Vita beate virginis Marie et Salvatoris rhythmica, etc.; Germany, 14th century, second half

Title

Vita beate virginis Marie et Salvatoris rhythmica, etc.; Germany, 14th century, second half

Shelfmark

MS. Add. A. 286

Place of origin

Germany

Date

14th century, second half

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment, of generally good quality but with holes and uneven edges; the lower outer corner of fol. 49 attached with blue sewing thread

Physical extent

i (paper) + ii (old paper) + 85 + ii (old paper) + i (paper)

Hands

Gothic bookhand.

Decoration

Initials in plain red, usually three lines high, some with minimal ornament.

Musical notation

Hufnagel notation on two five-line staves, added on fol. 86v.

Binding

Three-quarter dark blue leather and black cloth over pasteboards; the spine with title in gilt capitals ‘Vita Christi | rubricated by | Hugo de Werna’.

A 17th/18th(?)-century paper label, perhaps removed from the spine of the previous binding and now stuck to the front pastedown, is inscribed ‘Vita Chri | rhythmice | descripta’.

Inscribed ‘The whole of the parchment and paper which composed the binding of this volume is in a blue envelope among the printed fragments [dated:] 1885’; these pieces had been mislaid by the time the SC was published.

Acquisition

Albert Cohn, Berlin, Catalogue 162, no. 1372; bought by the Bodleian for 60 marks on 27 Dec. 1884; inscribed in pencil ‘Cohn | 1884’ (fol. iiir).

Provenance

The Carthusian monastery of Buxheim: ‘Cartusiæ Buxiæ’ (fol. 1r); inscribed in a large bold hand in ink ‘N.201.’ (fol. ii verso). In 1803 the charterhouse was dissolved and its property, including the library, was given to:

The Counts of Ostein, and in 1810 inherited by:

The Counts of Waldbott-Bassenheim; with a purple ‘G.W.B.D.’ ink stamp (fol. 1r), probably ‘Gräflich von Waldbott-Bassenheim’sche Domanialverwaltung’ (see Volker Honemann, ‘The Buxheim collection and its dispersal’, Renaissance Studies, 9.2: Incunabula: Books, Texts and Owners (June 1995), pp. 166–88).

Hugo graf von Waldbott-Bassenheim (1820–1895); sold at his Buxheim sale by Carl Förster, Munich, Catalogue 30, 30 Sept. 1883 and following days, lot 2798.