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

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MS. Auct. F. inf. 1. 1

Summary Catalogue no.: 2439

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Valerius Maximus , Memorabilia

Bks. IV-IX, with commentary of Dionysius de Burgo

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: i + 185 fols.
Dimensions (leaf): 400 × 253 mm.

Layout

2 cols., 51 lines, column space 263 × 70 mm.

Hand(s)

Humanistic script.

Decoration

Fine borders, initials. Fine penwork borders, initials. (P&A iii. 920, pl. LXXXVI)

Arms of St Albans, Tynemouth priory, England, and Humfrey duke of Gloucester, fol. 1.

Rubrics.

Binding

Stamped leather on boards, re-backed but with the old back inserted, clasps lost; Oxford, early 17th century.

Accompanying Material

Fly leaves: two leaves from a Latin missal, English, 15th century.

History

Origin: 15th century, second quarter (1420 × 1440) ; English, St. Albans (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Made for John Whethamstede, abbot of St Albans: lambs and eagles in the borders representing his namesakes, St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. The second volume of a set of two (‘Valerii Glossati in duobus voluminibus’) commissioned by him in the period of his first abbacy (1420-40): Annales Monasterii S. Albani a Johanne Amundesham...conscripti, ed. H. T. Riley (1871), II, p. 268.

Presented by him to the library of St Albans Abbey (inscription, fol. 168v).

Later given by him to Gloucester College, Oxford (inscription, fol. 168v).

Fol. 3v: ‘Magister J(?) Wart(er)’, perhaps John Warder of St Albans Abbey and Gloucester College (Emden, BRUO).

fol. 149: ‘Robert Foster’, 16th century.

Acquired by 1602.

Record Sources

Description adapted (2018) from the following sources:
A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.435-1600 in Oxford Libraries (Oxford, 1984), no. 62 [physical description, origin, provenance]
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, III (1973), no. 920 [decoration]
Summary Catalogue (1922) [contents, binding]
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2, part 1, p. 364
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2, part 1, p. 365

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2018-10-24: Fully revised to incorporate all information in Watson, P&A, and SC.