National Library of Sweden, A 200
Theological miscellany
Germany, Erfurt, 1414 and 1439?
Paper
i, 94, i' leaves
210–215 × 150–155 mm
3 units
Latin
Unit 1
Unit 2
Bloomfield et al. (1979), no. 6443.
The authorship of the text is debated; it has been attributed to, among others, Denis the Carthusian (1402-1471). Emery, however, argues based on the date of the watermark that the text cannot be by Denis (Emery 1991, p. 585).
Bloomfield et al. (1979), no. 5673.
After the final rubric is added a paraphrase of Augustine, ‘Augustinus Visus facit malam cogitacionem cogitacio delectacionem delectacio consensum consensus operam operacio consuetudo desperacionem despereacio (!) eternam dampnacionem etc’, a parallel of which can be found in Sermo 98, PL, vol. 38, col. 594.
Unit 3
Secundo folio
O caritas quam magnumFoliation
Collation
Condition
Unit 1
The occasional stain or smudge (e.g. f. 44r). Edges trimmed with some loss of marginal annotations.Unit 2
The occasional stain.Layout
Script
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Additions
Binding/Endleaves
Unit 1
Decorations
Unit 1
Main text in brown ink; rubrics in red; capitals touched in red; ff. 23v–60r. ff. 23v–60r: lemmata in display script over 2 lines framed and sometimes struck through in red (guidelines for the frames visible).
f. 1r: plain opening initial ‘P’ over 4 lines in red with interior reserved shapes and flourishing in brown.
ff. 1r–69r: plain initials over 2-3 lines in red, some with interior reserved shapes (e.g. f. 5v) and/or penwork (e.g. f. 7r, f. 1r).
f. 21r: puzzle initial ‘U’ over 9 lines in red and brown with interior reserved shapes, penwork, and flourishing in brown.
f. 23v: plain initial ‘P’ over 8 lines, half in red and half outlined in red and filled in with penwork and flourishing in brown, and with tendrils in brown and red extending into the margin.
Unit 2
Main text in brown ink; capitals touched in red; opening line in display script over 2 lines, and, on f. 70r, framed and struck through in red.
f. 70r: opening plain initial ‘U’ over 5 lines in red with 2 interior reserved shapes, one of which filled in with brown.
f. 78r: plain initial ‘S’ over 6 lines in pale red.
f. 78v: puzzle initial ‘O’ over 7 lines in pale red and red.
Bookmark of pink leather on f. 70.
Binding
Modern paper binding. LCO, bottom left corner: National Library book label with the current signum.
Origin
Germany, Erfurt, 1414 and 1439?. The manuscript contains two colophons, one placing unit 1 in Erfurt, Germany, in 1414 (f. 62r), and one dating unit 3 to 1439 (f. 91r). The second colophon appears, however, to be a later addition. The hand has, furthermore, corrected the date from 1459 to -39. All three watermarks found in the respective units can be dated to 1408–15, matching the date of the first colophon, and all three are found in Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Provenance
A 200 once made up one of the halves of a single manuscript - the second half of which now constitutes no. 400 of Växjö stiftsbibliotek (formerly Kungliga gymnasi biblioteket) - which hails from the Carthusian charterhouse of Salvatorberg in Erfurt; it is listed in their library catalogue as ‘112.2’ (Lehmann (1935), p. 8). A former librarian notes that the Växjö manuscript (no. 400) retains the original binding, which carries the Carthusian signum as well as a note on the purchase of the manuscript by George Stephens from a ‘Hr Schmidt, Bookseller’ in Halle in 1848.
The original manuscript appears to have been intact when it was sold at auction in 1836 as part of the library of book collector Friedrich Gottlieb Julius von Bülow (Schäffer (1836), p. 32, no. 379). Presumably, it had come into von Bülow's possession earlier in the 19th century, when the charterhouse of Salvatorberg was secularized.
Acquisition
Purchased from George Stephens in 1848 (see note on f. L1r).
- Lehmann (1935), p. 8, 11–12.
- Hedlund (1980), p. 18.
- Krämer (1989), p. 222.
- Emery (1991), pp. 584–588.
