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

MS. Laud Misc. 202

Summary Catalogue no.: 848

Theological works; Germany (possibly Mainz, Carthusian abbey), s. xiv1 (part A); France (Avignon), 1347 (part 2); Germany, s. xiv1 (part C)

Physical Description

This description is abbreviated from Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from the Mainz Charterhouse in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue (Oxford, 2018), pp. 644–660. For purposes of scholarly citation, reference to the printed catalogue is requested.
Composite: fols. 1–148b || fols. 149–158 || fols. 159–212
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 215 leaves
Foliation: 1–214; the last folio of part 1, following fol. 148, originally not foliated; later numbered '148b' in a hand which changed fol. 148 to fol. '148ª'

Binding

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

History

Provenance and Acquisition

The present manuscript, made up of three originally independent volumes of different origins and dates, is an English product. Parts 1 & 2, however, may have been bound together already at the Mainz Charterhouse, in the 15th century.

William Laud, 1573–1645: his ex libris, 1638, fol. 1v.

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

MS. Laud Misc. 202 – Part A (fols. 1–148b)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

(fol. 1r–v)

Mostly blank, except for a shelfmark on f. 1r and a 15th-century table of contents on fol. 1v, which only lists ten titles (numbered in red), that is current items 1–11; the list was later supplemented, by William Dell, Archbishop Laud’s secretary, who added current items 12–15 & 17.

1. (fols. 2r–16v)
Richard Rolle, Emendatio uitae
3. (fols. 19v–34v)
Alcuin, De uirtutibus et uitiis
5. (fol. 39v)
Hildebert of Lavardin, Biblical epigrams/Carmina

First two verses only, 16 lines.

6. (fols. 40r–42r)
Ps.-Anselm, Similitudines Anselmi (extract: 'De septem gradibus humilitatis')
7. (fols. 42r–90v)
Richard Rolle, Incendium amoris

Presented as 27 chapters; a version of the text also found in other manuscripts, comprising the short version followed by a compilation from Rolle including an extract from Anselm. See A. I. Doyle and Ralph Hanna, Hope Allen’s Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle : A Corrected List of Copies, Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2019), 30–1.

(fols. 42r–73r)
Richard Rolle, Incendium amoris (short version: here as cc. 1–21)
(fols. 73r–76r)
Richard Rolle, Comment on the Canticles (Oleum effusum) (here as c. 22)
(fols. 76r–82r)
Richard Rolle, Comment on the Canticles (Adolescentule) (here as c. 23)
(fols. 87v–88r)
Anselm, Ep. 414 (iii, 133)

Extract beg. 'Omnis actio laudabilis', with independent circulation; cf. Memorials of Anselm 269–70. Here as c. 25

(fols. 88r–90r)
Richard Rolle, Incendium amoris (long version, extracts from c. 12 and c. 15, here as c. 26)
(fols. 90r–v)
Richard Rolle, Incendium amoris (long version, extract from c. 8, here as c. 27)
8. (fols. 90v–93v)
Ps.-Origen, Planctus (tr. Jerome)
10. (fols. 106v–129r)
John Chrysostom, De reparatione lapsi
11. (fols. 130r–148v)
Thomas a Kempis (attrib.), De imitatione Christi (bk. iv)

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c. 206–10 × 137–44 mm.

Layout

Ruling in lead point, often faded to invisibility, one column of hand A1) c. 36 or 37 and A2) c. 28–32 unruled lines. Ruled space (hand A1) c. 157–63 × 96–103 mm. Ruled space (hand A2) c. 155–67 × 88–93 mm.

Hand(s)

Written by two hands: A1) (fols. 2r–129r) a clearly-formed textualis, with features of bastarda

A2) (fols. 130r–148av) a large bastarda.

Decoration

To most items two- to seven-line initials in red, with fleuronnée in red and the ink of text, occasionally with elaborate borders

Red headers, colophons, rubrics, and paraphs mostly by the scribe.

History

Origin: s. xiv1 ; Germany, Mainz, Carthusian abbey (?)

Provenance

Written in Germany, s. xv1, as evidenced by script. The ink may localize the manuscript to the Mainz Carthusians.

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael (?); see above. Identifiable as D XVIII S in cat. ii.

MS. Laud Misc. 202 – Part B (fols. 149–158)

Contents

12. (fols. 149r–158v)
Ascensorium uitae seu Libellus quindecim graduum (religious treatise)

See also Mainz, Stadtbibl., Hs I 228, fols 210r–217r.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): 205–08 × 141–45 mm.

Layout

Ruling in lead point, one column of c. 31–38 lines. Ruled space c. 168–75 × 108–10 mm.

Hand(s)

Bastarda, by two German hands: (fols. 149r–154v, including the colophon on fol. 158v) Iohannes Archfelt, and (fols. 155r–158v) dominus Richwinus, plebanus in Singlis (colophon on fol. 158v).

History

Origin: 1347 ; France, Avignon

Provenance

Written in Avignon, 1347, by Iohannes Archfelt and Richwinus, plebanus in Singlis (a muncipality within the county of Schwalm-Eder-Kreis in Hesse, Germany), see the colophon on fol. 158v, inserted in the hand of Iohannes Archfelt on 9 July 1347, in Avignon, at the Curia Romana.

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: there is no ex-libris inscription; one of the scribes, however, Iohannes Archfelt, is attested to have written and owned other Charterhouse copies (see above).

MS. Laud Misc. 202 – Part C (fols. 159–214)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

(fol. 159r)

List of contents, in the hand of Martin Rifflinck.

13. (fols. 160r–202v)
Smaragdus, Diadema monachorum
14. (fols. 202v–207v)
Ps.-Augustine, Tractatus de miseria hominis
15. (fols. 207v–209r)
Adso Dervensis (Ps.-Jerome), De ortu et tempore Antichristi

Only part of the text, without prologue.

Followed by:

(fol. 208v–209r)
Petrus Comestor, De quindecim signis diei iudicii

Begins on fol. 208vb, line 22. From fol. 209ra, line 8 onwards not identified.

16. (fols. 209v–210r)
Arbor virtutum et vitiorum
18. (fol. 212v)
John Chrysostom, De reparatione lapsi

Imperfect. See above (part 1, item 10).

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c. 206–10 × 141–48 mm.

Layout

Ruling in ink, two, (fols 160, 211r–212r: one) columns of c. 35–40 (fols 211r–212r: 26–31) lines. Ruled space c. 160–65 × 116–20 mm. Ruled space (fols. 211r–212r) c. 156–57 × 109 mm.

Hand(s)

German textualis, s. xiv1, one main hand, C1 (fols. 160r–209r), and two additional hands, C2 (fols. 209v–210r) and C3 (fols. 211r–212r).

Additional hand C4 (fol. 212va–vb) writes a bastarda of s. xv1.

Decoration

Tree of virtues and vices (fols. 209v, 210r)

One- to six-line initials in red, either decorated, or simple.

Scribal red rubrics and numbering.

History

Origin: s. xiv1 ; Germany

Provenance

Cistercian Abbey of Eberbach: the ex-libris inscription (lower margin of fol. 160r), written in the hand of Martin Rifflinck, abbot of Eberbach in 1498–1506: the book was part of the abbot’s library (Palmer, Zisterzienser, 188, & n. 49); likely not identical with Kat. e 35 (2) (Palmer, Zisterzienser, 271 & 289).

Additional Information

Record Sources

See above. Description of fols. 73r-90v, incomplete in the printed catalogue, revised by Matthew Holford, Oct. 2020. 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 (2 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2020-09-18: Description revised for Polonsky digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.