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

MS. Laud Misc. 232

Summary Catalogue no.: 1096

Hugh of St-Victor, Bernard of Clairvaux, etc.; England (Reading), 12th century, middle

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. (fols. 1r-62r)
Ps.-Hugh of St. Victor, Summa sententiarum

Ends at VII.vi ('non pertinere ad matrimoniam in qua docetur non fuisse commixtio sexuum', cf. PL 176.159D).

3. (fol. 70v)
Hugh of St Victor, De sapientia animae Christ (fragment, beginning only)
Incipit: Prudenti ac religioso […] Aliquotiens accidisse comperi
Explicit: ita ut decet con||
PL 176.845-847B
4. (fols. 71r-84v)
Bernard of Clairvaux, De diligendo Deo

Ending at 'primum et maximum' (VIII.23)

6. (fol. 86r)
Bernard of Clairvaux, Apologia ad Guillelmum abbatem S. Theodorici

(fragment, ending only, cf. PL 182.917-8)

Followed by a short extract headed 'Augustinus': 'Cotidie eucharistie ... domini separari' (Augustine, Ep. 54.3.4); 'Iuramentum filii aut filie nesciente patre ... irrita sunt'.

7. (fols. 87v-93r; 93v blank)
Tractatus abbatis cuiusdam

Ed. J. Leclercq, ‘Nouvelle reponse de l’ancien monachisme aux critiques des cisterciens’, Revue Bénédictine 67 (1957), 77-93; the only copy.

(fol. 185v)

16th-century table of contents. Fols. 185r-7v are blank.

Physical Description

Gullick (see below) distinguishes three codicological units (fols. 1-70, 71-93, 94-186); the volume is damaged by damp, with parts missing (see arts. 3, 6), and although the volume was in its current order by the 16th century (fol. 185v) the evidence of the 12th-century booklist (below) appears to suggest that this was not the original order.
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii + i 187 + ii leaves
Dimensions (leaf): 280 × 190 mm.
Dimensions (ruled): c. 220 × c. 120 mm.

Hand(s)

Protogothic by several hands.

Decoration

Arabesque initials.

Diagrams (fols. 77v, 78v)

Binding

Standard binding of the Laudian collection, rebacked.

History

Origin: 12th century, middle (Gullick) ; England Reading Abbey

Provenance and Acquisition

Reading Abbey: Reading origin and provenance identified by Michael Gullick, ‘Reflections and Observations on Romanesque Manuscripts and Charters from Reading Abbey’, Reading Medieval Studies 42 (2016), 1–24 at 9-10: origin, on grounds of initials (damaged, fols. 1r, 71r), in a style associated with Reading, and the occurrence of a scribe in another Reading manuscript (MS. Rawl. A. 416); provenance, because the volume is apparently identifiable in the 12th-century booklist, albeit with items in a different order (CBMLC B75.171: 'secunda pars sacramentorum Hugonis et illa summa que sic incipit, De fide et spe, in uno uolumine, ubi est etiam tractatus magistri Hugonis de incorrupta uirginitate Marie et tractatus Bernardi abbatis de deo et apologeticum eiusdem ad Willelmum abbatem').

William Laud, 1638

Part of his third donation to the Bodleian, 1639.

Record Sources

Description adapted (2022) from the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Laudian Manuscripts, Quarto Catalogues II, repr. with corrections, 1969, from the original ed. of 1858–1885), with additional reference to published literature as cited, and additional physical description.

Last Substantive Revision

2022-09: Revised to incorporate Reading Abbey origin/provenance, full itemization of contents and additional physical description.