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MS. Laud Misc. 721

Summary Catalogue no.: 1296

Geoffrey of Viterbo, Pantheon; Giovanni Boccaccio, De casibus virorum illustrium; John Mandeville, Voyage d'outre mer. Germany (Eberbach, Cistercian abbey), 1454.

Contents

1. (fols 1r–336v)
Geoffrey of Viterbo, Pantheon
Rubric: Incipiunt capitula prime partis libri godfridi viterbiensis
Colophon: Fol. 336v: Explicit liber pantheon ... Procurante Reuerendo in christo patre et domino domino Thilmanno Abbate monasterii Eberbacensis xixº Scriptus per fratrem Iohannem de Oistrich [Oestrich Winkel im Rheingau] Anno dominj Mºccccº liiijo.
Language(s): Latin
2. (fols 337r–339(a)r)
Giovanni Boccaccio, De casibus virorum illustrium

(extract on the Templars: IX.xxi-xxii and xxiii.1-4)

Rubric: Johannes bocacij libro nono de casibus virorum illustrium hec scribit de domino Jacobo de Molay magistro templario
Incipit: Afferunt veteres post subactum
Explicit: adulteria incendebant
ed. P. G. Ricci and V. Zaccaria, 1983 = Tutte le opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, ed. V. Branca, IX, 822-834

Fols 339a verso-339b verso left blank.

Language(s): Latin
3. (fols. 340r–393v)
John Mandeville, Voyage d'outre mer

Latin tr., with list of chapters (fols 340r-342v).

Incipit: (fols. 342v) Cum terre Iherosolimitana terra promissionis filiorum dei dignior cunctis mundi terris sit habenda
Explicit: saluti per dominum nostrum
Final rubric: Explicit Itinerariuis a terra Anglie in partes Iherosolimitanas et in ulteriores transmarinas editus primo in lingwa gallicana a domino Johanne de mandeuilla milite suo auctore Anno incarnacionis domini M CCC lv in ciuitate leodien' et paulo post in eadem ciuitate translatus in dictam formam latinam

So-called 'fifth (Liège) translation': see J. W. Bennett, The rediscovery of Sir John Mandeville (1954), 301-10, listing the present manuscript (no. 27).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: Fecerat archetypum
Form: codex
Support: parchment (several irregular edges)
Extent: iii (17th-cent.) + 394 + iii (17th-cent.) leaves
Dimensions (leaf): 210 × 145 mm.
Foliation: iii, 1-396 in modern (19th-cent.) pencil. Fol. 339 repeats, with two leaves numbered fols 339a and 339b.

Layout

Ruling in single column of unruled 31-40 lines (occasional double columns). Ruled space 145 × c. 85–100 mm.

Hand(s)

Two main hands: (i) Hybrida, fols. 1r-60v; (ii) Cursive, fols. 61r-393v; 1454. Colophon dated 1454 by monk Johannes de Oistrich (f. 336v) stating item 1 was copied at Eberbach Cistercian abbey for Abbot Tillmann von Johannisberg (r. 1442-1456).

Decoration

Coloured initials in red.

Rubrication.

Binding

Brown tanned calf over laminated pulpboard for Archbp. Laud, 1637–1639. Rust-mark from the staple of a former chained binding, fol. 393.

History

Origin: 1454 ; Germany, Eberbach, Cistercian Abbey

Provenance and Acquisition

Eberbach, Cistercian Abbey of the Virgin Mary: Colophon dated 1454 by monk Johannes de Oistrich (f. 336v) stating item 1 was copied at Eberbach for Abbot Tillmann von Johannisberg (r. 1442-1456); part of the abbot's library, early 16th-century ex-libris inscription at the lower margin of f. 1r: ‘Liber Virginis gloriose. In Ebirbach. Hic est Marie. Ad Vsus. Abbatis Ebirbacensis’. Probably not identifiable in the catalogue of 1502 (Palmer, Zistenzienser, 272, 297).

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

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).
Quarto Catalogue, col. 512
Quarto Catalogue, col. 513
Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 56

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)

Bibliography

    Printed descriptions:

    A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries (1984), no. 632

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

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