MS. Lyell 70
Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica, with addition on Acts probably by Peter of Poitiers; probably Italy or Southern France, early 13th century
Contents
Language(s): Latin
List of contents (fol. 1ra), going only to end of Liber Genesis (⟨D⟩e morte Ioseph)
Our MS. has some, but by no means all, of the additions pr. in P.L., and those which are included are often incomplete or in different positions. It has others not found in P.L., e.g. two to Liber Genesis cap. L (cap. LIV in MS., fol. 10v) a on 'Sarai' beg.: Prius enim cum y ponebatur punctum sic. Saray, ends: scribunt Sarae; b on Samson beg.: Nota quia de Samsone non satis patet in Iudic., ends: prodiret in lucem. A number of other additions headed 'Mar.' or 'M.' (apparently for 'marginalis') have been added in the margins in early 13th-cent. hands (all but one (fol. 38) by the first gloss hand); not all of these are pr. in P.L.
There are extensive glosses of 13th-14th cent., chiefly in two hands:
Early 13th cent., chiefly marginal, mostly short, often written in triangular form. On fol. 34vb (on Liber Leviticus cap. XVII, P.L. 198 col. 1204C2) is the following gloss on castrimargia : Dicit enim M. Alex. quod castrimagia [sic] vocatur illa avis que gallice dicitur ascii vel iudchoc, quae delicatissima avis est et exinde dicti sunt castrimargi. This gloss is apparently not found in Alexander Nequam's Corrogationes Promethei, but there are many other glosses giving the derivations of words, often quoting Latin authors (especially Ovid ('O.': apparently 13 times) and Lucan (10 times) but also Vergil (5 times), Macrobius (3 times), Juvenal (3 times), and the 'De Gestis Alexandri', Cicero (Tusc. Quaest.), Persius and Priscian, once each). Plato is also cited (fol. 141ra). The vernacular equivalents ('gallice', 'in gallico') are also given in glosses on fol. 28vb, 29rb, 30ra (on mergum , Liber Exod. cap. LXII: P.L. 198 col. 1182C11; cf. Nequam's gloss on Leviticus ed. P. Meyer, 'Les Corrogationes Promethei d'Alexandre Neckham', N.E. 35 (1896), 674), 30rb, 30va (on maculae , Liber Exod. cap. LXIV: P.L. 198 col. 1185B9; cf. Nequam's gloss on Leviticus ed. Meyer, op. cit., pp. 673-4), 31гa, 49va, 55ra, 69rb, 81rb, 149rb. On fol. 21rb as a gloss on Cumque minasset (Liber Exod. cap. VIII: P.L. 198 col. 1145C11) is quoted the verse: Dum grex minatur lupus illi dente minatur (ed. Walther, Prov., no. 6546), which is used by Nequam for the same text; see Meyer, op. cit., p. 673. On fol. 18rb (Lib. Gen. cap. XCIII) another gloss refers to 'M. Alex.', on Benjamin's extra share. In the gloss there are also frequent references to Augustine and Jerome, often deriving from the Decretum Gratiani, to which there are a great many specific references. There are also references to: 'M. Alanus' (fol. 7ra); Bernardus Silvestris (fol. 7va: De mundi universitate I, III, 1. 453-4): 'legenda sanctorum' (fol. 10vb, 52vb); 'Remigius super Marcianum' (fol. 13vb: see Remigius of Auxerre on Mart. Capella II. 74, 10, ed. Lutz, p. 199, 1. 24-5; 'Galienus' (fol. 21ra); Boethius, De Cons. Phil. (fol. 25rb); Cassiodorus on the Psalms (fol. 34rb); 'Cantor' (fol. 34va, 43vb); ‘Alex. papa' (fol. 45vb, on marriage, probably referring to the Summa of Alexander III (Rolandus Bandinelli), on Decr. C. XXVIII); the gloss on Matthew (fol. 47rb, 69rb), Mark (fol. 131гa) and John (fol. 130va); 'M.G.' (fol. 93va); ‘A.' (fol. 115vb, 127vb); Hugh of St. Victor (fol. 121a) and on fol 122rb (Hist. Evang. Ch. c: De ceco nato) the verse beg. Est caro nostra lutum patris sapientia sputum (2 lines. Ed. Walther, Prov., no. 7333; see also Initia, no. 5623) is attributed to 'Magister Iohannes pulcrarum manuum', i.e. presumably John of Canterbury, called Bellesmains (c. 1122-c. 1204), bishop of Poitiers and archbishop of Lyons (res. c. 1193). The glossator also refers to Paris (fol. 67ra, 68vb), and to the customs of the 'gallicana ecclesia' (fol. 38vb) and 'pueri gallici' (fol. 30rb, 119rb). He quotes examples from Hungary and versions of words in the Hungarian vernacular ('in hungaria', 'hungarico') on fol. 16va, 28vb (twice, once in conjunction with 'in gallico'), 45va, 52vb, 60ra, 70rb (twice) (Pl. XVIb), 77va, 79rb, 90ra, 104ra and similarly quotes Lombardy ('lombardice', 'in lombardia) on fol. 101vb, 152rb. On fol. 90va he refers to the way the 'paleae' in the Decretum are marked.
