Gregory I, Homilies on Ezekiel; Isidore, Sentences; Amalarius of Metz, Ecclesiasticis officiis

12th century

Parchment

i, 159, i' leaves

285–295 × 185–195 mm

Latin

1 (ff. 1r–68r) Gregory I, Homilies on Ezekiel, Book 2

Rubric: Incipit Omelia TERCIA DECIMA

Incipit: QUONIAM MVLTIS CVRIS PREMentibus in hiezechiel propheta librum coram uestra caritate

Explicit: Sit itaque gloria omnipotenti domino nostro ihesu christo qui uiuit et regnat cum patre in unitate spiritus sancti deus per omnia secula seculorum AMEN.

Final rubric: Explicit exposicio libri iezechielis prophete

Note:

The final rubric on f. 68r is erroneously written below the rubric for the subsequent section but letters ‘a’ and ‘b’ have been added to indicate the correct order.

Edition: Adriaen (1971), pp. 205–398.

2 (ff. 68v–130v) Isidore of Seville, Sentences

2.1 (ff. 68r–69v) Isidore of Seville, Letter to Bishop Masona

Rubric: Domino sancto meritisque beato Masone episcopo ysidorus episcopus

Incipit: UENIENTE AD NOS famulo uestro uiro religioso nicentio (!) litteras honorificentie uestre nobis detulit

Explicit: Datum sub die pridie KL martias anno tercio regni domini nostri gloriosissimi Wittirici (!) regis

Note:

A first rubric to this letter is on f. 68r.

The letter is followed by two shorter texts. The first is the text of Canon 20 from the Synod of Ancyra: ‘Hera. Canon anquiritani. Si quis uel si qua adulterium commiserit vii annis oportet perfectionem consequi secundum pristinos gradus’ (edited in Turner (1899), p. 106). This is characteristic for the letter's transmission in the ‘Collectio Vetus Gallica’, see Mordek (1975), pp. 227–228.

The second text is an unidentified poem beginning ‘Accipe Laurenti per que istud nostri pignus amoris habe’, and ending ‘quem quicumque sapit mox et amare potest’. The same text is found in the manuscript Göttweig, Benediktinerstift, cod. 174, which transmits Isidore's ‘Sentences’ together with the letter to Massona, Canon 20, and the vision, see below 2.3. The poem is not listed in the online catalogue available at manuscripta.at but the incipit is quoted in the earlier, handwritten catalogue by Vinzenz Werl from 1843, also available at manuscripta.at, ‘Literatur zur Handschrift’.

Edition: PL 83, cols. 899A–902A.

2.2 (ff. 69v–129v) Isidore of Seville, Sentences

Rubric: Incipit liber primus sententiarum sancti ysynori (!)

Incipit: QVOD DEVS SVMMVS ET INCOMVTABILIS Sit Summum bonum deus est

Explicit: non quos celestis aula letificandos includit

Note: Book 1: ff. 69v–84r; Book 2: ff. 84r–103r; Book 3: ff. 103r–129v. Each book is preceded by a list of numbered chapter headings, some of which do not correspond to the numbering in the edition.

Edition: Cazier (1998).

2.3 (ff. 129v–130v) A vision

Incipit: FVIT QVIDAM Frater Qui eductus e corpore multas mirabiles uidit in spiritu uisiones

Explicit: corpus suum inter cottidiana ieiunia domabat multisque et uerbo et conuersacione exemplum sint (!) ad salutem perpetuam Adiuuante domino nostro ihesu christo qui uiuit et regnat in secula seculorum AMEN

Note: This text, sometimes referred to as ‘Visio Isidori’, is a rewritten account of the ‘Vision of the Monk of Wenlock’ by Boniface in Epistula 10, to Abbess Eadburga of Minster-in-Thanet. The vision is transmitted with the Sentences also in the manuscript Göttweig, Benediktinerstift, cod. 174, see above 2.1.

