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MS. Lyell 2

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. (fols. 2r–156r)
Jerome, Letters

The second volume of a collection common in English MSS.

Rubric: (fol. 2, top of page) (14th cent.) Secunda pars epistolarum beati Ieronimi

'Hec sunt capitula libri huius': list of letters numbered 78-123.

  • Begins (fol. 2) with the last part of Ep. 140: Frater karissime Cypriane scito prenoscens, quia si scribatur. C.S.E.L. LVI, pp. 285 l. 25 (see app. crit.) -289;
  • (fol. 3v) LXXIX: Ep. 48;
  • (fol. 11v) LXXX: Ep. 49;
  • (fol. 12) LXXXI: Ep. 97;
  • (fol. 13) LXXXII: Ep. 50;
  • (fol. 14v) LXXXIII: Ep. 22;
  • (fol. 28) LXXXIIII: Ep. 45;
  • (fol. 29) LXXXV: Ep. 11;
  • (fol. 29v) LXXXVI 'Incipit epistola Iheronimi ad Demetriadem virginem. Hanc epistolam notat Beda non esse beati Iheronimi, sed Iuliani episcopi de Campania, qui fuit discipulus Pelagii heretici, et ipse hereticus, multa in hac contra gratiam dei disseruit' beg.: Si summo ingenio. P.L. 30 col. 15. Ep. Pelagii ad Demetriadem;
  • (fol. 44) LXXXVII: Ep. 130;
  • (fol. 51v) LXXXVIII: Ep. 107;
  • (fol. 55v) LXXXIX: Ep. 64;
  • (fol. 61v) XC: Ep. 117;
  • (fol. 64v) XCI: Ep. 13;
  • (fol. 65) XCII: Ep. 54;
  • (fol. 69) XCIII: Ep. 79;
  • (fol. 72v) XCIIII: Ep. 123;
  • (fol. 77v) XCV: Ep. 120, without preceding list of questions;
  • (fol. 88v) XCVI: Ep. 121;
  • (fol. 103v) XCVII: Ep. 59;
  • (fol. 104v) XCVIII: Ep. 40;
  • (fol. 105) XCIX: Ep. 26;
  • (fol. 105v) C: Ep. 25;
  • (fol. 106) CI: Ep. 41;
  • (fol. 107) CII: Ep. 42;
  • (fol. 107v) CIII: Ep. 27;
  • (fol. 108v) CIIII: Ep. 44; CV: Ep. 43 with the addition (fol. 109-109v) from Ep. 46 beg.: Vaerum [sic] ut ad villam, ends: amatorię cantiones. C.S.E.L. LIV, pp. 341 1. 1–343 1. 3;
  • (fol. 109v) CVI: Ep. 38;
  • (fol. 110v) CVII: Ep. 29;
  • (fol. 112v) CVIII: Ep. 34;
  • (fol. 114) CIX: Ep. 32; CX: Ep. 30;
  • (fol. 115v) CXI: Ep. 28;
  • (fol. 116) CXII: Ep. 60;
  • (fol. 121v) CXIII: Ps.-Jerome Ep. 40 (P.L. 30 col. 278–82; ends: adducet cum illo);
  • (fol. 123) CXIIII: Ep. 118;
  • (fol. 125v) CXV: Ep. 39;
  • (fol. 129v) CXVI: Ep. 108;
  • (fol. 141v) CXVII: Ep. 75;
  • (fol. 143) CXVIII: Ep. 77;
  • (fol. 147) CXIX: Ep. 23;
  • (fol. 147v) CXX: Ep. 24;
  • (fol. 148v) CXXI: Ep. 1;
  • (fol. 150) CXXII: Ep. 127;
  • (fol. 153v) CXXIII: Ep. 66; ends (fol. 156r): sequeris patriarcham Loth.

Identical with the second part of the collection of letters in MSS. Bodl. 365 and New College 129, both English, 12th cent.; for further MSS. of this collection see R. A. B. Mynors, Durham Cathedral Manuscripts, Oxford, 1939, no. 38.

2. (fols. 156v–160v)
Life of St. Jerome
Rubric: (fol. 156v) Incipit vita beati Iheronimi
Incipit: Plerosque nimirum illustrium viros non ambigo nosse
Explicit: (fol. 160v) positus est II kl. octobris ... nec inchoantur neque finientur in secula seculorum. Amen.

BHL 3871; pr. Mombritius, Sanctuarium II, fol. xv-xviii: a shorter version of P.L. 22 col. 201-14. This version is also found at the end of another MS. of the collection of letters: B.M. Harl. 3044, English, 12th cent., fol. 190va-192rb. It seems likely that the life added at the end of MS. Durham Cathedral B. II. 10 (Mynors, no. 38) is also the same.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: postulant
Form: codex
Support: parchment
161 leaves (fol. 1, 161 are modern flyleaves)
Dimensions (leaf): 346 × 235 mm.
Dimensions (written): 260 × 166 mm.
Foliation: Medieval pencil foliation in arabic figures on every fifth leaf.

Collation

1(8)-19(8), 20(8) (8 canc.), quires numbered at end in roman numerals.

Layout

2 cols. of 34 lines ruled in pencil and generally ruled over in crayon.

Decoration

Initials in red and green, with some yellow wash, blue is used in addition on fol. 2, 14v, 108v. Headings mostly in red only, but occasionally in red and green. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 223)

Binding

Well preserved in spite of some slight repairs. Contemporary Northern English work: original sewing on five bands, the top and bottom bands forming the head and tail bands: no kettle stitch: the bands are threaded into holes in the thickness of the slightly bevelled oak boards: cover of white skin: flat spine, mended at the top and the protruding tab missing: the tab at the tail of the spine survives. On the upper cover are a fluted metal centre pin and four bosses, shaped like woolpacks, mounted on pads of hide with the hair still on it. There were once two strap-and-pin fastenings on the lower cover, and at the bottom there are six nail marks, perhaps for a label. There are also nail marks at the four corners of the lower cover, perhaps for bosses, but these must have been of a different shape from the bosses on the upper cover.

History

Origin: 12th century, late ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

Holme Cultram, Cumberland, Cistercian abbey of St Mary the Virgin: "Liber sancte Marie de holmo" (foot of fol. 2), 13th-14th cent; "liber LXXVIIIus secunda pars" (top of fol. 2), 14th cent.?.

Acquired c. 1824 by Sir Henry Lawson of Brough Hall, who gave it to:

Revd. Dr. Scott, vicar of Catterick, Yorks.

Later belonged to the Marquess of Ripon at Studley Royal, Yorkshire; see Hist. MSS. Comm., Sixth Report, 1877, p. 249.

James P. R. Lyell, 1871–1948: bought by Lyell in June 1943 from Davis and Orioli.

Chosen as one of the hundred manuscripts bequeathed to the Bodleian by Lyell in 1948.

Record Sources

Adapted from A. de la Mare, Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts Bequeathed to the Bodleian Library Oxford by James P. R. Lyell (1971)
Catalogue, p. 2
Catalogue, p. 3
Catalogue, p. 4

Bibliography

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2024-06: Encode full description from printed catalogue.