Shelfmark
MS 19
Author
Title
Commentary on the Old Testament. Volume 3 [manuscript]
Varying form of title
Title in M.R. James catalogue: Cantor in Isaiam, Jeremiam, Danielem, xii Prophetas
Varying form of title
Title in Ker, MMBL: Petrus Cantor ; Gilbertus Autissiodorensis
Publication, distribution, etc.
England, 1175-1225.
Physical description
1 v. : ill. ; 357-360 x 237-242 mm.
Language
Written in Latin.
Note
Secundo folio: illegible, due to damage to the ink.
Note
Material: membrane; Gregory's rule (FHHF). Many tears throughout, some stitched with white thread.
Note
Format: codex.
Note
Written space: 272-280 x 173-178 mm.
Note
Number of leaves: vii + 280 + vi.
Note
Accompanying material: the manuscript waste that originally served as pastedowns of this volume belongs to a codex written in England in the second half of the 14th century. Its leaves were used by Eton's binder, Williamson, in the early 17th century in this and other volumes, prompting N.R. Ker to hypothesise that they may represent the remnants of the listed item 'concordaunce of ii partes' in Eton's 1465 inventory (transcribed by James, 1921, p. 443). The other bifolium used as flyleaves belonged to a late 12th or early 13th-century biblical homily; it remains unidentified, but the running headers call it "omelia secunda" and "in genesim".
Note
Collation: 1-2¹⁰ 3-5⁸ 6-13¹⁰ 14⁸ 15-17¹⁰ 18⁴ 19⁸ 20-27¹⁰ 28-29⁸.
Note
Quire and leaf signatures and catchwords: None.
Note
Page preparation: ruled in ink and plummet; pricking sometimes visible on long margin.
Note
Mise-en-page: double columns (41-43 lines) in a set script written above the first ruled line. Biblical quotes underlined in red. Rubrication ends at f.273r. Capitulum numbers found in the commentary on Isaiah.
Note
Decoration: decorated initials (3-18 lines) in red or green, some with pen flourishes and stylised foliage. Some guide letters are still visible. Smaller initials also in red or green. Red pen-strokes added to capitals in-text. Doodle of two felines at f.27v.
Note
Handwriting: littera praegothica; multiple scribal hands.
Note
Abbreviation and punctuation: use of Tironian nota; ÷ for "esse". Puncti and puncti elevati.
Note
Correction: frequent emendations, normally added in the margin and signalled in-text by different symbols.
Note
Marginalia, later additions: brief glosses throughout by the scribes of the main text, who also add missing text and references. Additional notes include at least two 15th-century hands (one that inserts a table of contents on f.vii verso) and many other contemporary hands. On f.vii recto: "Cantor in Esaiam et Jeremiam" in a 15th-century textualis hand.
Formatted contents note
Contents: Volume 3 of a set of 3 (ECL MSS 14, 16). ff.v, vii: end of letter E, and beginning of letter F of the Concordantiae maiores; ff.vi, vi: fragment from a homily on Genesis; ff.1r-104v: on Isaiah; ff. 105r-175v: on Jeremiah; f.176r-v: blank; ff.177r-184v: on Daniel (begins imperfectly at Daniel 6:13); ff.185r-197v: on Hosea; ff.198r-203r: on Joel; ff.203r-212v: on Amos; ff.212v-214r: on Abdias (ie. Obadiah); ff.214r-217v: on Jonas; ff.217v-225v: on Micah; ff.225v-229v: on Nahum; ff.229v-235r: on Habacuc; ff.235r-238r: on Zephanias; ff. 238r-242v: on Aggeus; ff. 242v-257v: on Zacharias; ff.257v-263v: on Malachi; f.264r-v: blank; ff.265r-280v: on Wisdom.
Citation/references note
N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), pp. 639, 641-643
Citation/references note
M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), p. 9
Citation/references note
F. Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi, nos. 2544 (cf. 6487), 6483, 6485-6, 6490-6501
Citation/references note
M.R. James, 'Chapel inventories', Etoniana, series I, p. 444
Provenance
England. From volume 1 (ECL MS 14): ex libris on front pastedown, reading "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. Ker also suggests that "the blank bifolium inserted by Williamson in front of a copy of College Statutes may have been removed by him from MS 19, when he rebound it, since it bears the words 'Est de quarraria liber tuus iste Maria', s.xiv, followed by an erased line" (Ker, p.642).
Provenance
Provenance: the manuscript is entered as number 8 "Item Cantor uppon Isaiae and Jeremye iii fo. pacionem" in Eton's 1465 book inventory (see James, 1921) and has been in the library ever since. Eton College crest on f. vii verso. Former ECL shelfmarks: Bk.2.6, Bl.2.7.
Binding
Early 17th-century calfskin over wood boards by Williamson of Eton in 1600-1601; repaired by R.L. Day (1960-70). Covers decorated with a "frame two bands of the Herculis-Vena [i.e. Venus] roll. The panel is divided into three compartments by two horizontal bands of the same roll. All three compartments [are] filled with a criss-cross of diagonal lines. Clasps on upper cover. Chain mark [on] low outside edge of upper cover." (Robert Birley's personal notes on Eton book bindings, II, no. 200). Spine rebacked with four raised bands and decorated with blind fillets and gilt titling over red label ("Cantor in Prophetas"). Textblock sprinkled red. Modern endpapers of undecorated laid paper.
Subject
Bible Old Testament Commentaries Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Williamson, Vincent binder.
Added entry--name
Day, R. L. binder.
Added entry--name
Quarr Abbey former owner.
Added entry--place
England.
Language code
lat
Identifier
B51806