3 (ff. 131r–159v) Amalarius of Metz, De ecclesiasticis officiis

Rubric: INCIPIT Liber AMALARII VIRI DOCTISSIMI DE REBVS ET DE ORDINE ROMANE AECCLESIAE

Incipit: POSTQVAM Scripsi libellum qui mea paruitate uocatur de ecclesiastico officio

Explicit: quem morem in suis prepositis eciam nunc seruat aecclesia.

Note: This version of the ‘Liber officialis’ is the ‘Retractatio prima’ with further revisions, see Hanssens (1935), pp. 434–435, and Hanssens (1948), p. 129.

Edition: Hanssens (1948), vol. 2, pp. 13–543 (The prologue, Postquam scripsi, and parts of the main text correspond to the edition. Not all chapters found in the edition are present in the manuscript, which also contains chapters not included in the edition.).

Physical Description

Secundo folio

in ueritate hystorie

Support

Binding/Endleaves

Support 1

Locus: LCI

Support: Western paper

Leaf dimensions: 285 × 185 mm

Note: LCI is covered by the ex libris of Peter Vok Ursinus of Rosenberg, measuring 250 x 165 mm, with the following text: ‘Ex Bibliotheca, Illustrissimi Principis, Domini Domini Petri Vok, Ursini, Domini Domus à Rosenberg, Ultimi & Senioris, & è Primatibus Bohemorum celsissimi, et antiquis: ANNO CHRISTI M.DC.IX’. Woman on the left holding a plaque reading: ‘VERBVM DOMINI MANET IN ETERNVM’. At the bottom a skull and bones in relief with inscription:‘ IN SILENTIO ET SPE’. Below this is the signature of the artist: ‘S.C.M. Sculptor AEg. Sadeler Fecit’. For this and other ex libris of the Rosenberg library, see Collijn (1907).

Support 2

Locus: RCI

Support: Western paper

Leaf dimensions: 285 × 185 mm

Watermark 1

Motif: Crown with arch and pearls

Watermark dimensions: 145 × 55 mm

Note: Very similar to Piccard I.XIII.8.

Support 3

Locus: SL1r–SL1v, SR1r–SR1v

Support: Western paper

Watermark 1

SL1r–SL1v,

Motif: Tumba

Watermark 2

Locus: ff. SR1r–SR1v,

Motif: Beehive

Leaf dimensions: 290/295 × 195 mm

Textblock

Locus: ff. 1r–159v

Support: Parchment

Leaf dimensions: 295 × 190 mm

Foliation

Modern foliation in pencil.

ff. 1v–68r: Running titles in black ink in the form of Roman numerals numbering Gregory's homilies with the exception of homily 14, ff. 7v–12r. ff. 68v–97r: Running titles in black ink for Book 1 and part of Book 2 of Isidore's Sentences.

Collation

Formula: 1-3(8), 4(10, lacks 9), 5-6(8), 7(lacks 10, 3 and 7), 8-9(8), 10(8, lacks 5), 11-15(8), 16-17 (6, lacks 6), 18-20(8), 21(8, lacks 6-8)

Note: VisColl collation

Signatures: Quire signatures in Roman numerals, most often on the last verso of the quire but for quires 2 and 17-21 on the first recto, f. 9r, f. 126r, f. 131r, f. 139r, f. 147r, f. 155r.

Condition

Textblock

Small holes, some stitched, and irregular shaped parchment, e.g. f. 28, f. 47v, f. 83, f. 118. Signs of water (?) damage at the inner top corner of the leaves ff. 18r–25r. A cut in the middle of the leaf f. 130. Lower margin cut out, f. 138, f. 149. Triangular cut out in outer margin, f. 140v. Wormholes on ff. 1–5 and ff. 154–159.

Layout

Locus: ff. 1r–159v

Columns: 1

Written lines: 38–39

Written area: 225/230 × 140/145 mm

Note: Ruling in dry point, in a few places perhaps also in lead, e.g. ff. 52r–55v. Pricking in the margins.

Script

Textblock

Hand 1

Pregothic.

Additions

Binding/Endleaves

(f. SL1r) Upper left corner in pencil by a modern hand: ‘A 145’.

(f. SL1v) Upper right corner in pencil by a modern hand: ‘Migne 76, 933’.

