Shelfmark
MS 91
Author
Title
Opera omnia [lacking only Ibis and Medicamina] manuscript
Varying form of title
Title in M. R. James catalogue: P. Ovidii Nasonis opera
Publication, distribution, etc.
France?, between ca. 1200 and ca. 1250.
Physical description
1 volume : 271 x 195 mm.
Note
Content: ff. 1r-18ri: Heroides [pink capital h on blue rectangle, c. 8 lines in height, extending into upper margin; dubious initial couplets of poems 5, 11, 20 follow an interstice, and they and the proper beginning both have illuminated capitals]; ff. 18rii-30vi: Amores [red and blue capital Q on blue rectangle, c. 8 lines in height, extending into upper margin; no large initial for 1.1.1]; ff. 30vii-42rii: Ars amatoria; ff. 42v-46ri: Remedia amoris; ff. 46vi-48ri: Nux, Somnium, Pulex, ‘Rosa Ausonii’ [sic m.2], Cucullus; f. 49ri: Fasti 1 begins [4-line high initial T, in red and blue]; f. 52vi: Book 2 begins [8-line high initial I, in red and blue] after a 1-line interstice; f. 56vii: Book 3 begins [4-line high initial B, in red and blue] after a 1-line interstice; f. 61rii: Book 4 begins [5-line high initial A, in red and blue] after a 1-line interstice; f. 66ri: Book 5 begins [initial Q, in red and blue, 4 lines high and the tail extended in the margin] after a 1-line interstice; [see above for displacement by the binder of 5.177-576]; f. 67vi: Book 6 begins [6-line high initial h, in red and blue] after a 1-line interstice; f. 71vii: Explicit liber ouidii fastorum; f. 72: calendar for January to June; ff. 73-90, 93-134v: Metamorphoses; ff. 135-152v: Tristia; ff. 153-169ri: Epistulae ex Ponto; f. 169rii-vii: De mirabilibus mundi (written in a later hand, 13th-century English according to Ker).
Note
All but 'Rosa Ausonii' and the calendar are listed in a 15th-century table of contents on f. iv verso under the heading 'Libri Ouidii'; the former item is included in the numeration of the table but without an entry opposite.
Note
Books 5, 11 and 20 of the Amores are preceded by couplets; see Ker as cited in the references below for details.
Note
In book 1 of the Fasti, line 658 consists only of the first two words 'Nec semen' and in books 4 and 5 a dozen lines are unfinished, suggesting the exemplar was damaged; see Ker for details.
Note
The Roman calendar is different from that printed in Burmann's edition of Heroides, Amsterdam, 1727.
Note
First line of writing below the top ruled line.
Note
Collation: 1-5¹² 6¹⁴ (ff. 61-6, 91, 92, 67,-72) 7¹² 8¹² (ff. 85-90, 93-98) 9¹² (bound wrongly: see above) 10-13¹² 14¹² wants 12, blank.
Note
Handwriting: small and neat gothic script with lines justified right as well as left. Some line are part written, but left incomplete in the Fasti (e.g. 4.939, 940, 945, 946, 953, 954).
Note
Initials: decorated pink initial on blue ground (f. 1); other initials in red and blue with ornament of both colours; initials in red or blue with ornament of the other colour, ranged with the capital letters slightly outside the written space.
Note
Secundo folio: Quisquis ab.
Note
Possibly written in France rather than England, except for the final item in a 13th-century English hand, and 14th-century English marginalia.
Note
This catalogue record is based on the work of Neil Ker and M.R. James, as cited in the references below.
Note
Material: membrane.
