Rupert of Deutz, De diuinis officiis (part I). 12th century, second quarter or middle; Austria-Germany border area

Title

Rupert of Deutz, De diuinis officiis (part I). 12th century, second quarter or middle; Austria-Germany border area

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 192

Place of origin

Germany or Austria

Date

12th century, second quarter or middle

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment, some leaves with substantial holes or other flaws (e.g. fol. 87), sometimes repaired by sewing (e.g. fol. 74)

Physical extent

I + 100 leaves

Hands

Fine formal pre-Gothic bookhand by several scribes, with rubrics in brick red (partially oxidised).

Decoration

Two large foliate initials in red ink at the start of the prefatory texts (fols. 1r, 2r).

The start of books with 4- to 6-line initials, and chapters with 2- or 3-line initials, in plain red, for which guide-letters sometimes survive (e.g. fol. 71v).

Sketches of letters (?), fol. i verso. A sketch of a soldier(?) (wearing a helmet?) and a woman or beardless youth, possibly based on a scene of martyrdom(?) (back pastedown).

Musical notation

A 12th-century pen-trial(?) with a version of an Easter antiphon ‘Christus resurgens mortuis iam non est’ has neums above the first two words (back pastedown).

Binding

15th century or early 16th century, Austrian, Ranshofen: wood boards, thick, straight-cut with modest squares; thick pigskin, off-white and somewhat discoloured, each cover tooled with blind lines to form bold lozenge-shaped patterns linking 4+1 lost circular bosses; traces of two leather strap-and-pin fastenings running from back cover to front (all fittings lost), and of a lost label at top left upper cover; spine plain. Added gilt red-leather spine-label, 18th century, Italian. 300 c. 204–205 c. 56–58 (book closed) (after Barker-Benfield; see Bibliography).

Acquisition

Purchased by the Bodleian in 1817

Provenance

Haacke (1967, p. xxx, siglum ‘C8’), briefly describes the MS. and suggests an early 13th-century date based on the script; Classen (1970) disagrees and suggests c.1150–60, comparing the decorated initials to examples from Reichersberg, about 30km north-east of Ranshofen (on which see K. Holter, ‘Mittelalterliche Buchkunst im Reichersberg’, in 900 Jahre Augustiner-Chorherrenstift Reichersberg, ed. by H. Litschel (Linz, 1983), pp. 295–312).

Ranshofen, Augustinian priory of St Pancras: a partially erased 12th-century inscription can be read as ‘Notum facimus cunctis Christi fidelibus quod Imma de Aphetal traditit partem predii sui super altarem sancti Martini in Hantinberch. Testes sunt Chůno maritus eius Ulricus et Megengotus filii ejus et Adalbero gener eius’ (back pastedown); the uncertain parts are supplied by P. Classen, ‘Zur kritischen Edition der Schriften Ruperts von Deutz’, Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 26 (1970), at p. 519, by comparison with the summary in the Ranshofener Traditionscodex (K. Schiffmann, ‘Der Traditionskodex des Augustiner-Chorherrenstiftes Ranshofen am Inn, Beiträge zu einer kritischen Ausgabe’, Archiv für die Geschichte der Diözese Linz, V, Heft 2 (1908), at p. 22 no. 65, where it is dated c.1140). Handenberg is about 12km south of Ranshofen. Probably to be identified as the ‘Prima pars Rüpertus de officiis.’ in the mid 14th-century catalogue of Ranshofen library (Munich, Clm. 12643; Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Österreichs, V, ed. by H. Paulhart (Vienna, 1971), at p. 91, line 5); the following item in the catalogue, ‘Secunda pars Rüpertus de officiis’ is thought to be Munich, Clm. 12633.

Matteo Luigi Canonici, 1727–1805, Jesuit and bibliophile, of Venice, who owned at least two other MSS. probably from Ranshofen: MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 60 and MS. Canon. Bibl. Lat. 76.

Giuseppe Canonici , -1807, his brother; on his death to Giovanni Perisinotti, from whom over 2,000 books were bought by the Bodleian Library.

Title

Rupert of Deutz, De divinis officiis

Shelfmark

MS. Canon. Pat. Lat. 192

Date

12th century, second quarter

Language

Latin

Physical extent

1 volume