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

MS. Laud Misc. 555

Summary Catalogue no.: 1072

Nicholas de Gorran, Distinctiones theologicae. France, s. xiv1.

Contents

Language(s): Latin

This description is abbreviated from Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from the Mainz Charterhouse in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue (Oxford, 2018), pp. 1427–1434. For purposes of scholarly citation, reference to the printed catalogue is requested.

1. (fols 1ra–168rg)
Nicholas de Gorran, Distinctiones theologicae (unpr.; Little 2, this copy; Thomson, Grosseteste, 248, no. 17, this copy; Stegmüller, RB, 5740, citing the present MS., & 7404,5; Hauréau, Initia, 1. 4vb–5ra, this copy at fol. 4vb; Bloomfield 62, citing the present MS., and suppl.; Kaeppeli 3090, this copy). (fol. 167rb) four colophons, one below the other (Colophons 6. 21383, citing the present MS.; see also W. Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 31896) 510):
Colophon: Finito libro debemus vina magistro
Colophon: Explicit iste liber sit scriptor crimine liber
Colophon: Explicit expliceat ludere scriptor eat
Colophon: Explicit iste liber benedictus omnipotens rex
(fols 167va–168rg) Tabula. List of words in their order, with chapter numbers.
2. (fols 168va–170rb)
James of Lausanne, Sermo fer. 6 in parasceve

(Schneyer 3. 71. 207).

3. (fol. 170va–vb)

Addition (on paupertas ) to the text on fol. 129va (item 1).

(fol. 170v) Note regarding payment to a professional scribe: ‘Nota quod post recessum domini Iohannis dedi scriptori istorum quaternorum .vj. solidos parisienses. de quibus dominus Iohannes reliquit michi xxxij. denarios adhuc remanent mihi .xl. denarii.’ The scribe of the book was paid with money which dominus Iohannes, possibly the commissioner of MS. Laud Misc. 555, had left after his death for this purpose.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: ad semitam
Form: codex
Support: parchment; medieval repairs (stitching, with plain thread) on fols 17, 31, 44, 64, 141 & 165. A bookmark made of brown-coloured thread horizontally sewn into the outer centre of fol. 167, marking the end of the Distinctiones and beginning of the tabula; damaged now.
i (17th-cent.) + 170 + i (17th-cent.) leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c.222–34 × 157–67 mm.
Foliation: i, 1–171, in modern (19th-cent.) pencil; (fols 1v–166v) Foliation in roman numerals in a hand of s. xivex, possibly from the Mainz Charterhouse.

Collation

i–iv 12 | v 14 | vi–xiv 12.

Layout

Ruling in lead point; two columns of 43–45, mostly 44 lines (fols 168va–170vb, additional texts: 36–61 written lines, unruled). Ruled space c.181–202 × 130–38 mm.

Ruling for the tabula (fols 167va–168rh) laid out in 4 + 4 columns per page of 45 & 46 lines. Ruled space c.184–85 × 130–137 mm.

Hand(s)

French textualis, s. xiv1, mainly one hand. Occasional corrections and marginal annotations in the text hand and in younger hands of s. xiv–xv, one of which is responsible for the foliation and correction of the tabula; another one corrected the initial on fol. 70ra and sporadically added paraphs, in black ink, e.g. on fol. 62ra–rb: these hands may well be from the Mainz Charterhouse. Two additional hands of s. xivex, possibly from the Mainz Charterhouse, writing in textualis: 1) (fols 168va–170rb) item 2; 2) (fol. 170va–vb) item 3.

Decoration

Flourished initials in red and blue.

Coloured initials in red and blue.

Initials secondarily infilled, with acanthus motif, in Charterhouse ink.

Rubrication.

Binding

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

History

Origin: 14th century, first half ; France: see also the note of payment at the head of fol. 170v, mentioning ‘solidos parisienses’ (discussed above, item 3).

Provenance and Acquisition

Mainz, Carthusian abbey of St Michael: the late 14th-cent. ex-libris inscription at the upper left-hand margin of fol. 1r: ‘Iste liber est Cartusiensium prope mogunciam’. Identifiable as F XXI S in cat. ii.

William Laud, 1573–1645: Ex-libris inscription of Archbp. Laud, dated 1638, at the lower margin of fol. 1r.

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

Record Sources

See above. 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)

Bibliography

    Published descriptions:

    Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from the Mainz Charterhouse in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2018), pp. 1427–1434

Last Substantive Revision

2023-11-12: Description revised for Mainz digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.