Augustine, De doctrina christiana and three further works; England, s. xiimed

Title

Augustine, De doctrina christiana and three further works; England, s. xiimed

Shelfmark

Christ Church, Allestree Library MS. M.1.10

Place of origin

England

Date

s. xiimed

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment (HSOS)

Physical extent

Fols: iii + 126 + iii (numbered fols iv-vi). All flyleaves modern paper, excepting last at front which is medieval parchment.

Hands

Written in protogothic bookhand.

Punctuation by point, punctus elevatus, and punctus interrogativus; punctus versus at ends of chapters and texts.

Decoration

Headings in red. At the openings of the texts and the book divisions of item 1 (fol. 14, 33 and 48), four-line (six for the prologue to item 1) arabesque initials in red, blue, or green, with flourishing or floral patterns in the other colours. Similar two-line examples at the openings of the chapters of item 1 (usually without flourishing). The texts are divided by larger capitals in the text ink, by ochre-slashed capitals in texts 2 and 4.

Binding

Brown leather over millboards, late s. xvii, apparently rebacked. Sewn on five thongs. In the top spine compartment, in gilt on a brown leather label, S. Augustini De doctrina christiana etc.. Pastedowns later paper, with printed labels of the Allestree Library and the Regius Professor on both (s. xix).

Provenance

There are some signs of use to this volume. There are small pieces of string sewn through the parchment to mark the opening of books (fol. 1, 14, 48, 70, 103, 115); a large nota monogram appears repeatedly (s. xiii: fol. 8, 8v, 9v, 10, 37, 56v, 63v, 76, 93, 97v, 119 etc); there is one note in pencil (s.xiii: fol. 43), and three in a fifteenth-century script (fol. 13, 17, 65v); this script seems earlier that the table of contents added at fol. iiiv (bastard anglicana, s. xv ex.).

One sixteenth-century owner reveals his identity: Reginaldus Metcalfus signs notes at the foot of fol. iiiv, compiled from his reading the book which began on 16 April 1598; fol. 126 apparently celebrates the conclusion of his reading per [for ‘perlegi’?] 1598 Julij 7. He also adds two marginalia (fol. 36v, 65v) and, at fol. 126v, a note on Jerome (paraphrasing Isidore, Etymologiae, VI.4) and headed ‘Liber regularum’. He is possibly the graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, who matriculated in 1570 and was ordained deacon in 1575; he may also have been the vicar of Elmstead, Essex from 1588 until the early 1620s [AC1, 3:179; CCed, both sub Medcalfe]. Considering the date of his reading, Metcalf is unlikely to have been the first post-Dissolution owner of this manuscript, and its earlier provenance remains to be discovered.

Thereafter, the manuscript provides no information until its bequest by Allestree, printed labels of ‘The Regius Professor of Divinity’ and of the Library (as in the two preceding MSS) (the front and back pastedowns). In addition, an accurate s. xx typed description (presumably by Neil Ker) is pasted to fol. ii.