MS. Laud Lat. 91

Summary Catalogue no.: 1115

(fols. 1r–118v)

Exodus, with glossa ordinaria

Incipit: (text) Hec sunt nomina filiorum Israel

Incipit: (gloss(marginal)) Exodus grece, exitus uel egressus latine: odos enim uia

Incipit: (gloss(marginal)) Rabanus. In Pentatheuco excellit Exodus in quo pene omnia sacramenta

Incipit: (gloss(interlinear)) Nomina que scripta sunt in celo

Incipit: (fol. 111v, marginal gloss, ch. 36) Or. Et postea quam obtulit populus

Incipit: (fol. 111v, marginal gloss, ch. 36) Aug. Et omnes qui sponte uellent ire

There is no interlinear or marginal gloss after 36.4 (gloss ending '...uel religione terruit').

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: i + 118 + i leaves (endleaves parchment of the date of the binding)

Dimensions (leaf): c. 263 × c. 172 mm.

Foliation: 19th-century pencil: i, 1-119.

Collation

1(8)-14(8) (fols. 1-112), 15(8-2)(wants 7, 8, probably cancelled); quires numbered in roman on the final verso (quires 1-12, between four decorative flourishes).

Layout

Ruled in plummet. Laid out in three columns: Biblical text in a central column (c. 57 mm), the gloss in outer (c. 51 mm.) and inner (c. 27 mm.) columns, overall ruled space c. 165 × 140 mm. Gloss frequently extending into the upper (rarely lower) margin.

Pricked and ruled for 15 lines of widely spaced Biblical text with interlinear gloss.

Marginal gloss ruled ad hoc, approximately 40 lines of gloss for 15 lines of text.

Hand(s)

Protogothic; one hand.

Decoration

Decorated inital 'Hec sunt', fol. 1r, c. 60 mm. high, with animal and foliate motifs. (Cf. Pächt and Alexander iii. 253, pl. XXIV; as English, late 12th cent.)

No other decoration; capitals at the beginning of sentences are frequently left blank, sometimes filled in by later hands in ink or crayon.

Additions:

'Modern' Biblical chapter headings added (see Provenance); nota marks (e.g. fols. 35v, 66r); medieval corrections to text and punctuation; sporadic annotations in crayon (fols. 5v, 47r).

Binding

A standard binding of the Laudian collection, reversed calf, c. 1638-9; rebacked.

Evidence of an earlier binding: extensive wormholes at front and back; rust-marks from two clasps at front.

History

Origin: 12th century (middle or second half) ; Germany (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Eberbach, Cistercian abbey: 'modern' chapter numbers added first in 'crayon', subsequently in ink, boxed, as in other manuscripts from Eberbach (e.g. MS. Laud Lat. 107); probably identifiable as a 3 in the Eberbach catalogue of 1502 ('Exodus glosatus initium ⟨Hec sunt nomina filiorum israel⟩') (Palmer, Zisterzienser, 261, without reference to the present manuscript; as Palmer points out the incipit is given for a 2 but belongs with a 3).

William Laud: acquired 1638 (ex libris, fol. 1r) after the disperal of the Eberbach library in the Thirty Years' War.

Part of his third donation to the Bodleian, 1639.

Record Sources

Description by Matthew Holford, February 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). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1973).

Quarto Catalogue, col. 42

Summary Catalogue, Vol. 2, part 1, p. 48

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-02: Description revised.

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