MS 81
Gregory, approximately 540 - 604 I, Pope
[Regula pastoralis]
Gregorius, Liber pastoralis ; etc. manuscript
Title in M. R. James catalogue: S. Anselmi Dialogus, etc.
England, between ca. 1125 and ca. 1175.
1 volume (iii, 94, iii leaves) : parchment, ill. (initials) ; 21 x 14 cm.
The 'Liber regule pastoralis Gregorii pape' is on ff. 37-94. It is preceded by a dialogue of St Anselm, Cur Deus homo (ff. 1-28), and miscellaneous extracts followed by a hymn in different hand (ff. 28-36v).
The text on f. 10v of St Anselm is spaced to admit a long scholium on 'natura'.
The miscellaneous extracts include Similitudines Anselmi, nos. 41-42. See Ker as cited in the references below for additional details.
The hymn (ff. 33-36v), in fourteen 6- or 8-line stanzas, begins '[T]rina uirtus suffragetur' (misread as 'Prima ..' by M. R. James), widely spaced in continuous writing, 10 lines to the page.
The Liber pastoralis has no division into books, and only the first 48 chapters are numbered. It includes preliminaries not found in the printed editions. According to the 'prologus' (f. 38v), also found in a 10th century manuscript at St John's College, Oxford, MS 28 (f. 6v), Gregory began the work 'in gallia longounensis' (St John's has 'lugdunensis' altered to 'lugdunensi') and completed it 'in gallia belgica ... in ciuitate que dicitur brigalis', and both MSS have a gap between the words 'quia' and 'imperatoris'.
On f. 94 is 'Post hunc librum Minores collationes' in a 13th-century hand; f. 94v is blank.
Written space: 165 x 100 mm.
37 long lines.
Collation: 1-3⁸ 4⁶ (ff. 31-36) 5-12⁸ 13 two.
Fairly well written; the 'semi-colon' used as a mark of punctuation at the end of a sentence.
Initials: f. 1 has a gold initial on a ground of brown and blue, the blue decorated in colours; f. 39 has a handsome P in blue and red on a ground of light brown and gold, the gold decorated with an interlace of branches, occupying the entire space that had probably been set aside for the initial and 22 absent letters 'P[astoralis cure pondere]' in fancy script; other initials in red, blue, green or brown.
Secundo folio: et magnitudini.
Rebound at Eton ca. 1715.
Written in England, according to M. R. James possibly at St Albans.
On the evidence of an inscription on f. 27v in the hand of Robert Elyot dated 1 December 1485, at Eton by 1500.
Former Eton shelfmark: Bk.6.8.
This catalogue record is based on the work of Neil Ker and M.R. James, as cited in the references below.
Ker, N. R.. Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), p. 697-698
James, M. R. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), 81
Eton College Library, MS 81
Presumably given to Eton by Robert Elyot (d. 1499), vice provost; see above.
18th century English calf binding by Slatter.
Theology Manuscripts.
Anselm,, 1033 - 1109 Saint, Archbishop of Canterbury
England.
lat
B50009