MS. Laud Misc. 650
Summary Catalogue no.: 644
Peter of Blois, Epistolae (selection). Southern France, s. xiv2.
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. 1469–1479. For purposes of scholarly citation, reference to the printed catalogue is requested.
See below.
Selection (ed.: J. A. Giles, Opera omnia, vols 1 & 2 (Oxford, etc., 1847), this copy collated, see vol. 2, p. 283 (no. 26); = PL 207. (in the range of) 1A–543B, etc.; Hauréau, Initia, 3. 46va–vb; L. Wahlgren, The letter collections of Peter of Blois: studies in the manuscript tradition, Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 58 (Göteborg, 1993), with a list of MSS at pp. 200–03, this copy at p. 202; some letters are spurious, see ‘Pierre de Blois’, DS 12 (1986) 1510–17, at col. 1513 [R. Köhn]).
The collection also includes:
For full listing, see printed catalogue.
Extracts from Leo the Great, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Bernard of Clairvaux, Isidore of Seville, etc.
(fol. 81v) themes, in the left-hand margin: mankind, faith, hope, charity, humility, etc.See item 1 and below
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruling (fols 1r–82v) in lead point (except for fols 81v–82v: no ruling), one column of c.40–51 lines. Ruled space c.263–80 × 182–97 mm.
Hand(s)
(fols 1r–82v) written in a Southern French cursive bookhand, s. xiv2, in one main hand; the two letters on fols 80v–81r added in a different, but contemporary hand; item 3 on fols 81v–82vb written in a more or less contemporary hand, of s. xiv2/xvin. Numerous marginalia, in the text hand and in various other hands, predominantly of s. xv. Later letter numbers added in the hand of J. A. Giles, 19th-cent. editor.
Decoration
Coloured initials in red.
Rubrication.
(fol. 16r) Flourished initial in dark brown.
(fol. 60v) sniffing dog and hare, the ears upright; (fol. 68v) ape, sitting on a sort of bench, balancing a cup in one hand and holding a banner inscribed with the catchword in the other.
Binding
For the reconstruction of the medieval binding see item 1: MS. Laud Misc. 650 has two parchment endleaves (fols ii & 83; with fore-edge flaps between fols i/ii & 82/83) which formed the wrappers of the original (French) limp binding. Two sets of numerous, irregularly grouped sewing holes at the outer margin of fol. 83 indicate that the quires were originally attached by long-stitch sewing to the parchment cover (there are, however, no corresponding stitching holes inside the quires visible).
Brown tanned calf over laminated pulpboard for Archbp. Laud, 1637–1639
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Mainz, Carthusian abbey of St Michael: the 15th-cent. ex-libris inscriptions at the upper margin of fol. 1r (a paper label (22–28 110 mm) glued to fol. 1r): ‘Iste liber pertinet ad fratres Carthusiensium | prope magunciam’, and, in the same hand, of fol. 81v: ‘Iste liber est fratrum Carthusiensium prope magunciam’. Identifiable as P XV P in cat. ii. Shortly before 1600, Professor Johannes Busaeus (Johannes Buys 1547–1611), a Jesuit from Mainz, used this copy for his edition of Peter of Blois’ Opera, which was published in Mainz, 1600 (see Schreiber 127f.).
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.
MS. Laud Misc. 650, endleaves (fols. ii, 83)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Clement VI to Iohannes de Prau, prior of Artacella/diocese of Aix, dated Avignon, 4 January 1351. (fols ii & 83) Two contiguous fragments, together forming a bulla, which was once used as limp parchment wrapper of the present volume, and is now preserved as two flyleaves. For full physical description, see printed catalogue.
Physical Description
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Bibliography
Published descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2023-11-13: Description revised for Mainz digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.