EUSEBIUS; S. IX

Title

EUSEBIUS; S. IX

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 315

Place of origin

script of English appearance.

Germany, Reichenau (?)

Date

S. IX

s. xiii

Language

Latin

Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

160 leaves (ii + 158) 1–156 of thick, stiff parchment, all edges retrimmed. Damage from damp at the head and foot of leaves early on.

Hands

Elegant, fully-developed Caroline minuscule. Headings in square capitals and uncials. Corrections and additions in an ?English humanistic hand, c. 1500, on fols. 1v, 9v, 10, 20v and 148v.

Decoration

Much writing in capitals, and some numerals and framing, in red and green. On f. 125v the birth of Jesus is marked by a large chi-rho with interlace and foliage ornament, within a double rectangular frame, in ink of text filled with red, green and yellow.

Binding

Recent (C. Clarkson), white pigskin over wooden boards; sewn on three bands; fols. i-ii, 157–8 are parchment blanks from this binding.

The previous binding, s. xv ex., tawed skin over reverse-bevelled wooden boards, virtually identical with those of MSS 1 and 2, and with that of Bodl. Libr., MS Bodl. 757 (see N. R. Ker, Records of All Souls College Library 1437–1600, Oxford Bibliographical Society Publs., n. s. 16, 1971, p. 171), is now kept separately. Sewn on four bands, raised on the spine and outlined with string; formerly two straps with clasps from the front to catches on the back cover, of which the lower clasp and both catches remain; formerly chained from the front board, near the foot of the foredge. The front pastedown is from an English copy of a civil law text, s. xiii, glossed. The rear pastedown has the end of 2 cols of text, perhaps from the same book, on its pasted side.

Provenance

Perhaps made at Reichenau; the German verse added s. xiv is in West Allemannic, the dialect spoken in a region centering on Basel.

Owned by Pietro Donato, bishop of Padua (d. 1447), who probably found it while at the Council of Basel in the 1430s, and certainly had access to it there by 1436. It is presumably no. 94 in the inventory of his books made between 1439 and 1445: P. Sambin, ‘La biblioteca di Pietro Donato (1380–1447)’, Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova 48 (1959), 53–98, at p. 85 (‘Eusebius de temporibus in littera vetustissima’). Venice, Biblioteca Marciana Lat. IX. 1 (3496), was copied from it at Padua in 1450; this is the earliest of a group of related MSS copied there and in Rome, s. xv2. The text was also used by B. Mombritius for his printed edition (Milan 1475).

It was brought to England by John Tiptoft (BRUO 1877–9), earl of Worcester, who was in Padua c. 1459–61; his maniculus on f. 119 and marginal note on f. 133. The addition to the text on f. 1v was also in the copy given by Duke Humfrey to the University Library in Feb. 1443/4.

The binding suggests that it reached the College not long after Tiptoft’s death, 17 Oct. 1470. It was certainly there by 1556: UO65. 170. On f. 156v is ‘Liber Collegii Mertonensis Oxon:’, s. xvii. Inside the front board of the old binding are two shelf-marks of s. xvii, ‘B. 4. 11. Art’, canc. and replaced with ‘Q. 3. 17’, itself replaced by ‘F. 3. 25’ and ‘CCCXV’ in red; the College bookplate. ‘17’ is inked on the foredge.