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MS. Auct. T. 2. 22

Summary Catalogue no.: 20626

Prudentius, Cathemerinon (Hymni) and Peristephanon, with glosses (some in German); southern Germany, 11th century, first half, with additions

Contents

1. (fols. 2r–42r)
Prudentius, Cathemerinon (Hymni) I-X (with glosses)
(fols. 2r–3r)

Preface

Rubric: Incipit prohemium Aurelii Prudentii
Incipit: Per quinquennia [interlinear gloss: per quinquaginta annos] iam decem [interlinear gloss: Clyconicum metrum]
Explicit: Liber quo tulerit lingua sono mobilis ultimo.
Ed. M. P. Cunningham, CCSL, 126 (1966), 1–2
(fols. 3r–42r)

Books I–X

Rubric: INCIPIT LIBER .I. KΑΘΕMΕΡINON DIMETRUM IAMBICUM ARCHILOICUM ΑΚΑΤΑΛΟΝ ΜΟΝΟΚΟΛΟΝ YMNUS AD GALLI CANTUM
Incipit: Ales diei nuntius
Explicit: liquido spargemus odore
Final rubric: FINIT LIBER HYMNORUM
Ed. M. P. Cunningham, CCSL, 126 (1966), 3–59
Language(s): Latin
2. (fols. 42r–121v)
Prudentius, Peristephanon I-X (with glosses)
Rubric: (fol. 42r)INCIPIT LIBER PERHISTEPHANON HYMNUS SANCTORUM MARTYRUM HEMETERI ET CHELEDONI CALAGORITANORUM. METRUM trochaicum archiloicum, constans ex septem trocheis et silliba, et ALIQUOTIENS SPONDEUM ADMITTIT
Incipit: (fol. 42v) Scripta sunt cęlo duorum matyrum[sic] uocabula
Explicit: sit dexter agnus, induatur uellere
Final rubric: FINIT ROMANUS
Ed. M. P. Cunningham, CCSL, 126 (1966), 251–369
Language(s): Latin
3. (fols. 121v–126r)
Prudentius, Cathemerinon (Hymni), Books XI–XII (with glosses)
Rubric: HYMNUS NATALIS DOMINI VIII KL. IANUARII
Incipit: ⟨Q⟩uid est quod artum circulum
Explicit: iam nemo posthac mortuus
Ed. M. P. Cunningham, CCSL, 126 (1966), 60–72

Fol. 126v, pen-trials

Language(s): Latin

For the 15 German glosses see R. Bergmann and S. Stricker, Katalog der althochdeutschen und altsächsischen Glossenhandschriften (2005), pp. 1380–81 no. 723, with further references.

Language(s): Old High German

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment, of mediocre quality, with numerous flaws
Extent: ii + 126 + ii
Dimensions (leaf): 185 × 140 mm.
Foliation: i–ii, 1–128 in 19th-century pencil; 18th/19th-cent. leaf-count ‘fol. CXXV’ on the last page of text (fol. 126r)

Collation

1(8)-9(8) (fols. 1–72; 3 and 6 in quire 3, fols. 19 and 22, are half-sheets), 10(4) (fols. 73–7; 1 and 4, fols. 73 and 76, are half sheets), 11(ten) (fols. 77–86, probably 8+2 with fols. 77 and 78, each a half-sheet, added at the beginning), 12(8)-16(8) (fols. 87–126). Quire signatures survive for most quires from ‘.V.’ (fol. 40v) onward, using VIIII and XIIII rather than IX and XIV. Some leaves were excised, and replaced in the 12th cent. (fols. 74–75 and 90–91).

Layout

Blind-ruled; prickings sometimes survive in all three outer margins; written mainly in a single column of 18 lines; some bifolia (e.g. fols. 41 and 48), leaves (e.g. fol. 46), or parts of leaves (e.g. fol. 45) ruled and written in 2 columns. Written space varies considerably, typically c. 135–140 × 100–115 mm.

Hand(s)

Apparently written by several scribes in Caroline minuscule scripts, some headings in red ink, some with Rustic Capitals, varying considerably in quality and size, with changes of script at fols. 79r, 84r, 96r, and 96v.

Musical Notation:

Neumes above of the first five lines of the hymn ‘O Nazarene, lux Behtlem …’ (fol. 10v), and marginal pen-trial neumes on fol. 126r.

Decoration

Some initials with rudimentary embellishment (e.g. fol. 22v), some in plain pale pink, blank spaces left for others. The capitals on the first page touched with green (fol. 1r); the heading for the Passio apostolorum underlined in pink and green (fol. 72r).

One fine added 12th-cent. marginal drawing of a centaur holding a small circular object in each hand, and a sprig of foliage (fol. 10r).

Binding

19th/20th-century plain brown calf (post-1824); marbled endpapers. Binder’s(?) reference number in pencil ‘63/921’ (fol. iir).

History

Origin: Germany, south; 11th century, first half; additions, 12th century

Provenance and Acquisition

Hartmutt Hoffmann, Schreibschulen des 10. und des 11. Jahrhunderts im Südwesten des Deutschen Reichs (2004) 249 attributed the manuscript to the Benediktbeuren-Augsburg area, c. 1000 (comparing Munich, BSB Clm 4605), and compared the script of fols. 74–5, 90–1 with Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, Rh 127.

Numerous 11th and 12th-cent. inscriptions include ‘Q⟨uod(?)⟩ [ … ] incipit prudencius(?) yi(?)’ (fol. 1r), ‘Liber [ … ]’ (fol. 126r, upper right corner); numerous pentrials include ‘probatio incausti’ (fol. 1r), etc., and a conjugation of the verb invenire (fol. 126r).

‘Incipit ymnarius de tempore & de sanctis per totum annum & tamen pauci canuntur & dicitur liber iste Prudentius. Siue liber Aurelij Prudentij’ (fol. 1r), late 13th-cent.(?), apparently written over an erased 11th?-cent. Credo.

‘Hic est passio scripta Cypriani et Eulalie virginis in medio libri’, 14th cent. (fol. 1r; referring to fols. 73v–76v and 87r–90r).

15th-cent.(?) shelmarks(?) ‘N. 1’ and ‘.R.11.’ (fol. 1r).

The Cistercian abbey of Heilsbronn, near Nuremberg, before 1613, when published by Johannes Weitzius (Aurelii Prudentii Clementis V.C. Opera, noviter ad MSC. fidem recensita …, Hanover, 1613, fol. a5v) as having been lent to him by Konrad Rittershausen (d. 1613), lawyer and philologist of Altdorf, also near Nuremberg.

Johan Meerman (1753–1815), perhaps inherited as part of the library of his father, Gerard (1715–1771); sale at Amsterdam, 8 June – 4 July 1824, lot 686.

Bought for 40 guilders by Thomas Gaisford, of the Bodleian Library; inscribed with the catalogue reference and price: ‘Bibl. Meerman. tom. 4. n. 686’ and ‘Gu. 40. 0’ (fol. 1r).

Record Sources

Summary description (Feb. 2021) by Peter Kidd, edited by Matthew Holford. Previously described in the Summary Catalogue (1897).
Summary Catalogue, Vol. 4, p. 438

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)
Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2021-03-01: Revised description for Polonsky German digitization project.