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

MS. Rawl. D. 893

Summary Catalogue no.: 13659

Guardbook of manuscript fragments

Contents

Language(s): Latin, English, Middle English, Anglo-Norman, Middle High German

(fol. 55r–v)
Tria sunt (end of chap. 7, chap. 8, and beginning of chap. 9)
(fol. 103r)
See Regina Cermann, ‘Goldenes Wissen Für Kaiser Friedrich III. Acht Miniaturen Einer Alchemischen Prunkhandschrift Vom Lehrbüchermeister’, in Wiens Erste Moderne, Jahrbuch Des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien, Band 22/23 (Böhlau Verlag, 2023), Band 22/23, 131–64 https://doi.org/10.7767/9783205217275.131

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

Decoration

Fine miniature on fol. 103, with a symbolical representation of alchemical processes; 15th century, third quarter, West German (Pächt and Alexander i. 173, pl. XII)

History

Origin: 8th century - 17th century (fols. 116-17 datable after 1297)

Provenance and Acquisition

Fols. 19-26, 105, 106, 113: Bardney, Lincolnshire, Benedictine abbey of St Peter, St Paul, and St Oswald: The manuscript contains an account of a visit of King Henry IV to Bardney in 1412. (MLGB3: evidence from locally specific contents, including obits, scribbles, etc.).

Fols. 1-2: a letter from Robert New offering a collection of fragments formerly owned by Peter Le Neve, addressed to ‘Mr Thomas Hearne at Edmund Hall Oxon’: 'Sir Knowing your affection for Old Manuscripts I desire you will please to accept of the Parcell I herewith send you which were part of the Collection of the late Mr Le Neve Norroy King at Arms ...'; dated Middle Temple 28th April 1731.

Peter Le Neve, 1661–1729

Thomas Hearne, 1678–1735

Thomas Rawlinson (1681–1725) Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755) (MLGB3)

Bodleian Library, MSS Rawlinson C.504, C.510, and D.893 fols. 19–26, 105–106, 113, formed one volume. (MLGB3)

Richard Rawlinson, 1690–1755

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1755

MS. Rawl. D. 893 – fols 3–16

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Astronomical table

Table of hours of the day and night for each month

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 14 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): 190–210 × 125–147 mm.

Collation

I(14)

Condition

The first and last folios have been heavily trimmed.

Layout

155 × 106 mm. Tables of 28–29 cols, 33–40 lines, with ink ruling.

Hand(s)

Gothic textualis.

Decoration

Red rubrics and individual figures.

Additions: Various scribbles added on fol. 16v.

History

Origin: England (?) ; 14th century.

Provenance

‘Liber Ricardi Godeve’, fol. 16v.

Peter Le Neve, 1661–1729

Thomas Hearne, 1678–1735

MS. Rawl. D. 893 – fols 17–18

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon

Fragments of book VI, chapters 10–11 (fol. 17r) and chapters 13–14 (fol. 17v); book VII, chapters 5–6 (fol. 18r) and chapters 7–8 (fol. 18v).

Cf. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden monachi Cestrensis, ed. by Churchill Babington and Joseph Rawson Lumby (London, 1865–86), vol. 7.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: fragments of 1 bifolium, lower inner quarter
Dimensions (fragment): 164 × 114–120 mm.

Collation

Outer bifolium of a quire.

Condition

Heavily worn, with numerous splotches, holes and tears; dark stains suggest use as pastedown.

Layout

At least 1 col., 29 lines, with ink ruling.

Hand(s)

Gothic textualis rotunda.

Decoration

Flourished 3-line blue initials, as well as red and blue paraphs.

Embellished ruling surrounding the catchword in the lower margin of fol. 18v.

Additions: A large R with a cross-stroke is added in the inner margin of fol. 17r.

History

Origin: England (?) ; 14th century, second half.

MS. Rawl. D. 893 – fols 19–26

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Regula sancti Benedicti
Explicit: doctrine uirtutumque culmina deo protegente peruenies. Amen.
Final rubric: Finito libro redditur gloria xpisto. amen.

Chapters 50–73

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 1 quire of eight
Dimensions (leaf): 142 × 107 mm.
Foliation: Previously foliated as fols 222–229.

Layout

103 × 63 mm. 1 col., 11–12 lines, with leadpoint ruling and written below topline.

Hand(s)

Protogothic.

Decoration

2-line red initials accompanying rubrication.

Rubricated running head: ‘Regula sancti benedicti’.

History

Origin: England (?) ; 13th century, second or third quarter.

Provenance

Bardney, Lincolnshire, Benedictine abbey of St Peter, St Paul, and St Oswald: fols 19–26, 105, 106 and 113 once formed one volume with MSS Rawl. C. 504 and C. 510. The manuscript contains an account of a visit of King Henry IV to Bardney in 1412. (MLGB3: evidence from locally specific contents, including obits, scribbles, etc.).

Peter Le Neve, 1661–1729

Thomas Hearne, 1678–1735

MS. Rawl. D. 893 – fols 27–28

Contents

Language(s): Latin

(fols 27–28r)
Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae
Explicit: in honore praedictorum praedictorum principum hoc modo in latinum serm transferre curaui.

§§178–181 (fol. 27r), 183–186 (fol. 27v), 206–208 (fol. 28r).

Discussed in Julia C. Crick, The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth, III: A Summary Catalogue of Manuscripts (Cambridge, 1989), item 157, pp. 247–48.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Extent: 1 bifolium
Dimensions (leaf): 147 × 103 mm.

Condition

Trimmed with some loss of text in the outer and lower margin. Heavily worn, with significant damage to the text.

Layout

1 col., at least 35 lines.

Hand(s)

Protogothic.

Decoration

7-line plain initial on fol. 27r.

Spaces left empty for 1-line initials.

Additions:

A 14th-century anglicana hand adds a section of the Prophetiae Merlini (HRB §§111–112) on fol. 28v. The text is now very faded and largely illegible.

History

Origin: England (?) ; 12th century, last quarter.

Additional Information

Record Sources

Summary description abbreviated from the Quarto Catalogue (W. D. Macray, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ...viri munificentissimi Ricardi Rawlinson, J.C.D., codicum...complectens, Quarto Catalogues V, 5 fascicles, 1862–1900). Decoration, localization and date follow Pächt and Alexander (1966).

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (1 image from 35mm slides)

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2023-09: Michael Angerer: new descriptions of fols 1–28.