Shelfmark
MS 18
Author
Uniform title
[Super sapientiam Salomonis]
Title
Commentary on the Book of Wisdom [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in M.R. James catalogue: Holcot in Librum Sapientiae
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MMBL II: R. Holcot, In sapientiam Salomonis
Publication, distribution, etc.
England, 1350-1500.
Physical description
1 v. ; 364 x 222 mm.
Language
Written in Latin. An annotation at the bottom of f. 38v includes English words.
Note
Secundo folio: cibus n[oste]r est.
Note
Material: membrane; mostly follows Gregory's rule (FHHF). The material was scraped thinly so it is often difficult to tell hair-side from flesh-side.
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 275-278 x 170-175 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: i + 240.
Note
Collation: 1⁸ 2-18¹² 19¹² (11, 12 cancelled) 20-21⁸ + 2 leaves.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: some of the indexes (quires 1, 21) do not present leaf signatures or catchwords. Catchwords are found on the rest of the quires. The main text presents leaf signatures composed by letters and Arabic numerals. No quire signatures.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in ink (occasionally in plummet), most of which has faded. Pricking occasionally visible on the short margin of the folio.
Note
Mise-en-page: double columns (56-59 lines) written in a cursive script. The list on f.8v includes paragraph marks, red line fillers and brackets. The main text includes paragraph marks, running headers, capitulum numbers, signposts, underlined text instead of rubrics, and maniculae. The tabula lecturae is on continuous lines, and each entry is separated by a forward red slash and or a paragraph mark. The last list and index present paraphs at the beginning of each entry and next to each page reference, which are also underlined in red.
Note
Decoration: red and blue initials with pen flourishes along column margin (indexes). First decorated initial in red and blue with foliage infills, pen flourishes with rose-bud motif, and red and blue border on top and left margin of the text. Other initials in blue with red pen flourishes (except for the last index, using red and black). The first folio recto of the tabula lecturae presents a full red and blue border with red floral roundels at the corners which include pen flourishes along the margins. Red and blue paraphs. Brackets sometimes morph into human facial features. Occasional doodles (e.g. f.31v, a man playing a trumpet). Some comments and catchwords appear boxed in red.
Note
Handwriting: six scribes contributed to this volume -- all contemporary with each other although not all of them may have been collaborators. First index: northern littera textualis with forked ascenders (H1); a second hand has added entries on the bottom margin in a rapid, Anglicana script (H2). Main text: also textualis, although this hand's aspect is not as precise or uniform as that of formata; the beginning of new chapters presents a larger (sometimes approximating quadrata) script (H3). The last three columns of the text have been written by an Anglicana hand (ff. 221r-222r; H4). The tabula lecturae: bastard secretary (H5). Last list and index: secretary (H6). Ker believed H5 to be Nicholas Kelmster's hand (see below).
Note
Correction: minor corrections throughout, including orthography and missing text.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: the same hand as the main text has added brief comments to the text marked with a small red circle with a dot at its centre; the comments are usually boxed in red. Different hands have added other comments, diagrams, and signposts, including H2, H5 and possibly H4. Ker also identified the hand of Robert Elyot, Fellow of Eton (e.g. f.16v). The front flyleaf verso and the rear pastedown present additional marginalia: a prayer for Nicholas Kemper (at the front) and a memorandum of an obituary for one T. Marchall the vicar of All Saints, Bristol accompanied by other brief notes (at the back). The notes are edited in Walther, Sprichwörter.
Formatted contents note
Contents: f.i: blank; ff.1r-8v: an alphabetical index with page references; f.8v: a list of "quaestiones litterales et non litterales" in Holcot's work; ff.9r-222r: Robert Holcot, Opus super Sapientiam Salomonis; f.222v: blank; ff.223r-236r: another alphabetical index, referred to as "tabula lecturae" in the explicit rubric; ff.236v-237r: a list of principles based on the Book of Wisdom; ff.237r-v: a thematic index of the Book of Wisdom; ff.237v-240v: another alphabetical index.
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 644-645
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), pp. 8-9
Citation/references note
F. Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi (1950-1980), no. 7416
Citation/references note
H. Walther, Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters (1963-1967), nos. 3250, 21633
Citation/references note
A.B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the university of Oxford to AD 1500 (1957-1959), p. 1034
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 18
Provenance
Origin: England.
Provenance
Provenance: the notes on rear pastedown indicate that the volume was at Bristol during the 15th century. The obituary, witnessed by Robert Pevesy of St Leonard's Church, has been transcribed in full by Ker, p.645. The book was later owned by Nicholas Kempster; the inscription on f.i verso reads: "Liber quondam magistri Nicholai Kempston anno domini 1477 numquam vendendus secundum vltimam voluntatem defuncti sed gratis et libere occupandus a sacerdotibus instructis in lege domini ad predicandum verbum dei successiue ab vno sacerdote ad alterum sacerdotem absque omni precio quamdiu durauerit. Orate igitur pro anima eius". For more information on Kempster's books see Emden, BRUO and MLGB3. Robert Elyot's notes suggest that the book found its way to Eton by the end of the 15th century. Former shelfmarks: Bp.1.5 and Bk.2.5.
Binding
Early 17th-century calfskin over woodboards, bound for the College by Williamson of Eton (1600-1601). Covers decorated with triple blind fillets to form a border; "frame of two bands of the Hercules-Vena roll. The panel [is] divided by two horizontal bands of the same roll into three compartments. In the upper and lower compartments [there are] two diagonal fillets; the centre [has] a criss-cross of diagonal fillets. The roll has been applied to the inside of the bevel. Clasps on upper cover. Chain-mark low on outside edge of upper cover" (from Robert Birley's personal notes, II, n. 199). Spine rebacked by R.L. Day, with six raised bands, decorated with blind fillets and gilt titling over red label ("Holcot in librum Sapientiae."); modern shelf label ("18"). Textblock sprinkled red. Endpapers of medieval parchment: f.i was taken from an earlier binding (Ker, p.645).
Subject
Bible. Wisom of Solomon Commentaries Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Elyot, Robert, ? - 1499 former owner.
Added entry--name
Kempston, Nicholas, ? - 1477 former owner.
Added entry--name
Williamson, Vincent binder.
Added entry--name
Day, R. L. binder.
Added entry--place
England.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B49967