Shelfmark
MS 14
Author
Title
Commentary on the Old Testament. Volume 1 [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in M.R. James catalogue: Cantor in Genesim, Exodum et Leviticum
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MMBL: Petrus Cantor ; Gilbertus Autissiodorensis
Publication, distribution, etc.
England, 1175-1225.
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 379 x 265 mm.
Language
Written in Latin.
Note
Tertio folio (due to damage of secundo folio opening): secundum .lxx..
Note
Material: membrane.
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 264-275 x 175 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: i +200 + ii.
Note
Accompanying material: the manuscript waste in this volume belongs to a copy of Innocent IV's Decretals written in England in the second half of the thirteenth century. Its leaves were used by the 16th-century binder Andrew Lisley in this volume and ECL MS 20 (Ker, pp. 646-647).
Note
Collation: 1-25⁸.
Note
Quire signatures in roman numerals; catchwords.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in ink; includes lines for running header. Pricking usually visible on long margin, sometimes on short one as well.
Note
Mise-en-page: double columns (41-42 lines) written in a set script above the first ruled line. Rubrics. Paragraph marks. Running headers. Capitulum numbers. Red underlinings throughout.
Note
Decoration: illuminated initials (14-34 lines) in red and green, infills and flourishing with stylised foliage. On f.1r, "P" stands on blue ground. Paraphs decorated with pen-flourishes.
Note
Handwriting: littera praegothica; multiple scribal hands. Occasional use of hairline strokes above "i".
Note
Abbreviation and punctuation: use of Tironian nota with cross bar; ÷ for "esse"; use of puncti, puncti elevati and flexi.
Note
Correction: mistakes stricken through in red, often with adjacent symbol (a dot a line below it) to be reproduced in the margin with the corresponding correction. Missing text also signalled by small interlinear symbols, reproduced again in the margin alongside the additional text. These corrections were made by the main scribes copying the manuscript.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: notes, signposts, and corrections copied by the main scribes. Long notes include ruling. A late 14th- or 15th-century hand added capitulum numbers in the margin. Brief content notes have been added by an early modern hand on f. i verso.
Note
Condition: membrane damaged by humidity; iron gall ink ate through the page and was repaired by lining pages with wax paper.
Formatted contents note
Contents: Volume 1 of 3 (ECL MSS 16, 19). ff.1-69v: On Genesis; ff.69v-121v: On Exodus; ff.121v-200v: On Leviticus; rear pastedown: from a copy of the Decretals of Innocent IV.
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 639-643
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), p. 7
Citation/references note
F. Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi, nos. 6454, 6455, 6457
Citation/references note
M.R. James, 'Chapel inventories', Etoniana, series I, no. 28 (1921), p. 444
Additional physical form available
MS 14: Reproduction available; Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 2108.
Provenance
Origin: England. Ex libris on front pastedown: "Este de Quadraria liber iste [...]* Maria. Sit reus anno domini qui tibi tollat eum". It refers to the Cistercian Abbey of Quarr, Isle of Wight. [*] Both Ker's and James' suggestions for this word do not match what the UV light shows; the word remains illegible.
Provenance
Provenance: The manuscript is entered as number 8 "Item Cantor uppon Genesim iii fo secundum" in Eton's 1465 book inventory (see James, 1921) and has been in the library ever since. Eton College crest on f. i verso. Former ECL shelfmarks: Bk.2.1, Bl.1.12.
Binding
16th-century calfskin over wood boards, likely bound for Eton College by Andrew Lisley in 1520-21. Covers decorated with blind tools; "[f]rame of two bands compared by repeated impression of a saltire cross. The panel is decorated by diagonals, formed by the same stamp (the panel of the lower corner is less elaborately decorated than that of the upper). Back-straight vertical lines. Clasps on upper cover. Chain-mark low on outside edge of upper cover. Nail marks of horn shield which covered the label on lower cover. The stamp of the cross is the same as ECL MS 99" (from Robert Birley's personal notes, II, n. 196). Spine rebacked with four raised bands, decorated with blind fillets and gilt titling over brown label ("Cantor in Genes: Exo Levitic"); modern shelfmark labels ("14"; "Bl.1"). Endpapers of membrane and manuscript waste; front pastedown now detached.
Subject
Bible Old Testament Commentaries Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Added entry--name
Quarr Abbey former owner.
Added entry--place
England.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B51136