Gregory the Great, De cura pastorali; Excarpsus Cummeani; Mainz (?), c. 800 & Mainz, s. ix.

Title

Gregory the Great, De cura pastorali; Excarpsus Cummeani; Mainz (?), c. 800 & Mainz, s. ix.

Shelfmark

MS. Laud Misc. 263

Date

additions, 9th century

c. 800;

Language

Ancient Greek (to 1453)

Old High German (ca. 750-1050)

Hebrew

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

ii (17th-cent.) + 81 + ii (17th-cent.) leaves The margins trimmed (affecting a few marginalia; the lower margins of several leaves excised. Between fols 16/17 three quires are missing, with loss of text; fragments of these missing quires are preserved in Würzburg, UB, M.p.j.f.7.

Hands

Fols. 2r–65v: German Anglo-Saxon minuscule, c. 800. Written by 'Willibaldus diaconus', fol. 65v, probably at Mainz c. 800. Other leaves of the MS. are in the Universitätsbibliothek, Würzburg. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 5, pl. 1).

Fols. 1r-v, 65v & 66r–81v: Carolingian minuscule of the early and later 9th century.

Decoration

A large Insular initial P on fol. 2r. Monumental capitals, occasional initials, red rubrics in uncials.

Fols. 2r-65v: initials in the ink of the text.

Fols 66r-81v: initials in red or the ink of the text.

Fols 66r-81v: rubrics

Pen drawings on fol. 81r of a hoofed animal, a face of a man, and a bird (?).

Musical notation

Neums, fols. 1r and 81v.

Binding

Brown tanned calf over laminated pulpboard for Abp. Laud, 1637–1639.

Acquisition

Given to the Bodleian as part of his third donation, dispatched on 28 June 1639.

Provenance

Fols 2r–65v: Written in an Anglo-Saxon centre in Germany, most likely at Mainz, around 800, by ‘Willibaldus diaconus’; the manuscript was certainly at Mainz early in the 9th century, as is shown by the script of the additions.

The glossary (fol. 65v) and the Excarpsus (fols. 66r-81r) written in a Carolingian minuscule typical for Mainz, s. ixin, by two hands.

Würzburg, Domstift St Kilian, the change of location from Mainz to Würzburg probably took place around 900: a 15th-cent. shelfmark of the Domstift, fol. 1r.

William Laud, 1573–1645: his ex libris, 1637, fol. ii verso.

Title

Gregorius papa, Magnus

Shelfmark

MS. Laud Misc. 263

Summary

1. Fol. 1r-v. Additions in Carolingian minuscule:

Fol. 1r-v. Breviarius de Hierosolyma (CPL 2327) (likely) Mainz, s. ixex

Fol. 1r. 'Nam sicut exaltantur celi …', with neums (likely) Würzburg, s. ix/x

Fol. 1v. Formulas for Prayers for the Francs and their emperors

2. Fols. 2r-65v. Gregory the Great, De cura pastorali (incomplete)

Glosses Added 9th or 10th century, probably in Würzburg; three interlinear and one marginal pen glosses and several scratch glosses in Old High German, and other glosses in Latin

3. Fol. 65v. Trilingual glossary for (nine) theological terms: (fols. 65v-66r) Added antiphon and prayers, s. ix or x

4. Fols. 66r-81r. Excarpsus Cummeani

Date

c. 800; additions, 9th century

Language

Latin

Physical facet

Brown tanned calf over laminated pulpboard

Physical extent

81 Leaves

Custodial history

It bears the old shelfmark cxxxiij. From St. Kylian, Würzburg. Manuscript 2556 acquired by the Bodleian Library