Language(s): Latin
1. (fols. 1r–94r)
‘Annales Palidenses’ A chronicle of world history from Adam to A.D. 1182, by Theodore, monk of Pöhlde.
(fol. 1r)
Rubric: Incipit prologus considerationi cronicorum
Incipit: Eusebius Cesariensis episcopus qui ecclesiasticam conscribit historiam librum cronicorum hoc est de temporibus confecit
(fol. 1r–v)
Rubric: Epistola cristiani ad Honorium
Incipit: Septiformi spiritu in trina fide illustrato
PL 172, 119 (fol. 1v)
Rubric: Rescriptum Honorii
Incipit: Sapientie alumno, abdita diligenter scrutanti
PL 172, 119 (fols. 2r–94r)
Rubric: Incipit excerpta cronicorum secundum Ieronimum et Honorium
Incipit: Non est infructuosum seriem temporum oculis scire cupientium anteponere
Explicit: Anno M.C.lxxxii. Circa festum S. Iacobi dux in exilium abiit.
The last three lines of the column are blank, and in the lower margin is added: ‘anno .lxxxiii. ventus’. The former fols. 81–2 missing with loss of text.
(fol. 94v)
Mostly blank except for erased 16th(?)-century inscriptions.
(fols. 21r–25v)
Annalistic tables
Interposed in a section concerning Herod are tables with parallel columns headed ‘Anni domini’, ‘Pontifices’ and ‘Imperatores’, but also used for the recording of other information. The numerals for years A.D. run from .i. to m.ccc. by the original scribe, but his last annal is apparently that for 1178, the next one, for 1182 (Dux in exilium uadit), being written in a different hand.
One of only two MSS. The nature of the annotations and insertions suggests that this is the autograph working copy of the compiler. The other manuscript (18th century) is Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, 8º Cod. Ms. hist. 333, discussed and printed by Pertz, MGH Scriptores, 16 (1859), 48–98, citing the present MS. but incorrectly identifying it as G. 85 at Cambridge University Library.
2. (fols. 95r–97v)
Life of Pontius Pilate Rubric: De Pilato
Incipit: Regibus olim liberalibus artibus eruditis accidit regem. nomine Cirum Anogonciensem natione
Explicit: Jebus et Salem aliquando vocata est Jebusalem.
Ed. D. Werner, Pylatus: Untersuchungen zur metrischen lateinischen Pilatuslegende und kritische Textausgabe, Beihefte zum Mittellateinischen Jahrbuch, 8 (1972), pp. 261–73 3. (fol. 97av–97br)
The Life of Judas the Betrayer Rubric: De Juda traditore
Incipit: Fuit in diebus Herodis regis Pilato preside vir in Iudea ex tribu Iuda Ruben nomine
Edited, using this MS. (siglum ‘Rb’), by P. F. Baum, ‘The Mediæval Legend of Judas Iscariot’, PMLA, 31 no. 3 (1916), pp. 481–632, at 493–94. 4. (fols. 98r–101v)
Theodore, monk of Pöhlde (?),
Narratio profectionis Godefridi ducis Rubric: Incipit narratio perfectionis Godefridi ducis ad Ierusalem
Incipit: Anno ab incarnatione [1196] in mense marcio post concilium aluerninum
Explicit: et cristianismum in partibus illum ampliare non cessavit
Printed and discussed Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens occidentaux 5 (1895), pp. xxxii-xxv, 187–198; based on and at times copying Fulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana; the former fol. 99 missing with loss of text. 5. (fols. 102r–107r)
Ekkehardus Uraugiensis,
Chronicon universale: recensio III, appendix 'Hierosolymita' Rubric: Alia descriptio Jerosolimitane profectionis
Incipit: Tempore Heinrici \.iiii./ imperatoris romani et Alexii Constantinopolitani iuxta presagium euangelicum
Explicit: in loco caluarie, cum luctu plurimorum
PL 154, 965; printed and discussed Recueil des Historiens des Croisades, Historiens occidentaux 5 (1895), siglum E (pp. xi-xiv), pp. 12–29, 34–40; one leaf missing after fol. 105, with loss of text. Followed (fol. 107r lower margin) by an added note on the Sybil (cf. art. 6). 6. (fols. 107v–108v)