Textblock

(ff. 1r–159v) Corrections, e.g. on (f. 73r), commentaries, key-words from the text, nota-signs and manicules, some quite elaborate, added in the margins throughout the manuscript by contemporary and later medieval hands.

(ff. 11v–152r) Text identifications by a modern hand in pencil added in the outer margins throughout the volume, e.g. (f. 11v), (f. 18v), (ff. 142v–152r).

(f. 70r) Two staves of music and text in the outer margin, later scraped off but still visible.

(f. 90v, 144r, 149r) Pen drawings added in the margin: (f. 90v) seated man with a beard; (f. 144r) standing figure; (f. 149r) standing figure.

Decorations

Textblock

Description:

Main text in brown-black ink. Rubrics and some underlining in red. Capitals touched in yellow (ff. 1v–2v), (f. 36v), and in red (ff. 5r–9r), (f. 38r), (ff. 71r–72r). Green ink added to plain initial in red (f. 115v).

Three drawings in the margins, see further under Additions.

Initials:

Five larger initials. (f. 1r): Decorated initial ‘Q’ over 6 lines. Black background with reserved space for the letter and the leaf-shaped decorations, both outlined and further decorated in red; (f. 68v): Decorated initial ‘V’ over 10 lines, outlined in red and partially filled with red and blue. Leaf-shaped decorations outlined in red, the background in goldlike yellow; (f. 84v): Decorated initial ‘O’ over 8 lines, with flourishes in purple-pink extending above and below. The letter is outlined in red, with leaf-shaped decorations in the enclosed space, the background in goldlike yellow; (f. 103v): Initial ‘D’ over 6 lines, with flourishes in purple-pink. The letter is outlined in red, with leaf-shaped decorations in the enclosed space, the background in goldlike yellow; (f. 131r): Plain initial ‘P’ over 10 lines in black ink with pen-flourishes in the enclosed space and around the outline, the latter washed with red.

(ff. 7v–159v): Plain initials in red over 2-6 lines, some with added pen flourishes, human faces and other decorations, e.g. (f. 31r), (f. 45v), (f. 69v), (f. 82v).

Bookmarks:

Bookmarks in the form of strings sewn on to the leaf on (f. 33), (f. 68), (f. 103), (f. 130).

Binding

Description:

Medieval binding. Quarter binding with reddish-brown leather covering the Spine and around one fourth of the wooden boards. Two endbands and four double bands. Two decorated metal clasps on LCO. Labels on Spine: ‘No 36. 1. Homiliae Latinae. 2. Sti Isidori Libri Sententiarum. 3. Liber Amalarii de rebus et ordine Romanae Ecclesiae’; ‘36’; ‘e.30.4.11’.

Binding dimensions: 310 × 215 × 75 mm

Condition: The colour of the leather on Spine is very faded. Closing straps and clasps on RCO missing.

Contemporary: Unknown

History

Origin

12th century. Unknown origin, but France has been proposed by the editor of the ‘Liber officialis’ of Amalarius of Metz, see Hanssens , p. 434.

Provenance

The manuscript's early provenance is unknown.

In the early 17th century, the volume belonged to the library of Peter Vok Ursinus of Rosenberg as attested to by the ex libris on the LCI. The library was at that time housed at his castle in Třeboň (Wittingau), but was later confiscated and in 1647 relocated to the castle in Prague by orders of the emperor Ferdinand III.

Acquisition

The volume was probably taken as spoils of war in the battle of Prague in 1648, when the castle and its library was looted. It was thereafter brought to Sweden and incorporated into the Royal Library. It is probably the volume listed as ‘Isidori Episcopi Homiliae in Ezechielem. Eiusdem Sententiae. Amalarius De Rebus et Ordine Romanae Ecclesiae. Membrana’ on p. 49 in Vossius's catalogue from 1651, see Callmer. There are two signa on the Spine. Signum ‘36’ is used for this volume in the catalogue from 1734 (U 125e), f. 17, signum ‘e.30.4.11’ is from Hammarsköld’s catalogue from the nineteenth century (U 133).