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

MS. Laud Lat. 25

Summary Catalogue no.: 1172

Biblical composite manuscript. A: Northern Italy, s. xiimed B: Southern France, s. xiiiin

Physical Description

This description is abbreviated from Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from the Mainz Charterhouse in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue (Oxford, 2018), pp. 132–144. For purposes of scholarly citation, reference to the printed catalogue is requested.
Composite: fols. 1–189 || fols. 190–318
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: ii + 319 + ii leaves
Foliation: i-ii, 1-321

Binding

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

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: manuscript is made up of two Charterhouse volumes, which possibly were bound together only in the course of the Laudian binding, in the late 1630s.

A 17th-cent. note of contents at the upper margin of fol. 1r.

William Laud, 1573–1645: his ex-libris inscription, dated 1638, at the lower margin of fol. 1v.

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

MS. Laud Lat. 25 – Part A (fols. 1–189)

Contents

1. (fols. 1v–2v)
Rules of the months

The rules are written in a German hand of s. xiii, on a bifolium which was folded at the gutter and added to the original first quire of the 12th-century Italian part of the volume. Incipit cf. MS. Paris, BnF, Lat. 10448, fol. 122r.

Language(s): Latin
2. (fol. 3r)
Leonine Verses: Descriptio Pulchritudinis

WIC 11501, this copy, incorrect folio no.

Remnants of erased script in the lower part of fol. 3r, not legible.

Language(s): Latin
3. (fols. 3v–6v)
Patristic excerpts

Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, Rabanus Maurus, Isidore of Seville, John Chrysostom, Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel, as well as from the Old Testament (Psalms and Ezekiel).

Language(s): Latin
4. (fols 7ra–9rb)
Ordo Legendi Evangelia (temporale and sanctorale)
Language(s): Latin

Temporale (fol. 7), common of the dedication and sanctorale (fol. 8v). The feast of the Relics is between 2 and 10 Nov.

A palimpsested binion, fols. 7–10, is a 15th-century addition from the Mainz Charterhouse, as evidenced by script and parchment. Fols. 9v–10v are blank, except for remnants of the underscript.

5. (fols. 11v-12r)
Chapters of the Gospels
(fol. 11r)
Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob

(excerpt, 9.34.54)

Continuation of the text on fol. 6v or, respectively, the end of the collection of excerpts, item 3. Most of the folio is blank.

Language(s): Latin
6. (fols. 12r-13v)
Three Sermons

In the 12th-century hand of item 1, on originally blank parchment.

6.i. (fol. 12r-v)
Sermo bonus
Incipit: Memento creatoris tui in diebus iuuentutis tue ... Dies iuuentutis nostre est tempus uite nostre
Explicit: ipsi occurrere et ipsum sequi ualeamus. Quod ipse prestare dignetur qui uiuit et regnat.
6.ii. (fols. 12v-13r)
De confessione
Incipit: Confessio est de peccati accusatoria manifestacio.
Explicit: confessio penitentis ad laudem pertinet ignoscentis.
6.iii. (fol. 13r-v)
Item sermo alius
Incipit: Agnus dicitur christus. quia agnus dicitur ab agnon
Explicit: pendens in cruce dona nobis pacem.
Language(s): Latin
7. (fols. 14r–188v)
Gospels, with gloss

The four Gospels with interlinear and marginal gloss (not Glossa ordinaria); throughout with marginal rubrics, indicating the pericopes to be read at mass.

An excerpt from Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob, 6.28.11 (fol. 14, at the head).

(fols. 14r–61v)
Matthew
(fol. 14r–v)
Prologue in Matthew (Monarchian prol.)

Stegmüller Bibl., 591

(fols. 15r–61v)
Matthew
(fol. 14v)
(fols. 14r–61v)
Mark
(fol. 62r–v)
Prologue in Mark (Monarchian prol.)

Stegmüller Bibl., 607

(fol. 62v)
List of chapters
(fols. 63r–91v)
Mark
(fols. 92r–140v)
Luke
(fol. 92r–v)
Prologue in Luke (Monarchian prol.)

Stegmüller Bibl., 620 (= 3437)

(fol. 93r)
List of chapters
(fols. 93v–140v)
Luke
(fols. 141r–188v)
John
(fol. 141r–v)
Prologue in John (Monarchian prol.)

