Johannes Herolt, Sermones discipuli, etc.; Germany, 1462

Title

Johannes Herolt, Sermones discipuli, etc.; Germany, 1462

Shelfmark

Dep. c. 630

Place of origin

Germany

Date

1462

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Paper, the centre of each quire strengthened with narrow parchment strips. Watermarks: (fols. 1–9) dreiberg with seven-petalled flower. Other sections frequently indistinct; the principal watermarks seem to be dreiberg with cross (eg. fol. 117; cf. Piccard Dreiberg VII. 2281) and bull’s head with eight-petalled flower (e.g. fol. 319; cf. Piccard Online 69399 and variants); on fols. 404-14 bull’s head with five-petalled flower above and triangle with three points below, two crossbars on the lower rod (type Piccard Ochsenkopf XII.851-878)

Physical extent

i + 415 + i

Hands

Written in cursiva, by several hands, changing at fols. 10 (beginning of quire 2), 118 (beginning of quire 11), 320 (beginning of quire 28), and 404 (beginning of quire 35); for the added texts on fols. 316r–318v); for almost all fol. 359v, and for 13 lines on fol. 381vb.

Decoration

Red initials, most spaces left blank after f. 304.

Binding

Contemporary binding. Sewn on four double bands laced into wood boards covered with polished brown leather, blind-tooled with five stamps: (i) an eagle displayed in a circle (20 mm. diameter) (cf. EBDB s015440), (ii) foliage in a lozenge (28 × 19 mm.) (cf. EBDB s001029), (iii) two ivy-leaves on a stem (30 × 14 mm.) (cf. EBDB s015831), and (iv) a seated figure holding up a ring (?ape with mirror) (8 × 8 mm.), the first occupying the full lozenges and the second the half-lozenges at the sides of the centre section, which is surrounded by a border with the third stamp along the sides and the fourth in the corners, the central lattice and the borders being defined by four fillets with the central band hatched, with the fifth stamp, ‘yhs’ (28 × 21 mm.) (cf. EBDB s031734), in the centre of the top border on the front cover. Four stamps are associated with the Schriftstempel-Meister workshop in Leipzig, EBDB w000846; cf. MS. Hamilton 30. Metal corner-pieces; five bosses on each cover, all missing; catchplates; the clasps modern; the joints repaired and the spine re-applied upside-down such that a 19th(?)-century title in ink ‘ … | SERMONES’ is now inverted in the second compartment from the bottom and a 20th-century leather title-piece is in the second compartment from the top.

Acquisition

‘Deposited [at the Bodleian] by the National Trust (from Snowshill Manor, Glos.) 26 Jan. 1981.’ (fol. ir).

Provenance

Written in part by Jodocus Christen, at ‘Smoll’ (unidentified), in 1462 (fol. 415v). (This manuscript not included in Watson, Dated and Datable). Christen also wrote in 1458 a manuscript that was lot 89 in the 1836 von Bülow sale; in 1460 he wrote part of MS. Hamilton 30, and parts of two or more Bibles (von Bülow sale, 1836 [see below], lots 155, 156, 158); in 1463 the second volume of a two-volume Bible (von Bülow sale, lot 149); in 1477 he was elected Prior of Erfurt, and in 1479 first Prior of Martinstal Charterhouse near Crimmitschau in Saxony. He was presumably dead before 1485 as his successor died in that year.

Jodocus Christen; given in 1465 (together with MS. Hamilton 30, which also contains Sermons by John Herolt), to:

Erfurt, Carthusian abbey of St. Salvator: Volumen hoc pertinet ad domum Salvatoris ordinis Carthusiensis prope Erfordiam a domino Iodoco Cristen anno noviciatus sui 1465 eidem intestatus traditus (front pastedown); their library catalogue no. O.49 (Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz, II, p. 498).

Friedrich Gottlieb Julius von Bülow: his sale at Gisleben, Bibliotheca Büloviana … Dritter Theil (Handschriften) …, 10 October 1836 and following days, lot 126.

Gilyatt Sumner (1793-1875) of Woodmansey, Yorks., signed and dated 1856, and inscribed with his(?) shelfmark, ‘Case B AA’ (fol. 1r); his sale, Beverley, 31 October 1877, lot 12.

Unidentified English bookseller, with a clipping from their priced catalogue and traces of another clipping (back pastedown; cf. erased pencil price on front pastedown).

Snowshill Manor