View online

MS. Laud Misc. 237

Summary Catalogue no.: 1013

Physical Description

Composite: six parts, and binding fragments.

Form: codex

Extent: 249 folios

Dimensions (leaf): 290 × 200 mm.

Dimensions (written): 239 × 159 mm.

Binding

Laudian binding.

Dial bookmark, fol. 230.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Contents suggest that parts of the manuscript belonged to female religious, perhaps the Cistercian nunnery of Aulhausen, a daughter house of Eberbach.

Eberbach, Cistercian abbey (?), perhaps not until the late middle ages or the sixteenth century.

William Laud, 1573–1645, 1637.

Part of his third donation to the Bodleian, 1639.

MS. Laud Misc. 237 – Part 1

1. (fol. 1)

Regula S. Benedicti

German translation, for nuns: ‘Eberbacher’ or ‘Oxforder Benediktinerregel’.

Language(s): Middle High German

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Decoration

Decorated initial.

Cadels.

History

Origin: 14th century, first half ; German

MS. Laud Misc. 237 – Part 2

Language(s): Latin

1. (fol. 17v)

Honorius Augustodunensis, Elucidarius

2. (fol. 78v)

Ps.-Augustine, De sobrietate et castitate

Incipit: Cum mortalium mutabilis mens vel bonis aliquando vel malis intentionibus delectetur

3. (fol. 86)

Rubric: Sermo ad sanctas virgines

Incipit: Virgines Deo dicate | Attentius auscultate | Que vos quidam idiota | Admonet ex menta tota

4. (fol. 86v)

Sermon on the two thieves

Incipit: In cruce dominus Christus pendebat, Judei blasphemabant, principes subsannabant

5. (fol. 88v)

Verba seniorum

Incipit: Interrogaverunt quidam seniores abbatem pastorem.

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

History

Origin: 12th century

MS. Laud Misc. 237 – Part 3

1. (fol. 168)

Heito, Visio Wettini

Incipit: Cum predictus frater die sabbati cum aliquibus fratribus

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

History

Origin: 12th century, third quarter

MS. Laud Misc. 237 – Part 4

1. (fol. 173)

Giles of Corbeil, De urinis

With commentary:

Incipit: Liber iste nove institutionis, studiose compositionis

eTK 0820G

Language(s): Latin

(fol. 186)

Incipit: Medicinarum quedam sunt simplices, quedam composite

Language(s): Latin

(fol. 193v)

Judeneid ('Oxforder Judeneid')

Language(s): Middle High German

(fol. 194)

Incipit: Aloe, quia a prima litera incipit, erit principium

Language(s): Latin

(fol. 195)

Incipit: Clisteriorum quatuor sunt genera

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Decoration

Flourished initials.

History

Origin: 13th century, first half ; Italy or France

MS. Laud Misc. 237 – Part 5

Language(s): Latin

1. (fol. 203)

Iohannitius, Isagoge

2. (fol. 208v)

Hippocrates, Aphorismata

3. (fol. 217)

Hippocrates, Prognostica

4. (fol. 222v)

Theophilus, Liber urinarum

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Decoration

Pächt and Alexander ii. 101:

Good borders.

Good historiated initials (drawings).

Good other initials (drawings).

History

Origin: 13th century, first half ; Italy or France

MS. Laud Misc. 237 – Part 6

1. (fol. 229v)

Nauigatio S. Brendani

Incipit: Sanctus Brendanus, filius Phynlocha, nepos Altilde, genere Cogeni

Explicit: cum suis reversus est ad locum suum

Language(s): Latin

2. (fol. 244)

⟨Dionysius Exiguus⟩, Legend of St. John the Baptist's head (BHL 4290–4291)

Incipit: Quidam monachi de Oriente profecti cupientes que preciose crucis Christi

Explicit: ad sextam kal. Martis per indictionem septimam; ad laudem et gloriam Sancte et Individue Trinitatis [etc].

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Decoration

Coloured initials.

History

Origin: 12th century, second half

MS. Laud Misc. 237 - binding fragments

Liturgical fragments (hymnal?)

Used to secure fols. 1/8, 121/128, 137/144, 138/143, 160/167.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Musical Notation:

Hufnagelnotation

History

Origin: 14th century

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description adapted (2019) from the following sources:

Nigel F. Palmer, Zisterzienser und ihre Bücher: die mittelalterliche Bibliotheksgeschichte von Kloster Eberbach im Rheingau (Regensburg, 1998), p. 290 [contents, physical description, date, origin, provenance], p. 315 [binding fragments]

H. O. Coxe, Laudian Manuscripts, Quarto Catalogues II, repr. with corrections, 1969, from the original ed. of 1858–1885 [contents]

Quarto Catalogue, col. 200

Quarto Catalogue, cols. 201–2

Quarto Catalogue, p. 553

Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 43

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (12 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Online resources:

Manuscripts from German-Speaking Lands – A Polonsky Foundation Digitization Project

Printed descriptions:

Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, II (1970), no. 101 (fols. 203–228)

Online resources:

Handschriftencensus: Eine Bestandsaufnahme der handschriftlichen Überlieferung deutschsprachiger Texte des Mittelalters

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2019-02-06: Description revised for Polonsky to incorporate all information in Palmer and Quarto catalogues.