Stegmüller Bibl., 624

(fols. 142r–188v)
John
Language(s): Latin
8. (fol. 189r–v)
Bonizo of Sutri, Sermo de paenitentia
Language(s): Latin

Edition of the sermon by W. Berschin in Bonizo von Sutri. Leben und Werk, Beiträge zur Geschichte und Quellenkunde des Mittelalters 2 (Berlin & New York, 1972) 161–65, is based on this manuscript. (For an analysis of contents, see pp. 91–93)

Physical Description

‘cerebri ne’ (fol. 2ra) or ‘quippe cum’ (fol. 5r)
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 189 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c.193-205 × 133-139 mm.

Layout

Ruling in hard point, in three columns, the number of lines varies, the main column of c. 21–25 widely-spaced lines. The size of the columns varies, the central one usually measuring 50–60 mm. Ruled space c.137–145 × 120–126 mm mm.

Fols. 3–6, 11–13: pattern vary with the hands.

In the section of the later hands (items 1, 6 and 4): ruling in ink, mostly in two columns.

Hand(s)

Main text and glosses by a single hand writing small protogothic script, Northern Italy, s. xiimed.

Multiple German hands writing in textualis of s. xiii (items 1, 5 and 6).

Bastarda, s. xv (item 4)

Decoration

Fine initials. (Pächt and Alexander ii. 47, pl. V)

Illuminated initials at the beginning of each prologue and gospel (fols. 14r, 15r, 62r, 63r, 92r, 93v, 141r, 142r).

Red rubrics, paraphs and letters.

History

Origin: 12th century, middle ; Italian, North ; additions, Germany, 13th and 15th centuries

Provenance

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: 14th-century ex-libris inscription at the upper margin of fol. 1v; in the 15th century a binion (fols. 7–10 (item 4)) was bound into the centre of the original 12th-century quaternion.

MS. Laud Lat. 25 – Part B (fols. 190–319)

Contents

(fol. 190r-v)
Verses

The fol. is mostly blank, except for the verses at the upper half of the verso, in a hand of s. xiii, evidently to be linked with Foigny Abbey (Cistercian)

Language(s): Latin
9. (fols. 191r–318r)
Zacharias of Besançon, Concordia evangelistarum
Language(s): Latin

Stegmüller, Bibl. 8400

At the lower margin of fol. 191r are Verses on the Symbols of the Evangelists, added by a hand s. xv from the Mainz Charterhouse (Chevalier 21804; WIC 20508)

10. (fols. 318v)
Lupus de Olmeto, Regula monachorum ex scriptis Hieronymi (excerpt)
Language(s): Latin

Originally a blank. Additions, in several Carthusian hands from Mainz, s. xv, includes also ex-libris inscription and probatio calami.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: siceram non (fol. 196ra)
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 129 + 1 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): c.200–03 × 138–43 mm.

Layout

Ruling in lead point, (fols. 191r–194r) one or two columns, (fols. 195r ff.) usually two columns with the inner text column wider than the outer gloss (= commentary) column. Ruled space c.146–60 × 99–115 mm.

Hand(s)

Late Southern French protogothic script, s. xiiiin: a single hand for the Bible text, a different one for the marginal gloss, writing a smaller script.

A later hand of s. xivex/xvin added more interlinear gloss.

Decoration

Initials. (Pächt and Alexander i. 492)

Red rubrics and various highlights.

Binding

Remnants of previous binding (fol. 190r–v).

History

Origin: s. xiiiin ; Southern France (judging by script and decoration.)

Provenance

Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael: the 15th-cent. ex-libris inscriptions at the upper margin of fol. 194v: ‘Iste liber est fratrum Cartusiensium prope magunciam’ and, in the same hand, of fol. 318v: ‘Iste liber pertinet ad carthusienses maguncie’

MS. Laud Lat. 25 - end flyleaf, fol. 319

Contents

Language(s): Latin

11. (fols. 319r–v)
Hebrew book of prayers
Language(s): Hebrew

Physical Description

Form: codex
Dimensions (fragment): c.185–202 × 36–39 mm.

History

Origin: 12th century, late, or 13th century, early ; Germany

Additional Information

Record Sources

See above. Previously described in 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)
Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

    Published descriptions:

    Daniela Mairhofer, Medieval Manuscripts from the Mainz Charterhouse in the Bodleian Library, Oxford: A Descriptive Catalogue, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2018), pp. 132–144
    Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, I (1966), no. 492; II (1970), no. 47
    S. J. P. Van Dijk, Handlist of the Latin Liturgical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford : Vol. 1: Mass Books (typescript, 1957)

Last Substantive Revision

2022-12-20: Description revised for Mainz digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.