Shelfmark
MS 4
Title
Dictionary ; Allegories in the Holy Scriptures [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Allegoriae in Sacram Scripturam
Varying form of title
Title in M.R. James catalogue: A dictionary, etc.
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MMBL: Dictionarium ; P. Comestor, Allegoriae
Publication, distribution, etc.
England, 1385-1415.
Physical description
1 v. ; 265 x 175 mm.
Language
All three texts are written in Latin.
Note
Secundo folio: cordicista.
Note
Material: membrane.
Note
Written space: ff.1r-12v: 175-178 x 118-120 mm; ff.13r-85v: 178-180 x 117-120 mm; ff.86r-126v: 194-202 x 128-131 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: ii + 126 + ii.
Note
Collation: 1⁸ (wants 1-3) 2⁸ (wants 8) 3¹² (wants 10-12) 4⁹ (?) 5-6¹² 7¹² (wants 11, 12) 8¹² (wants 1, 2, 12) 9¹² 10⁸ 11⁸ (wants 1, 2) 12⁸ 13⁸ (wants 5-8) 14⁸ (wants 1) 15⁸.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: ff. 1r-85v: none; ff. 86r-126v: quire and leaf signatures using letters and Arabic numerals - quire "e" is missing; catchwords, including one on the last folio of this volume, enclosed in red box.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in ink outlining the framing grid; occasionally, individual lines are visible, which seem to have been ruled in plummet. No pricking visible.
Note
Booklets and fascicles: although the index is directly related to the dictionary, there is no codicological or palaeographical evidence to suggest that the volume in its current arrangement was conceived as a unit.
Note
Mise-en-page: triple (ff. 1-12: 60-68 lines) and double columns (ff. 13-85: 45-46 lines; ff. 86-126: 51 lines) written above the top line in cursive hands. The index provides running headers by using litterae notabiliores that match the initial(s) of the entries on each folio. The dictionary presents red line fillers on f.13r. The first quire of the Allegories includes signposts at the top corners of folios (e.g. c[apitol]o p[rim]o, genes[im]). All three texts include rubrics, paragraph marks, chapter numbers, and running headers.
Note
Decoration: ff. 1r-12v: most first entries of each letter have red vertical minim strokes; ff. 13r-85v: blue initials (3-4 lines) with red pen flourishes. Small initials highlighted with yellow pigment; ff. 86r-126v: blue initials (2-14 lines) with red pen flourishes running along the length of the column. Small initials highlighted with strokes of red ink.
Note
Handwriting: each text was completed by a different scribe. The first two texts are written in halfway scripts taking elements from both Anglicana and secretary, while the Allegories are copied in Anglicana.
Note
Corrections: throughout, mostly insertions of missing text.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: signposts, notes, and bibliographic references. The scribe of the dictionary included additional entries in the margin using a darker ink, which often surround the main text like a gloss (e.g. ff.13r, 33r). Early modern note regarding contents on f.1r: "Dict. vocabulorum sive" (crossed out); "Variae verborum significacio".
Formatted contents note
Contents: ff.1r-12v: index of words (begins and ends imperfectly: from "celare" to "vespertilio"); ff.13r-85v: dictionary of said words (from "abba" to "vath"); ff.86r-126v: Allegories (ends imperfectly).
Citation/references note
N. R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 634, 998
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), pp. 3-4
Citation/references note
F. Stegmüller, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi, nos. 1159, 3847-8
Citation/references note
Patrologia Latina, clxxv, cols. 633-817
Summary, etc.
Scope and content: This manuscript presents three texts copied by different scribes, and it is unclear whether the volume was conceived as a unit. Both the dictionary and the Allegoriae focus on the biblical text: the dictionary includes Latin and Hebrew words that are closely or more remotely connected to the Bible, while the Allegories provide a commentary to the biblical text. The authorship of the Allegories is not certain: different medieval copies of this work attribute it to Peter Comestor or Hugh of St Victor, but it is now believed to have been written by Richard of St Victor (d.1173), a Scottish theologian based at the homonymous Augustinian abbey in Paris.
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 4.
Provenance
Origin: England.
Provenance
The word "West" is inscribed at the head of f.86r in a late 15th-/early 16th-century hand. Eton College book label on front pastedown. Former ECL shelfmarks: Bo.6.2; Bk.1.4.
Binding
18th-century calfskin over pasteboards by John Slatter in c.1715. Covers decorated with panelled blind rolls and tools at the corners; double fillets to form a border; gilt roll on board edges. Spine with five raised bands; decorated with blind fillets; gilt tiling over red label ("Dictiona & Commen in Genesin"); modern shelf label (mostly damaged) at the tail-end. Endpapers of laid paper.
Subject
Bible Dictionaries Early works to 1800.
Subject
Bible Allegorical interpretations Early works to 1800.
Subject
Symbolism in the Bible Early works to 1800.
Added entry--name
Richard of St. Victor, Allegoriae in Sacram Scripturam.
Added entry--name
Added entry--place
England.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B49954