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‘St Dunstan's Classbook’: four manuscripts written 9th-11th century in Brittany, Wales and England

MS. Auct. F. 4. 32

Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

Details

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For the main catalogue entry, see: Medieval manuscripts in Oxford libraries

Description

From Medieval manuscripts in Oxford libraries

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Medieval manuscripts in Oxford libraries contains descriptions of all known Western medieval manuscripts held in the Bodleian Libraries, and of medieval manuscripts in selected Oxford colleges. Learn more.

Title

‘St Dunstan's Classbook’: four manuscripts written 9th-11th century in Brittany, Wales and England

Shelfmark

MS. Auct. F. 4. 32

Place of origin

English

Welsh

England

additions, England

French, Brittany

Date

10th century, middle

9th century, second quarter or middle

added drawing, mid–10th century (?)

817 × 835 (?)

9th century

11th century, second half

Language

Old English (ca. 450-1100)

Ancient Greek (to 1453)

Old Welsh

Old Breton

Latin

Contents

MS. Auct. F. 4. 32 – Part I (fols. 1–9)
(fol. 1r) Originally blank. Added three-quarter length image of Christ, with kneeling monk at his feet, in brown ink, see Decoration. Above the monk a distich written by hand D asking for Christ's protection for ‘Dunstan’.
(fol. 1v) Rubric: (first line in capitals) In honomate sumitonantis ars euticis gramatici | incipit
(fol. 1v) Incipit: Theodocius dicit De coniugationibus apud grecos iii sunt coniugationes uerborum qua\o/rum prima positione
(fol. 1v) Added distich by hand D, the first two lines of Eugenius of Toledo, De bono pacis (see Lapidge in Anglia 98 (1980), 106).
2. (fols. 2r–9v) Eutyches Ars de uerbo
Incipit: (inexcussabilis) Cudo cusi . excuro. as. excuraui tum ire
MS. Auct. F. 4. 32 – Part II (fols. 10–18)
1. (fols. 10–18) Homily on the Invention of the Cross
MS. Auct. F. 4. 32 – Part III (fols. 19–36)
‘Liber Commonei’ (computistical, theological and liturgical compilation; cf. Lapidge & Sharpe 83)
(fol. 19r–v) Text continues from fol. 36r; see below.
(fol. 20r lines 1–15) Incipit: Numeri linialis
(fol. 20r lines 16–25) Alphabet of Nemnivus, as ed. R. Derolez, Runica manuscripta (1954), pp. 157–9.
(fol. 20r lines 26–29) Two paragraphs on the dating of Easter; addition by ‘hand D’.
(fol. 20v) Table of the course of the moon through the Zodiac, as in Bede, De temporum ratione, c. xix.
(fol. 21r) Paschal table for the years 817–835
(fol. 21v) Rubric: De questione apostoli
(fol. 22r–v) Rubric: Incipit paruum experimentum de luna
Between the rubric and incipit is a brief extract from the Cursus paschalis of Victorius of Aquitaine (MGH Auct. ant. IX, p. 682, ll. 8–10), as noted by Walsh and O Croinin, pp. 177–8, note to c. 69.
(fol. 22v, lower half) Gloss to following item.
(fols. 23r–v) Victorius of Aquitaine Calculus
(fols. 24r–36r, 19r–v) Liturgical lessons and canticles in Greek and Latin.
(fols. 24–28v) Rubric: Incipiunt pauca testimonia de prophetarum libris per grecam ling⟨uam⟩
(fols. 28v–35v, 36r, 19r–v) Lessons and canticles for the Easter Vigil (Greek text transliterated); pr. B. Fischer in Colligere fragmenta: festschrift Alban Dold (1952), 144–59; Lapidge & Sharpe 118(ii). Fol. 36 is a replacement leaf supplied by ‘hand D’.
MS. Auct. F. 4. 32 – Part III (fols. 19–36): fols. 19–35
MS. Auct. F. 4. 32 – Part III (fols. 19–36): fol. 36, replacement leaf added by hand D
MS. Auct. F. 4. 32 – Part IV (fols. 37–47)
1. (fols. 37r–47r) Ovid Ars Amatoria
Latin and Old Welsh interlinear glosses, mostly in a hand resembling the main text (fols. 37v-42r, 45r-v). Syntactical glossing marks.
(fol. 47v) Originally blank; sentence in Old English (deriving from the Penitential of Ps.-Egbert) added in two 11th century hands.
MS. Auct. F. 4. 32 – Part IV (fols. 37–47): fols. 37–46
MS. Auct. F. 4. 32 – Part IV (fols. 37–47): fol. 47, replacement leaf by hand D

Form

codex

Physical extent

ii + i + 47 + i folios, foliated i-ii (fol. iii unfoliated), 1–48.

Binding

Russia leather, mid-19th-century.

Acquisition

Given by him to the Bodleian in 1601 (Summary Catalogue I, p. 80): fol. 1r, Tho. Allen Dono Dedit.

Provenance

Parts I, III and IV perhaps together at Glastonbury Abbey in the time of St Dunstan.

The four parts of the volume perhaps, as argued by Hunt, first brought together at Glastonbury Abbey in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century as part of a renewed interest in local saints.

Acquired at an unknown date by Thomas Allen (1542–1632).

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Connections

People associated with this object

  • Bede, the Venerable, Saint, 673-735

  • Langley, fr. Henry, of Glastonbury (?), mid-15th century

  • Eugene, II, of Toledo, Saint, Archbishop of Toledo, -657

  • Macrobius, Ambrosius Aurelius Theodosius

  • Dunstan, Saint, 909-988

  • Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D.

  • Allen, Thomas, 1542-1632

  • Isidore, of Seville, Saint, -636

  • Victorius, Aquitanus, active 5th century

  • Eutyches, grammarian, 6th cent.

  • Egbert, archbishop of York, -766, pseudo

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