Hugh of St.-Victor, Bernard of Clairvaux, Ralph of Battle, Gervase of Louth — 12th century, late; English

Title

Hugh of St.-Victor, Bernard of Clairvaux, Ralph of Battle, Gervase of Louth — 12th century, late; English

Shelfmark

MS. Fairfax 17

Date

12th century, late

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Binding

White leather on boards, with fragment of later green leather strap, and one central boss, 14th-cent. English work.

Provenance

Louth Park, Lincolnshire, Cistercian abbey of St Mary the Virgin (?) : Contents incl. life of Gervase, first abbot of Louth Park. (MLGB3: evidence from locally specific contents, including obits, scribbles, etc.).

"E libris C. Fairfax ex dono Henrici Cholmley 16...". (MLGB3)

Title

Theological and devotional treatises

Shelfmark

MS. Fairfax 17

Summary

Theological and devotional treatises, comprising:

Fol. 1. Hugh of St. Victor 'de arra anime': beg. (imperfectly) '... diceret? qui humanitatis oblitus et societatis' with 16th-cent. marginalia

Fol. 13. 'Sententia sancti Ambrosii episcopi de amicitia': beg. 'Nichil honestati preferendum est', printed in Migne, Patr. Lat., tom. xvi, col. 180

Fol. 14v. the four homilies of st. Bernard on 'Missus est': prol. beg. 'Scribere me aliquid', text beg. 'Missus est angelus Gabriel', printed in Migne, Patr. Lat., tom. clxxxiii, col. 55

Fol. 33. a sermon on 'Cum esset desponsata' (Matth. i. 18): beg. 'Propositum nobis est'

Fol. 38v. a sermon on 'Intrauit Jhesus in quoddam castellum' (Luke x. 38), here attributed to st. Bernard, but rejected in Migne, Patr. Lat., tom. clxxxiv, col. 1004: beg. 'Quod dominus ac saluator noster'

Fol. 44. the pseudo-gospel of Nicodemus, in an abbreviated version, without the prologue and with many variants (cf. Constantine Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha, 1853, p. 314): beg. 'Factum est in anno nono decimo imperatoris'

Fols. 55-7 are a 13th-cent. copy of the 'Cura Sanitatis Tiberii' printed in Ernst von Dobschütz, Christusbilder, 163**-189**

Fol. 54v. the Latin version of the Finding of the Cross by st. Helen, printed in Napier's edition of the History of the Holy Rood for the Early English Text Society, vol. 103, pp. 41 ff.

Fol. 64. the first half of Lanfranc's Sentences for monks (Migne, Patr. Lat., tom. cl, col. 637), with a commentary, beg. 'Octo sunt que si diligenter'

Fol. 64. 'Lamentacio G[ervasii] abbatis quam fecit paulo antequam moreretur': beg. 'Recordare miser homo, recordare et noli obliuioni tradere', followed by a life of Gervase, first abbot of the Cistercian foundation of Louth Park in Lincolnshire (fl. 1139): beg. 'Primordialis causa doloris mei' (fol. 67v), written apparently by a contemporary, and a letter of Gervase announcing his resignation: beg. 'Ego fratres carissimi' (fol. 72)

Fol. 73. 'Incipit de duodecim sociis toto anno girantibus', a miraculous story elsewhere attributed to Bruno bishop of Toul: beg. 'In nocte natalis domini lucifera qua lux seculorum est orta', hence printed in Mon. Germ. Hist., vol. xxvi, pp. 28-9

Fol. 747. a letter from 'S. presbyter indignus' to Symeon, monk and precentor of St. Cuthbert's, Durham, relating the vision of Orm assigned (fol. 77) to the year 1125: beg. 'Domine frater visionem adolescentis Orm' and text beg. 'Quando inquid posuerunt me' (fol. 75)

Fol. 78. letter from 'Aleuus seruus fratrum de Mailros' to M. canon of Kirkham, relating the vision of a lay brother, assigned to the year 1159: beg. 'Quidem conversus iuvenis etate non moribus' followed by three other visions, the last of which (fol. 83) is the 'Visio Drichtelmi', beg. 'Erat ergo paterfamilias', derived from Bede's Ecclesiastical History, v. 12

Date

Written in the late 12th century in England

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, binding, white leather on boards, with fragment of later green leather strap, and one central boss, 14th-cent. English work

Physical extent

85 Leaves

Custodial history

'Elibris C. Fairfax ex dono Henrici Cholmley 16 ...' (fol. 85v). Fairfax believed that the MS. came from the Cistercian priory of Louth Park in Lincolnshire, concerning which special knowledge is shown in art. j above.