Conradus de Ebraco, Sermones, etc.; Germany (?Cologne), late 14th century (?1396)

Title

Conradus de Ebraco, Sermones, etc.; Germany (?Cologne), late 14th century (?1396)

Shelfmark

MS. Broxb. 89.5

Place of origin

German, Cologne (?)

Date

1396 (?)

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

paper; with narrow parchment MS. reinforcement strips in the center of each quire

Physical extent

i + 92 + i leaves

Hands

Gothic cursive (bastarda), with several changes of script, most strikingly at fol. 2v.

Decoration

Spaces for 2-line initials not filled in.

Binding

Medieval limp parchment binding, with sewing through a rigid tanned leather back plate with two metal bosses, and four holes in a cross or lozenge pattern. (Cf. Szirmai, The archaeology of medieval bookbinding, figs. 10.12, 10.14.)

The front cover inscribed with 15th-century notes on the contents.

The foot of the spine with a 17th(?)-century paper label inscribed ‘38’, and ‘379’ in the 18th/19th-century.

Acquisition

Presented to the Bodleian by his son, John Ehrman, in 1978 through the Friends of the National Libraries.

Provenance

Cologne, the Charterhouse of St. Barbara: with their list of contents and ownership inscription: ‘Liber domus sancte Barbare in Colonia ordinis Carthusiensis’ (fol. ir); inscribed in the 16th century ‘Author horum sermonum est Conradus de Ebroco’ (fol. ir); listed as ‘Sermones Conradi de Ebraco’ in their 17th-century inventory (Cologne, Historisches Archiv, Kartäuser, Repertorien und Handschriften 14; see R. B. Marks, The Library of the Charterhouse of St. Barbara in Cologne, Analecta Cartusiana, 21–22 (Salzburg, 1974), II, p. 430, no. 00 138); their MS 379 (cf. spine and inside front cover); the house was suppressed in 1796.

Johann Matthias Heberle, bookseller and auctioneer of Cologne; sold in 1821 as part of a group of about 135 MSS. from St Barbara’s, Cologne, to:

Leander van Ess (1772–1847), of Darmstadt (on whom see Hermann Knaus, ‘Die Handschriften des Leander van Eß’, Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 1 (pts. 3/4, 1956), 1958, 331–36, and Milton McC. Gatch, ed., ‘so precious a foundation’: The Library of Leander van Ess at the Burke Library of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, exh. cat. (New York, 1996); MS 77 in his Sammlung und Verzeichniss handschriftlicher Bücher (Darmstadt, 1823); his collection sold en bloc in 1842 to:

Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792–1872), his MS. 462, with this number and his stencilled rampant lion crest (fol. ir); sale at Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Phillippica, 6 June 1910, and following days, lot 207; bought by Maggs Bros.

Albert Ehrman (1890–1969); with his lozenge-shaped armorial bookplate above his notes in pencil; Broxbourne ledger no. R 1151; inscribed ‘1151’. next to his lozenge-shaped ‘AE’ ink stamp (inside back cover).