Prudentius, Cathemerinon (Hymni) and Peristephanon, with glosses (some in German); southern Germany, 11th century, first half, with additions

Title

Prudentius, Cathemerinon (Hymni) and Peristephanon, with glosses (some in German); southern Germany, 11th century, first half, with additions

Shelfmark

MS. Auct. T. 2. 22

Place of origin

Germany, south

Date

11th century, first half

additions, 12th century

Language

Old High German (ca. 750-1050)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment, of mediocre quality, with numerous flaws

Physical extent

ii + 126 + ii

Hands

Apparently written by several scribes in Caroline minuscule scripts, some headings in red ink, some with Rustic Capitals, varying considerably in quality and size, with changes of script at fols. 79r, 84r, 96r, and 96v.

Decoration

Some initials with rudimentary embellishment (e.g. fol. 22v), some in plain pale pink, blank spaces left for others. The capitals on the first page touched with green (fol. 1r); the heading for the Passio apostolorum underlined in pink and green (fol. 72r).

One fine added 12th-cent. marginal drawing of a centaur holding a small circular object in each hand, and a sprig of foliage (fol. 10r).

Musical notation

Neumes above of the first five lines of the hymn ‘O Nazarene, lux Behtlem …’ (fol. 10v), and marginal pen-trial neumes on fol. 126r.

Binding

19th/20th-century plain brown calf (post-1824); marbled endpapers. Binder’s(?) reference number in pencil ‘63/921’ (fol. iir).

Acquisition

Bought for 40 guilders by Thomas Gaisford, of the Bodleian Library; inscribed with the catalogue reference and price: ‘Bibl. Meerman. tom. 4. n. 686’ and ‘Gu. 40. 0’ (fol. 1r).

Provenance

Hartmutt Hoffmann, Schreibschulen des 10. und des 11. Jahrhunderts im Südwesten des Deutschen Reichs (2004) 249 attributed the manuscript to the Benediktbeuren-Augsburg area, c. 1000 (comparing Munich, BSB Clm 4605), and compared the script of fols. 74–5, 90–1 with Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, Rh 127.

Numerous 11th and 12th-cent. inscriptions include ‘Quod [ … ] incipit prudencius(?) yi(?)’ (fol. 1r), ‘Liber [ … ]’ (fol. 126r, upper right corner); numerous pentrials include ‘probatio incausti’ (fol. 1r), etc., and a conjugation of the verb invenire (fol. 126r).

‘Incipit ymnarius de tempore & de sanctis per totum annum & tamen pauci canuntur & dicitur liber iste Prudentius. Siue liber Aurelij Prudentij’ (fol. 1r), late 13th-cent.(?), apparently written over an erased 11th?-cent. Credo.

‘Hic est passio scripta Cypriani et Eulalie virginis in medio libri’, 14th cent. (fol. 1r; referring to fols. 73v–76v and 87r–90r).

15th-cent.(?) shelmarks(?) ‘N. 1’ and ‘.R.11.’ (fol. 1r).

The Cistercian abbey of Heilsbronn, near Nuremberg, before 1613, when published by Johannes Weitzius (Aurelii Prudentii Clementis V.C. Opera, noviter ad MSC. fidem recensita …, Hanover, 1613, fol. a5v) as having been lent to him by Konrad Rittershausen (d. 1613), lawyer and philologist of Altdorf, also near Nuremberg.

Johan Meerman (1753–1815), perhaps inherited as part of the library of his father, Gerard (1715–1771); sale at Amsterdam, 8 June – 4 July 1824, lot 686.

Title

Poems of Prudentius, with glosses

Shelfmark

MS. Auct. T. 2. 22

Summary

Poems of Prudentius, with glosses:

Fol. 2. 'Incipit Prohemium Aurelii Prudentii': beg. 'Per quin quennia': followed by the 'liber 1 Kaθemerinon', the first ten hymns: the 11th and 12th occupy fols. 121v-126r. At end 'Finit liber Hymnorum.'

Fol. 42. '... Liber Perhistephanon', the first ten hymns, ending 'Finit Romanus': fols. 90-1 are supplied by a 12th cent. hand; cf. fol. 1

Facsimiles of fols. 49v ('11th cent. ?') and 101v ('12th cent. ?') are in R. Ellis's XX Facsimiles of Latin MSS. (Oxf. 1891)

Date

Written in more than one hand perhaps of the latter part of the 10th century

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On parchment, partly in double columns

Physical extent

128 Leaves

Custodial history

MSS. Meerman Purchase List (1824) 48.