, in a Carthusian hand from Mainz, s. xv.

Decoration

Rubrication by the scribe.

History

Origin: s. xiv2 ; Germany

Provenance

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: see the 15th-cent. list of contents inserted at the Mainz Charterhouse, discussed above.

MS. Laud Misc. 173 – Part C (fols. 71–72)

Contents

3. (fols. 71r-72v)
Rhythmical office of St Barbara
Rubric: Historia de sancta Barbara
Incipit: Ueni electa mea et ponam in te tronum meum
Explicit: ut eius sollempnia celebrantes pietatis tue munera largius consequamur. Per.

Fascicle C is a bifolium within part B, and originally formed part of a breviary.

cf. BHL 913
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: mile est regnum (fol. 72r)
Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c.150–54 × 95–103 mm.

Layout

Ruling in ink, now faded, one column of 34 & 36 lines. Ruled space c.131–35 × 84/87 mm.

Hand(s)

German textualis by a single hand

Decoration

Red rubrics by the scribe

History

Origin: s. xivin ; Germany (Judging by the script.)

Provenance

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: This double leaf has no known medieval provenance; it is likely however that it belonged to Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael.

MS. Laud Misc. 173 – Part D (fols. 91–108)

Contents

9. (fols. 91r–101r)
Ps.-Augustine, Epistula de transitu S. Hieronymi (ep. 18)
Language(s): Latin
(fol. 108v, lower margin) Pen trial in textualis formata; possibly inserted by hand D, using different ink: o sancte Ieronime ora pro me | o sancte Ieronime ora pro me.
10. (fols. 101r–108v)
Ps.-Cyril of Jerusalem, Epistula de transitu S. Hieronymi
Language(s): Latin

= Ps.-Augustine, ep. 19, excerpts, from cap. 2–5

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c.155–57 × 105–113 mm.

Layout

Ruling in ink, one column of 23 lines. Ruled space c.110–14 × 75–77 mm.

Hand(s)

German textualisby a single Carthusian hand (from Mainz?).

Occasional corrections in two hands of s. xv, one of which clearly is Carthusian, from Mainz.

Decoration

Simple initials in red.

Red rubrics by the scribe.

History

Origin: s. xiv2 ; Germany, Charterhouse St Michael(?) (Judging by the script.)

Provenance

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: see the 15th-cent. list of contents inserted at the Mainz Charterhouse, discussed above.

MS. Laud Misc. 173 – Part E (fols. 109–134)

Contents

11. (fols. 109r–134r)
Nauigatio S. Brendani BHL & BHL nov. suppl. 1437

Fol. 134v blank, except for ownership notes.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c.155–57 × 105–113 mm.

Layout

Ruling in lead point, one column of 25–28 unruled lines. Ruled space c.108–15 × 71–77 mm.

Hand(s)

French textualis, , by a single hand

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander iii. 1306:

Miniatures (marginal drawings), fols. 109–134v.

Red headers by the scribe.

History

Origin: s. xiv3/4 ; France (Judging by the script.)

Provenance

Hoppener, Ortwin from Frankfurt, prior of the Mainz Charterhouse (c.1418–1422, 1426–1428): purchased the book in Paris: inscription at the upper margin of fol. 134v (in the hand of Hoppener?). Hoppener was also prior of the Charterhouses at Strasbourg, Basel and Freiburg i. Br., from 1422 to 1426 (Schreiber 74 & 90; Simmert 32, nos 28 & 30; Stöhlker 46; S. Krämer, ‘Bibliographische Notizen oder ein Bücherverzeichnis? Ein kleines Verzeichnis von Büchern aus der Straßburger Kartause in einer Mainzer Handschrift’, in Befund und Deutung. Zum Verhältnis von Empirie und Interpretation in Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft, eds K. Grubmüller et al. (Tübingen, 1979) 392–404, at pp. 401–04, citing the present MS. at p. 403). For the other fourteen manuscripts verifiably owned by Ortwin Hoppener, see Schreiber 74, HSS Mainz 1. 43 (Hs I 14), and S. Krämer (1979) 402f., each citing the present MS. Corrections, paraphs and chapter numbers possibly added by Hoppener himself.

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: after Hoppener’s death in 1428, the book passed into the possession of the Charterhouse, where it was consolidated with the other fascicles, see the 15th-cent. ex-libris inscription following Hoppener’s ownership note at the upper margin of fol. 134v. Further ex-libris inscriptions of the Charterhouse supplied by the same hand at the upper margin of fols 109r & 121r. See also the 15th-cent. list of contents, discussed above.

Additional Information

Record Sources

See above. 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).

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (22 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from the Mainz Charterhouse in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2018), pp. 407–421
    S. J. P. van Dijk, Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. 2: Office Books (typescript, 1957), p. 354

Last Substantive Revision

2023-01-31: Description revised for Mainz digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.