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

MS. Laud Lat. 37

Summary Catalogue no.: 873

A Wisdom books, with gloss, France, s. xiiex; B Thomas Gallus (?), Commentary on the Song of Songs, Mainz Charterhouse, s. xivex/xvin

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. 178–186. For purposes of scholarly citation, reference to the printed catalogue is requested.
Composite: fols. 1–121 || fols. 123–182
Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: iv (17th century) + 183 leaves + ii (17th century)
Foliation: i-iv, 1–185

Binding

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

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Two fascicles of two different provenances, Eberbach abbey and Mainz Charterhouse, put together in the course of the Laudian binding.

William Laud, 1573–1645: his ex libris, 1638, fol. 1r.

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

MS. Laud Lat. 37 – Part A (fols. 1–121)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

2. (fol. 67v)
Prologue to Ecclesiastes

Stegmüller, Bibl. 3351

4. (fol. 91r)
Prologue to Song of Songs

Stegmüller, Bibl. 6199

6. (fols. 120v-121v)

Additions, in contemporary and slightly later hands.

(fol. 120v)
Mariological garden allegory
(fol. 120v)

An extract from Anselm of Canterbury (attrib.), Orationes

(fol. 121r)
Rhyming distich

WIC 4025, ; J. Goering, William de Montibus (c. 1140–1213): the schools and the literature of pastoral care, Studies and Texts 108 (Toronto, 1992) 452, no. 1044).

(fol. 121v)
Note against luxury, avarice and pride

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c. 268–70 × 184–92 mm.

Layout

Ruling in lead point, two or (mostly) three columns of varying lines, on a common grid; the two outer columns for the marginal gloss may be subdivided into further columns, ad hoc, depending on what was needed. Ruled space c. 172–78 × 146–50 mm.

Hand(s)

French protogothic script, s. xiiex, by several hands, who wrote both main and gloss text. A large formal script for the Bible text, a smaller, less formal one for the gloss.

Decoration

Good fleuronnée initials. (Pächt and Alexander i. 109)

History

Origin: s. xiiex ; Likely France

Provenance

Cistercian Abbey of Eberbach: ex-libris inscription, s. xiii1 (upper margin of fol. 1r); 15th-century (?) explicit (bottom of fol. 121v). Likely ‘a 8’ in the catalogue of 1502 (Palmer, Zisterzienser, 261 & 284).

MS. Laud Lat. 37 – Part B (fols. 122–183)

Contents

1. (fols. 123r-182r)
Thomas Gallus (?), First Commentary on the Song of Songs
Colophon: Explicit hoc liber feliciter amen. Legentes in hoc | orent pro scriptore.

Ed. J. Barbet, Publications de la Sorbonne. Série “Documents” 21 (Paris & Louvain, 1972) 77–321, this copy ‘O’, see pp. 9f. & 72; Stegmüller, Bibl. 8199, citing the present MS., and suppl.

(fols. 182v-183v) blank.
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Dimensions (leaf): c. 262–69 × 179–84 mm.

Layout

Ruling in ink, two columns of c. 40–51 unruled lines. Ruled space c. 198–203 × 121–24 mm.

Hand(s)

German textualis, s. xivex/xvin, one main hand: ‘Ulricus dictus Meynfridus’, note (upper margin, fol. 181v), about whom nothing more is known. The ink and script suggest a production at the Mainz Charterhouse.

Decoration

Penwork initial.

Plain red initials.

History

Origin: s. xivex/xvin, ; German, Mainz, Charterhouse St Michael

MS. Laud Lat. 37 - endleaf (fol. 122)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. (fol. 122rv)
Thomas Aquinas, Scriptum super libros Sententiarum

Fragment of lib. 4 ds49 qu3 ar5d ra1–ra3 and lib. 4 ds49 qu1 ar1a ag1–ra5 (ed.: STO 1 (21989) 695 & 676–77; Glorieux, Théol., 14f; Stegmüller, Bibl. 846).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

Layout

2 cols., 41–3 unruled lines. Ruled space c. 215–6 × 61–3 mm. , each column c. 72–78 mm, the intercolumnar space 11–14 mm.

Hand(s)

Written in textualis of s. xivin, by a German hand.

History

Origin: 14th century, beginning ; Germany

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)
Digital Bodleian (2 images from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2020-09-14: Description revised for Polonsky digitization project to include additional information from Mairhofer catalogue.