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

MS. Laud Misc. 484

Summary Catalogue no.: 1264

Petrus Comestor, Sermons. Germany (?), s. xiiiin.

Contents

(fols 1r–191v)
Petrus Comestor, Sermons
Rubric: Incipit prologus operis sequentis
Incipit: Columbarum spiritualium innocentiae lotarum lacte
Rubric: Sermo in pentecosten de fluminibus paradisi
Incipit: Fluvius egrediebatur de loco voluptatis Sollemnizat hodie sacrosancta mater ecclesia

Itemized in detail in J. B. Schneyer, 'Predigten des Petrus Comestor in der Hs. Oxford, Bodl. Laud. misc. 484', Scriptorium 21/2 (1967), 277-283, and less fully in Schneyer, Repertorium, IV.647-9: fols. 1r-106r, 24 sermons on the Holy Spirit and Pentecost; fols. 106r-144r, 8 sermons on John the Baptist; fols. 144r-191v, 11 sermons on SS Peter and Paul. Also found in Troyes, BM, MS. 1515 (from Clairvaux).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: -ficio uel flores
Form: codex
Support: parchment; remnants of medieval repair.
Extent: i + 191 + i leaves
Dimensions (leaf): 205 × 130 mm.
Foliation: 1-192 in modern (19th-cent.) pencil. Front flyleaf unfoliated.

Layout

Ruled in brown ink, 1 column of 24 lines. Ruled space 155 × 100 mm. Written above top line, but with an additional ruled line subsequently added above the first line of text.

Hand(s)

Late protogothic / early textualis by several hands. Punctuation using punctus flexus. Ascenders of the top line extended in the style of documentary script. Occasional marginalia and corrections.

Decoration

Arabesque / silhouette initials in red flourished with the ink of the text.

Coloured initials in red.

Binding

Reversed calf over laminated pulpboard for Archbp. Laud, 1637–1639.

History

Origin: 13th century, first half or middle ; Germany (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Eberbach, Cistercian abbey: almost certainly identifiable from contents as g 15 in the catalogue of 1502 ('sermones de quatuor fluminibus paradisi Initium Columbarum': N. Palmer, Zisterzienser und ihre Bücher: die mittelalterliche Bibliotheksgeschichte von Kloster Eberbach im Rheingau (Regensburg, 1998), p. 273, but not mentioning the present manuscript).

William Laud, 1573–1645: ex-libris inscription of Archbp. Laud, dated 1638, at the lower margin of fol. 1r. Acquired after the dissolution of the Eberbach library in the period of the Thirty Years' War.

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

Record Sources

Description by Alison Ray and Matthew Holford, Jan. 2024. 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)

Last Substantive Revision

2024-01-05: Description revised for Mainz digitization project.