MS. Laud Lat. 49
Summary Catalogue no.: 1143
A Porphyry, Aristotle, Cicero, with commentaries of Boethius, Germany (Mainz?), 11th century; B John of Hildesheim, Speculum fons vitae, Germany, 14th century
Physical Description
Binding
Laudian binding, re-backed.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Eberbach, Cistercian abbey (?): the whole volume probably identifiable as R 23 in the catalogue of 1502 ('Textus porphirii cum commento Item quidem[sic] tractatus marci T Item libellus qui dicitur fons vite Initium Cum sit ne-'; N. Palmer, Zisterzienser und ihre Bücher (1998), 251, without reference to this manuscript).
William Laud, 1573–1645, 1637.
Part of his third donation to the Bodleian, 1639.
MS. Laud Lat. 49 – Part A (fols. 1–166)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Bk. i ends fol. 9vb, followed by art. 3 below; bk. ii begins fol. 10ra.
Ch. 3 begins fol. 27vb. Breaks off unfinished in c. 8 (PL 101.962C). Rest of fol. 28vc blank except for rubric for art. 5 at bottom.
Fols. 27vb-28vc, see art. 3 above.
Fol. 32vb-c blank.
Follows without a break from the preceding item. Rest of fol. 76va blank.
Ends presumably imperfect at PL 64.487D.
Fol. 97r blank.
Rest of fol. 128rc blank; fol. 128v blank.
Contemporary addition.
Marginal and interlinear gloss and commentary, deriving in large part from Victorinus (see the following item); see Mary Dickey, ‘Some Commentaries on the De Inventione and Ad Herennium of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies, 6 (1968), 1–41 (2, 8–9): 'the Laudian gloss', written probably in southern Germany or northern Italy, after 996 (on the date see also Colin Morris in Journal of Theological Studies 20/2 (1969), 671).
Misbound: the correct order is 137–144, 129–136, 145–146. Fol. 137r blank.
Followed without a break by:
Frequently transmitted with Victorinus; here breaks off unfinished. K. Halm, Rhetores Latini minores (1863) 305–306.10
Top left corner: Ovid, Ex ponto, iii.13–14. Bottom: grammatical note (?) (beg. 'Per genus et differentiam(?) fit diffinitio uera').
Contemporary and later marginal and interlinear glosses and notes, especially in arts. 1–2, 6, 13 (for which see above).
Physical Description
Layout
3 cols., 50–51 lines. Written space c. 250–5 × 205–10 mm.
Hand(s)
Caroline minuscule by several hands ('at least eight' according to Hoffmann).
Rubrics in rustic capitals.
Decoration
Foliate interlace initials.
Spaces for initials, not filled in, fols. 76v, 96v, etc.
Diagrams (sometimes not completed, e.g. fol. 92v).
Coloured initials.
'Puzzle' initials in red and blue with penwork flourishing in both colours added, late thirteenth or fourteenth century, fols. 119r, 129r, 147v.
History
Provenance
The script and original decoration were attributed to Mainz by H. Hoffmann, Buchkunst und Königtum im ottonischen und frühsalischen Reich (1986), I.253, who compared the script of Basel, UB, L III 3 and N 1 2 and (p. 246) of Marburg, UB, MS. 375/32.
MS. Laud Lat. 49 – Part B (fols. 167–176)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Fol. 167r blank except for theological notes added in the bottom left corner: 'Omnium quomodolibet illuminatorum est unicus tantum ⟨…⟩'
Fol. 167v, capitula; added in the upper right margin is a reference to bk. 3 of the Fons vite of 'Auicebromphus' (Ibn Gabirol)
Blank spaces (intended for decoration?) on fol. 173r-v.
The unique copy: see Verfasserlexikon IV.639-40.Contemporary addition. Followed by two lines in red:
Fol. 176v blank; fol. 177r-v blank.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
1 col., 27 lines; ruled in leadpoint. Area of the ruled space for the main text, 190 × 115–20 mm.
Hand(s)
Main text, textualis formata by one hand.
Decoration
3-line red initial, fol. 168r.
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Bibliography
Online resources:
Printed descriptions:
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2020-09-14: New draft description for Polonsky German.