Ps-Bede,
Interpretatio Sibyllinorum verborum Rubric: De sibillis
Incipit: Sibille generaliter omnes femine dicuntur prophetantes
Explicit: Recidet e celis ignisque et sulphuris amnis
PL 90, 1181–86 7. (fol. 109r–v)
Rubric: De quibusdam questionibus passionalium et cronicorum
Incipit: Aliqui dicunt et quidam codices habent, Petro apostolo passo, Paulum reseruatum
Rubric: Questio de Clemente
Rubric: Questio de Decio
Rubric: Questio de sanctis virginibus undecim milibus
8. (fol. 110r–v)
Heito,
Visio Wettini Rubric: Incipit visio Wichtini monachi
Incipit: In principio Alemannorum \id est Suevorum/ in monasterio sancte Marie semper virginis quod Owa nominatur fuit quidam frater nomine Wichtinus
Explicit: seculo pene inter ceteros singularis apparuit (ending imperfectly in ch. XI)
MGH Poetae, II, 267–71 Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii (paper) + iii (parchment) + 134 (107 + 27 inserted cedulae) + i (parchment) + ii (paper) leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c. 332 × 220 mm.
Foliation: Foliation: 1–80, 83–98, 100–110 in ink, ignoring endleaves and tipped-in slips, which are foliated in modern pencil: the endleaves as i–v and 111–113; the following ink folio numbers have had an ‘a’ added and the following 27 inserted cedulae given the same number with ‘b’, i.e. 31 is followed by 32a and 32b: 32, 40–41, 43–44, 46, 48–51, 53–55, 57, 59–61, 69–70, 72–76, 83, 89, and 97.
Collation
Not fully certain due to tightness of the binding, but probably as follows (cf. Schütte, pp. 19–20): 1(8)-2(8) (fols. 1–16); 3(8+5) (fols. 17–29: originally a quire of 8 (fols. 17–20, 26–9), with five folios inserted in the middle of the quire, two bifolia (fols. 21/25 and 22/23) and one singleton, fol. 24), 4(8)-9(8) (fols. 30–77); 10(6+1–2) (fol. 78 added at the beginning of the quire; missing 4–5, the former fols. 81–2, with loss of text) (fols. 78–84); 11(8+1) (one folio, (?) fol. 86, added in the first half of the quire) (fols. 85–93); 12(4) (fols. 94–7); 13(4–1) (missing 2, the former fol. 99) (fols. 98–101); 14(8+1–1) (fol. 109 added after 8; missing 5, after fol. 105, with loss of text) (fols. 102–9); 15(one) (fol. 110)
Layout
Ruled in plummet for 2 columns of c. 35–44 lines; written space c. 265 × 175–180 mm. (each column c. 85 mm. wide)
Hand(s)
Written in early Gothic script.
Decoration
Some pen-drawn initials in red ink.
Binding
Laudian binding. Laminate boards formed partly of uncut sheets of a printed edition of the Bible, covered with brown calf stamped in gilt in the centre of each cover with the arms of archbishop Laud. Vestiges of two ties.
Provenance and Acquisition
The Premonstratensian abbey of Sts John the Baptist and Servatius, Pöhlde (south of Hanover, in Lower Saxony): additions by various hands to the tables on fols. 21r–25v include, for 1223, ‘hoc anno polidensis ecclesia exusta est …’, and for 1240, ‘Hoc tempore dedicata est nostra ecclesia’; with their erased ownership inscription ‘Liber sancti Iohannis et Servasii in Polithe’ (fol. 1r, lower margin) according to the revised edition of the Laud catalogue (1969, p. 575).
16th(?)-century annotations in an unidentified German (?) hand (fols. 19v, 20r, etc.)
William Laud, 1573–1645 (1638, over the erased medieval inscription from Pöhlde (fol. 1r, lower margin))
Part of his third donation to the Bodleian, 1639. Former Bodleian shelfmarks: ‘G. 85.’, ‘G. 7. 3. Laud’ (front pastedown).
