Horace, glossed in Latin and Old High German, with texts on logic, music and mathematics; Flanders (?) or Germany (?), 11th century, second half

Title

Horace, glossed in Latin and Old High German, with texts on logic, music and mathematics; Flanders (?) or Germany (?), 11th century, second half

Shelfmark

MS. D'Orville 158

Place of origin

Flemish (?), Mosan(?)

or Germany(?)

Date

11th century, second half

Language

Old High German (ca. 750-1050)

Ancient Greek (to 1453)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

ii (paper) + 126 + ii (paper)

Hands

Caroline minuscule by more than one hand.

Decoration

Initial, fol. 43r, mermaid (horse's (?) neck with human face joined to a fish's tail) ( Pächt and Alexander i. 267, pl. XVIII).

Logical diagram, fol. 116v.

Sketches, 15th(?) century, fol. 39v.

Binding

Plain parchment over pasteboards, 18th century.

Acquisition

Acquired by the Bodleian in 1804. Previous shelfmark Auct. X. 1. 3. 18.

Provenance

The manuscript has been variously localized. Pacht and Alexander, perhaps on art-historical grounds (based on the initial, fol. 43r) suggested the Mosan, and were followed by Hunt, Gibson (1982, 'probably from the region of Liege'), and Munk Olsen. For the suggestion of Laon (perhaps based on the text by Adalbaron of Laon) see refences cited by K. Siewert, Die althochdeutsche Horazglossierung (1986) at 333 n. 3012. The dialect of the German glosses has been variously described (see BStK) as 'mitteldeutsch', 'westmitteldeutsch', 'oberdeutsch', 'alemannisch'. Features of the script (notably /us/ ligature, 'h' shaped /z/, /a/ and /i/ in ligature below the line) are suggestive of an origin in southern Germany.

In Italy probably by the 14th century, as indicated by annotations; Hunt compared the hand of later humanistic annotations to that of Janus Parrhasius (-1522).

Jacques Phillippe D'Orville of Amsterdam (1690–1751) ; acquired by him in Italy (see MS. D'Orville 302).

Jean D'Orville, b. 1734 , his son, by descent.

Jean D'Orville, son of Jean, by descent.

Sold to the Rev. John Cleaver Banks (1765/6–1845) : purchased from him by the Bodleian.

Title

The works of Horace, with many scholia and glosses

Shelfmark

MS. D'Orville 158

Summary

Comprises:

(fol. 1) 'Q. Horatii Flacci Liber Carminum. Incipit primus [etc.].'

(fol. 33) 'Incipit Epedon ad Mecenatem.'

(fol. 39v) '... Incipit Carmen Seculare ad Apollinem & Dianam.'

(fol. 43) 'Quinti Horatii Flacci Liber incipit De Arte Poetica.'

(fol. 51) 'Explicit liber poeticus. Incipit Sermonum liber 1 [et 2].'

(fol. 89v) The Epistles, joined to the Satires, with no rubric: at end 'Quinti Horatii Flacci explicit opus.'.

Several pieces, chiefly logical or grammatical, hardly later in date than the Horace, are written on blank or supplementary pages in the volume:

(fol. 32) 'Publii [Syri] sententię lepidę et ad communem usum accommodatissimę', 13 only

(fols. 32 41, 114v) Logical notes, of which the 2nd and 3rd begg. 'Quotiens igitur a genere' and 'Logica est diligens disserendi ratio'

(fol. 40v) an explanation of critical signs, beg. 'Asteriscus id est stella ponitur ubi deest'

(fol. 114) A poem and some prose notes about musical tones: beg. '... unctorum sunt interualla sonorum'

(fol. 117) 'Epistola Adalberonis Laudunensis episcopi Fulconi Ambianensi episcopo sub dialogo directa', with notes, a logical dispute about a mule, beg. 'Domino F... Multarum res amicitiarum.' Fulco i was bp. of Amiens 993-1030

(fol. 120) A musical treatise, beg. 'Monochordum diuisurus'

(fol. 122) '[Vers] us de communione & differentia [Rhe]toricę ac Dialecticę artis', rhythmical, beg. 'R ... rethores uocantur atque dialectici'

(fol. 122v) calculations of multiplications and divisions of weights: beg. 'Duo calci faciunt unum ceratem.'

The inner part of the last thirty pages is much stained and injured. On fol. 6v is an Old German gloss antenne. segalrodon, and others occur.

Date

written in the 11th cent.

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment

Physical extent

128 Leaves