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Number of leaves: iv, 169, iii leaves
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: Quires 1-6, 12, 13 numbered at the end I-IIII, VI-IX; quires 2-14 marked at the beginning in pencil, a-r, in a 15th-century hand. The sixth gathering originally contained seven bifolia – obviously to accommodate the whole of the Fasti + Calendar – but the central bifolium is now bound as ff. 91-2, the central bifolium in the eighth gathering: the text should run as follows: ff. 61-6, 91-2, 67-72; 73-84; 85-90, 93-8. The last of the initial flyleaves is medieval; others paper. signatures bottom centre of final verso in quires 1-6, 12-13 (but f. 60V has ‘VI’, f. 72V ‘VII’, f. 146V ‘VIII’, f. 158V ‘IX’), with a catchphrase bottom right (but not f. 48V); gatherings 7-10 have only the catchphrases, 11 and 14 nothing. [The catalogue entry (due to Rhodes James/Ker) notes that the Metamorphoses section has been bound ahead of the exile books, against the quire signatures, but say nothing of the loss of ‘V’; probably the passing over of one number is a slip by the scribe, but possibly a gathering has been lost – conceivably a short one containing the Ibis (though that is often lacking in Ovidian opera omnia volumes); the Medea is even less likely]. The first nine works (up to and including De cuculo) are on quires 1-4, the Fasti and the calendar on quires 5-6, and Metamorphoses on quires 7-11. The quire signatures suggest that the final three items (ff. 135-169) originally followed calendar, but the table shows that the present order is medieval. Ker: The error in binding quire 9 is old, with corrections to show the correct order in a medieval hand on ff. 102-3 and 107-8, a note about the dislocation signed 'R.O. and dated 29 January 1842, and a note that sheet 3 of the quire is bound inside sheet 4, dated 6 March 1878 by Henry Bradshaw who has also foliated the leaves to show the correct reading order.
Note
Dimentions: 271 x 195 mm (written area 185 x 115 mm)
Note
Mise-en-page: two columns with 50 verses a column (text begins below top ruled line)
Citation/references note
Ker, N. R.. Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), p. 705-707
Citation/references note
James, M. R. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), 91
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 91
Additional physical form available
Reproduction available; Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 3955
Provenance
Provenance: probably at Christ Church, Canterbury in the early 14th century. The same pieces in the same order under the heading 'Omnes libri Ouidii' were in a manuscript at Christ Church, Canterbury and listed in the early 14th-century catalogue as one of 33 'Libre Ade prioris' (See M. R. James, Ancient libraries of Canterbury and Dover (1903), p. 72 no. 632); in a 14th-century hand on f. 1: "Liber viius [i.e. septimus]". At Winchester College in the 15th century: erasures of inscriptions on verso of f. iv; a 14th-century ex-libris on f. 1 reading "[.....] ex liberalitate [....] parcat deus amen" was partially erased and written over in the 15th century "Liber collegii beate marie prope Winton".
Provenance
Provenance: inscription on f. iv in a legal hand recording donation of the book to John Savage by his paternal uncle William Savage on 7 May 1602. The volume later presumably belonged first to Bart. van Wouw (inscription dated 26 October 1650 on f. iv) and later to Patrick Young (d. 1652) who wrote notes on f. 18 and elsewhere, and loaned the manuscript to Nicholas Heinsius in 1639 (cf. F. W. Lenz in Eranos, v. 51 (1953) p. 76 and v. 61 (1963) p. 115). An inscription on f. iv records donation to Eton College in 1695 by Moyle, presumably the Moyle who attended Eton in 1678.
Binding
18th century English mottled calf with blind frame on covers and along the edges; five raised bands on spine with gold titling on red leather; marbled endpapers; two additional blank flyleaves at the beginning and end of volume; rebacked and spine strenghten with more recent marbled paper.
Copy-specific note
Former Eton shelfmark: Bk.6.18.
Copy-specific note
Two typed leaves pasted on the front flyleaves about the ms.
Subject
Subject
Subject
Latin poetry Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Wouw, Bartholomeus van former owner.
Added entry--name
Young, Patrick, 1584 - 1652 former owner.
Added entry--name
Heinsius, Nicolaas, 1620 - 1681 associated name.
Added entry--name
Added entry--name
Christ Church Priory (Canterbury, England) former owner.
Added entry--name
Winchester College former owner.
Added entry--place
England.
Added entry--place
France.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B50019