Burchardus de Monte Sion, Descriptio terrae sanctae, and Oliver of Paderborn, Historia Damiatina; Austria or Germany, late 13th or early 14th century

Title

Burchardus de Monte Sion, Descriptio terrae sanctae, and Oliver of Paderborn, Historia Damiatina; Austria or Germany, late 13th or early 14th century

Shelfmark

MS. Lat. hist. e. 1

Place of origin

Austria or Germany

Date

13th century, late (after c. 1283), or 14th century, early

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

47 (the first and last are pastedowns, the first is now lifted)

Hands

The first 23 lines in a formal Gothic bookhand, thereafter a much less formal one, perhaps by more than one scribe.

Decoration

A very fine ink drawing of Christ enthroned, blessing, partially coloured using two shades of blue-grey (fol. i recto), formerly pasted-down; a similar but cruder figure, without colour (fol. i verso), was traced through the leaf (the outlines are near-identical, but reversed). The finer drawing is reproduced by Pächt and Alexander i. 128, pl. IX, and MSS at Oxford, no. XVII. 2, fig 50.

Puzzle initial in red and blue with red and purple penwork (fols. 1v, 32r); smaller initials alternately in blue with red penwork or red with purple penwork.

Minor initials and paraphs alternately red or blue.

Binding

Medieval binding (14th? century). Sewn on three wide split straps laced horizontally into wood boards with rounded edges, covered with white (now dirty) leather, blind-tooled with a saltire design on each cover; with a strap-and-pin fastening (from the back to the front cover); the top of the upper cover with a title ‘Descripcio terre sancte’ inscribed on a piece of parchment (apparently covering an earlier title); the top of the spine with a paper label printed ‘401’, the next two compartments with paper labels inscribed in the 19th-cent. ‘Oliverii schol: Hist: Damiatina’ and ‘Descriptio terræ sanctæ’.

Acquisition

E. P. Goldschmidt, Catalogue 100 (1936), no. 24; inscribed in pencil at the Bodleian ‘P[urchased] 8.XII.36 Goldschmidt’ (fol. 1r).

Provenance

A smudged three-line inscription, apparently begins ‘Thoma …’ and includes the word ‘Admonten.’ at the end of the second line; the third line mostly consisting of a date apparently beginning “anno domini Mº….’ and ending ‘nonagesimo secundo’ (lower pastedown).

Probably identifiable in the Admont catalogues of 1376 and 1380: Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Österreichs, III: Steiermark, ed. Gerlinde Möser-Mersky (1961), 30.34 (‘Item descripcio terre sancte, incipit ‘Cum in veteribus’’), 56.43.

A 17th(?)-century hand has identified biblical passages, and sporadically highlights place-names, in the margins.

Admont, Stiftsbibliothek, their No. 401 (cf. spine label), with a blue paper shelfmark label printed ‘Admonter Bibliothek. || Schrank … || Nr. … ’ stuck to the inner face of the upper board, and with their heraldic ‘BIBLIOTHECA ADMONTENSIS’ ink stamp (fols. 1r, 45v); listed as MS. 401 in J. Wichner's handwritten catalogue of 1888, noted as sold to Goldschmidt (see below).