In a late 13th- or early 14th-cent. Italian hand in pale-brown ink. Written in blank spaces as a continuous gloss, with red initials. On the O.T. books only, and principally on the earlier ones, and apparently exclusively concerned with allegorical interpretations, even of the passages on classical history. Beg. (fol. 1va): In principio creavit . . . Celum superna, terra significat ima, celum invisibilia, terra visibilia. The last gloss is on fol. 107ra (Lib. Macc. II, cap. 1), headed 'Mor. Bed', beg.: Porro quedam etc. Equus iste Christi est humanitas, ends: tota illuminatur ecclesia. Many passages are similarly ascribed to Augustine, Jerome, Isidore, 'Adamantius', Origen, Orosius, Gregory, Bede, 'Strabo', Remigius and Bernard (?: generally 'Ber.'; on fol. 10, 'Bernardini').
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
2 cols., 56-7 lines ruled in pencil; writing above top line.
Hand(s)
Current text hand.
Decoration
Blue and red initials with pen flourishes, sometimes partly formed of birds (fol. 1, 2).
There is a series of marginal pen drawings, sometimes with red touches, most of which appear to have been done by the first glossator (a) or at about the same time as gloss a, to which they are often joined, and certainly before gloss b, which is sometimes written over them (e.g. fol. 47, 68, 86v). The drawings are mostly of fantastic monsters, but there are also lions (fol. 32v, 47, 86v), birds (fol. 32v, 66v (double-headed), 88v, 118v), fish (fol. 68, 101) and heads (e.g. a king, fol. 44) and they sometimes consist partly of acanthus scrolling (fol. 4, 15v, 67v). Noteworthy are: (fol. 34v–35) large monsters; (fol. 61) head with three faces; (fol. 103) woman holding up a flaming torch; (fol. 107v) front part of a bull, with head turned full-face.
On fol. 37 (Lib. Num., cap. II) is a circular diagram with inscriptions in the hand of gloss a, illustrating the arrangement of the camps of the twelve tribes of Israel around the tabernacle; cf. similar diagram in Peter of Poitier's Compendium historiae, e.g. in MSS. Lyell 71, fol. 20; Fairfax 13, 13th cent., fol. 2v, etc. On fol. 57 a genealogy, linked to gloss a, appears to have been erased to make way for gloss b; other diagrams or drawings have been erased on fol. 67v, 68, 135. On fol. 7 another glossator, slightly later than a, has drawn diagrams of the interior arrangement of Noah's ark 'secundum Augustinum', and 'secundum alios'. A drawing of a peacock on fol. 10 may be by the same hand. (Pächt and Alexander ii. 67)
Binding
Bound in modern pigskin over wooden boards.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Probably written in Italy or the South of France to judge from the parchment.
On fol. 80 is written: 'Beatus Dominicus' (14th cent.). At the top of fol. 152v are press marks: 'ex parte sinistra(?) de sexta banca - G-littere' (14th cent.); 'Iste liber debet esse in prima bancha ex parte maris' (15th cent.). The second pressmark is identifiable (for example, by comparison with New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS. M 1156) as that of the Dominican convent of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, and the volume is identifiable as no. DCVIII in the catalogue of the library's manuscripts published in 1784 in Nuova Raccolta ... Scientifici e Filologici Tomo Quarantesimo (separately paginated, p. 7).
Bookplate of 5th Baron Vernon (succ. 1835, d. 1866); see B.M., Cat. of Franks Collection of Bookplates, nos. 30334-7.
James P. R. Lyell, 1871–1948. Bought by Lyell in August 1943 from E. P. Goldschmidt; see his Cats. 21, no. 9, frontispiece (drawings on fol. 88, 86v) and pl. II (drawing on fol. 34°); 23 (1930), no. 95 and pl. XI; 44, no. 7 and pl. I-II; the later catalogues use the same plates as the first.
Chosen as one of the hundred manuscripts bequeathed to the Bodleian by Lyell in 1948.
Record Sources
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (10 images from 35mm slides)
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2024-06: Encode full description from printed catalogue with revisions to provenance.