Gregorius I, Homiliae in Ezechielem; England, s. xiiex

Title

Gregorius I, Homiliae in Ezechielem; England, s. xiiex

Shelfmark

Exeter College MS. 40

Place of origin

England

Date

s. xiiex

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment HFFH

Physical extent

96 leaves preceded and followed by two 18th-century paper flyleaves.

Hands

A good English protogothic script, probably by one scribe in spite of a marked difference between the appearances of the first few and the later pages due to increased lateral compression. Insular abbreviations for enim and est are used. Punctuated by punctus elevatus, punctus interrogativus, and low point. On a number of pages, probably because of damp, many individual letters or minims have become detached from the surface; most have been lost but on fols. 10r, 11v, and 12r a strange effect results from the adhesion of others, scattered at random over the page.

Decoration

At the beginning of the first homily is a blue and red interlace initial surrounded by muddy brown and green and enclosed in a square, but most other initials are plain blue-and-red 5-line initials filled (probably later) with patterns in the same brown and green except when they are long (e.g. J) and provide no scope for infilling, and are therefore left unadorned except for marginal arabesques. Book 1 has red running book numbers; book 2 black running book numbers dotted red, both being guided by roughly written crayon notes in top margins, such as ‘Omelia vi. partis prime’, ‘Omelia v. partis ij.’ There are rubrics in both parts. Alexander and Temple, no. 136.

Binding

Sewn on six bands. Standard Exeter binding: simple and quite elegant, calf over millboards, the calf bearing blind decoration of a floral type, early 19th century. On the spine is a red leather label with a gold title.

Provenance

There is no evidence for the book’s pre-Exeter history although it is clearly the product of a monastic scriptorium (in which the standard of script was higher than that of the decoration and of the preparation of the quires).

On fol. 96v is ‘lib. Coll. Exon. oxon.’ in a hand of c. 1600. The book is not recorded in Ecloga as being in the College around 1600 but on fol. 47 a tab for a title has been made as in MSS 28 fol. 273 (272), 37 fol. 109, and 38 fol. 94, the present title, in the same hand as in these books, being ‘Gregorjus in Ezechielem’. See further Watson, Exeter, Introduction, pp. xxii–xxiii. The present volume is CMA, no. 26.

Exeter library identifications are, on the front pastedown, ‘D1–4’ deleted and replaced by (or perhaps replacing), ‘–2–9’ (scribbled over),‘173–H–5’, the book stamp and ‘Coxe Cat. no: XL’. On the spine is a round paper label with ‘5’ on it.