Conrad Holtnicker, Sermons, etc.; Germany (lower Rhine?), late 13th or early 14th century

Title

Conrad Holtnicker, Sermons, etc.; Germany (lower Rhine?), late 13th or early 14th century

Shelfmark

MS. Bodl. 408

Place of origin

Germany, lower Rhine (Alsace) (?)

Date

13th century, late, or 14th century, early

Language

Middle High German (ca. 1050-1500)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

i (paper) + i (parchment) + 209 + i (parchment) + i (paper)

Hands

Gothic textura; fols. 1r-2v, 201v-208v in another hand; fol. 209r a third hand (?).

Decoration

Initials in plain red.

Binding

Post-medieval. Sewn on four bands laced into pasteboards covered with speckled brown polished leather, each cover framed by a single blind filet. The unrounded spine with gilt former shelmark ‘NE.E.4.9’, and ‘408’ in white paint.

Acquisition

presented as part of a group of 34 MSS in 1608 to the Bodleian Library. Former Bodleian shelfmarks: ‘T(?).5.11.9’ (fol. ii verso); ‘Th | J 7.10’, cancelled by encircling; and ‘NE.E.4.9’ (fol. ii verso, cf. 1r and spine).

Provenance

Perhaps owned by the Augustinian monastery at Obersteigen, Alsace, to judge by the record of its foundation among the annals (fol. 209r).

Early reader(s): annotations in faint ‘crayon’ throughout.

Rev. Clement Burdett (d. after 1577?), inscribed with his name, 16th century (fol. 1r), on whom see Alan Coates, English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal (Oxford, 1999), pp.131–33, 136–41, citing the present MS. at 139; thence to his nephew:

William Burdett, of Sonning, Berkshire: