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

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.

1. (fols ii recto–verso & 83r–v, flyleaves)

See below.

2. (fols 1r–81r)
Peter of Blois, Epistles

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.

3. (fols 81v–82vb)
Auctoritates: patristic extracts

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.
4. (fol. 83r–v, endleaf)

See item 1 and below

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: trunco. Si iam
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: i (17th-cent.) + 84 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c.380–95 × 284–300 mm.
Foliation: i–ii, 1–83, in modern (20th-cent.) pencil; (fols 1r–83r) foliated by a German hand of s. xv–xvii.

Collation

i 12+1 | ii–v 12 | vi & vii 8 (fols 61–76) | viii 6+1. The endleaves (fols ii & 83) are made up of a bulla, see item 1.

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

Origin: 14th century, second half ; France, Southern

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

Papal bull

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

Form: codex
Support: parchment

History

Origin: 1351 ; France, Avignon

Additional Information

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. 1469–1479

Last Substantive Revision

2023-11-13: Description revised for Mainz digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.