Composite manuscript in nine parts, including poetic anthologies (Parts B, F, G, H and I), as well as theological and pastoral texts. The volume includes poems by Hildebert of Lavardin, Marbod of Rennes and Bernard Silvestris as well as the Song of Songs, and texts by Anselm and Martin of Braga. Some similarities in script, mise-en-pageand decoration suggest a common origin (possibly a common scribe) for the poetic anthologies.

Title

Composite manuscript in nine parts, including poetic anthologies (Parts B, F, G, H and I), as well as theological and pastoral texts. The volume includes poems by Hildebert of Lavardin, Marbod of Rennes and Bernard Silvestris as well as the Song of Songs, and texts by Anselm and Martin of Braga. Some similarities in script, mise-en-pageand decoration suggest a common origin (possibly a common scribe) for the poetic anthologies.

Shelfmark

MS. Laud Lat. 86

Date

13th century, first half

13th century, middle

additions, 13th century, early (fols. 10v-16v), and 13th century, middle (fols. 17r-25v)

12th century, late, or 13th century, early

12th century, first half

13th century, second half (Dean & Boulton, p. 362: 'XIII2')

Language

Anglo-Norman

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

v (i-iv are paper; v is a parchment leaf) + 133 leaves + ii (paper)

Binding

Medieval sewing supports. Seventeenth-century laced-case limp parchment binding; the cover is now partly detached.

Acquisition

Bodleian Library: first donation from Laud, 22 May 1635 (A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, vol. 1, ed. R. W. Hunt (Oxford, 1953), pp. 129-130). Former Bodleian shelfmark 'C.2' (fol. i verso and fol. iv verso). In 1641, the Laudian MSS were arranged in eleven compartments, lettered A-L: see A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, vol. 2 part 1, ed. F. Madan and H. H. E. Craster (Oxford, 1922), p. 14. Fol. iv verso: an early modern table of contents ('In hoc m.s. continentur (...)').

Provenance

William Laud (1573–1645). Inscribed, ‘Liber Guilielmi Laud Archiepiscopi Cantuarij et Cancellarij Vniuersitatis Oxoniensis 1634’ (fol. 1r, lower margin).

Title

Song of Songs

Shelfmark

MS. Laud Lat. 86

Summary

Song of Songs bound up with theological, scientific, rhethorical, poetical and historical texts written at various dates, 12th century, including Anselm, Marbod of Rennes, Bernard Silvestris, Martin of Braga, Hildebert of Lavardin.

Date

12th century, first half and 12th century

Language

Latin

Physical facet

Bound in limp vellum

Physical extent

133 Leaves

Custodial history

Manuscript 1814 acquired by the Bodleian Library