Shelfmark
MS 81
Author
Gregory, approximately 540 - 604 I, Pope
Uniform title
[Regula pastoralis]
Title
Gregorius, Liber pastoralis ; etc. manuscript
Varying form of title
Title in M. R. James catalogue: S. Anselmi Dialogus, etc.
Publication, distribution, etc.
England, between ca. 1125 and ca. 1175.
Physical description
1 volume (iii, 94, iii leaves) : parchment, ill. (initials) ; 21 x 14 cm.
Note
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).
Note
The text on f. 10v of St Anselm is spaced to admit a long scholium on 'natura'.
Note
The miscellaneous extracts include Similitudines Anselmi, nos. 41-42. See Ker as cited in the references below for additional details.
Note
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.
Note
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'.
Note
On f. 94 is 'Post hunc librum Minores collationes' in a 13th-century hand; f. 94v is blank.
Note
Written space: 165 x 100 mm.
Note
37 long lines.
Note
Collation: 1-3⁸ 4⁶ (ff. 31-36) 5-12⁸ 13 two.
Note
Fairly well written; the 'semi-colon' used as a mark of punctuation at the end of a sentence.
Note
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.
Note
Secundo folio: et magnitudini.
Note
Rebound at Eton ca. 1715.
Note
Written in England, according to M. R. James possibly at St Albans.
Note
On the evidence of an inscription on f. 27v in the hand of Robert Elyot dated 1 December 1485, at Eton by 1500.
Note
Former Eton shelfmark: Bk.6.8.
Note
This catalogue record is based on the work of Neil Ker and M.R. James, as cited in the references below.
Citation/references note
Ker, N. R.. Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), p. 697-698
Citation/references note
James, M. R. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), 81
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 81
Provenance
Presumably given to Eton by Robert Elyot (d. 1499), vice provost; see above.
Binding
18th century English calf binding by Slatter.
Subject
Subject
Theology Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Anselm,, 1033 - 1109 Saint, Archbishop of Canterbury
Added entry--place
England.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B50009