Miscellanea theologica; England (Sempringham), s. xii in. (V); s. xii 2/3 (II); s. xii3/4(I, VI); s. xii ex. (III, IV)

Title

Miscellanea theologica; England (Sempringham), s. xii in. (V); s. xii 2/3 (II); s. xii3/4(I, VI); s. xii ex. (III, IV)

Shelfmark

Lincoln College MS. Lat. 27

Place of origin

England, perhaps Sempringham priory

England

England, Sempringham priory

Date

s. xii3/4

s. xii2/3

s. xii ex

s. xii in.

Language

Latin

Contents

Physical extent

i (a lifted pastedown) + i + 209 + i + i (a lifted pastedown; all flyleaves of medieval parchment).

Binding

A mid-fifteenth-century binding—after 1462, the date on an endleaf—of quarter-sawn oak boards, cushion-bevelled, overhanging the text-block on all sides, and covered with whittawed skin. This cover has been patched with reverse skin where it has worn away or been torn, including on the spine; but it has not been rebacked. Sewn on five double whittawed thongs, raised at the spine. Both pastedowns are lifted, revealing the V-lacing arrangement of the top and bottom braces with the centre thong taken straight, all pegged. The supports are breaking where the quires were removed towards the centre of the volume; the fact of the gap here rather suggests that this is the original sewing. Endbands are structural and of blue and undyed thread, around an alum-tawed leather core, woven with three beads and worked through the covering of both head- and tailcaps. There is no use of red stain. Striations at the middle of the fore-edge of both boards are tying-up marks. There are in addition the grooves left in the upper board by paired fore-edge clasps. Their material is unknown, but they were each secured by two nails and fastened not to catch-plates, for which there is no evidence, but apparently to pins on the centre line of the lower board; these are sawn off but the metal remains visible. There are the marks of two chaining stations: it is probably the medieval staple which was attached at the foot of the fore-edge on the upper board; this staple was rectangular with two nail holes. The impress and nail holes of the usual early-modern College clip are at the fore-edge of the lower board towards the head. On the back cover north of centre is an oblong arrangement of eight nail-holes revealing the former position of the title-piece, which would have been fixed beneath a sheet of horn by a latten frame. The space bounded by the nail holes is 30 × 105 mm. The parchment title-piece is now pasted to fol. 7r (see Labels and marks); it is cut down, measuring 17 × 90 mm. Pastedowns and rear flyleaf are cut-down documents of the fifteenth century (two dated 1461 and 1462) from the diocese of Lincoln (see above), raising the likelihood that the binding was done for Robert Flemming, dean of Lincoln from 1452 until his death in 1483.

Labels and marks: The medieval title-piece from the back board is now pasted at the foot of fol. 7r. In the secondary Textura hand it reads, ‘Expositio Bernardi super Missus est gabriel cum aliis contentis ex dono Magistri Roberti Flemmyng’ Decani lincoln’’. Centred at the top of the same page is the James number ‘27’ written in Gerard Langbaine’s brown ink. The early-modern shelf-mark, ‘E. 47. 1’ is on fol. [ii]r, with the unidentified mark above it, ‘N.59.’ The College bookplate of 1703 is affixed at the centre of what was the front pastedown, now lifted. Beneath it is pencilled the Bodleian shelf-mark: ‘MS. Linc. Coll. (e) Lat. 27’. On the spine, vestiges of two square paper labels: at the head, a printed arabic numeral 2[[7]]; at the tail, the pale blue Bodleian label with printed modern shelf-mark.

Provenance

Parts VI and perhaps III were produced at Sempringham priory in Lincolnshire, part I was sent there. The other parts could have originated elsewhere; indeed, part V probably predates the foundation of the priory in 1131. The absence of a common annotating hand may suggest that the pieces had had a separate life for some time. They were brought together, not yet in the present form, by the late twelfth century, perhaps the 1190s, the approximate time of the contents list on 6v. This list reveals that the Statius and Macrobius (items 11–12) were substitutions for ‘De patribus ueteris testamenti’ (probably Isidore, De ortu et obitu patrum) and ‘Ymago mundi, secundum Henricum de Huntend’’ (probably the Imago mundi of Honorius Augustodunensis, sometimes called ‘Henricus’ and conflated here with the author Henry of Huntingdon, a canon of Lincoln whom Gilbert of Sempringham would have known). The two replacement texts, Statius and Macrobius, would have brought the resulting volume more into the thirteenth-century schoolroom. But it cannot be known if they were brought in so early: writing at the head of the first page of the Macrobius (85r) would rather suggest that this had been a separate quire for some time. The hand which crossed out the two original entries in the contents list and made an entry for the new ones is a sixteenth-century italic.

The volume came to Lincoln College from the bequest of Robert Flemming (1416–1483), dean of Lincoln, as is stated by the medieval title-piece (see Labels and marks). It arrived by bequest in 1483, for it is not found in the library inventory of 1474. Was this volume acquired by Flemming in Lincolnshire? He never held a prebend that included Sempringham, but, as dean of the cathedral, his connections in the diocese ran deep: this volume might have been gift or loan from the canons, such as the one he had had from the Augustinians of Worksop (Lincoln College MS. Lat. 63). It was apparently Flemming who had the pieces bound up, or rebound. The endleaves are documents from the diocese of Lincoln dating from his time, the mid-fifteenth century. The sewing, though, is original, from the end of the twelfth century, for the loss of material towards the centre has left a gap between the quires. It is not impossible that it was Flemming who added the Statius and Macrobius at the rebinding, although it is not likely. In Oxford, Balliol College, MS 33 (s. xivmed), a copy of William of Nottingham’s commentary on the Vnum ex quattuor of Clement of Lanthony, is a note by the Oxford theologian Thomas Gascoigne (1404–1458) on Maria Salome: ‘Opinio vulgi et contra opus prioris Kirkam’ (340v). Roger Mynors (Balliol, 24) understood that Gascoigne’s knowledge of Maurice of Kirkham’s work derived from our manuscript. However, our volume was only received at Lincoln College after the death of Robert Flemming in 1483, so Gascoigne, who died in 1458 when Flemming was in Italy, could not have seen this copy. It may also be noted that our manuscript does not contain Gascoigne’s hand or any of his familiar marks. Booklists: James, Ecloga, no. 27; CMA 1/2. 1375.