Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, Queens' College, MS 26

Glossa Ordinaria

Contents

Introduction: This volume, containing the gospels of Mark, Luke, and John together with marginal interlinear annotations (glosses), constitutes an extract from a broader work known as the Glossa Ordinaria. Now recognised to be one of the great intellectual achievements of the Middle Ages, the Glossa Ordinaria embodies the medieval concept of the bible as a ‘bibliotheca’ (or library) rather than a single book. Drawn mainly from patristic texts, the origins of the annotations together with the distinctive format lie with Anselm of Laon (d. 1117), although others also played a part to establish a final (albeit evolving) text. As such the Glossa Ordinaria is representative of early efforts to present discrete patristic and medieval interpretations of individual verses of scripture in a readily accessible, easily referenced way. A complete manuscript copy of the Glossa Ordinaria (containing the entire biblical text with commentaries) would have comprised around twenty-one volumes. Although there is no provenance evidence in the volume, it seems likely to be of monastic origin.
1. 1-208
Gospels with glossa ordinaria
Language(s): Latin
1.1. 1-77
Gospel of Mark
Incipit: || 1r: manum suam et tangens eum ait
Explicit: 77r: per formam serui ut liberi contemplentur formam dei.
1.2. 78-173
Gospel of Luke
Incipit: 78v: In principio ezechielis dicitur hec erat uisio discurrens
Explicit: 173v: (XXII, 2) timebant uero plebem.||
1.3. 174-208
Gospel of John
Incipit: || 174r: (II, 11) In principio ezechielis dicitur hec erat uisio discurrens
Explicit: 208v: (XIV, 13) ut glorificetur||

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r: et cum non posset
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFHF)
Extent: ii + 1 (former pastedown) + 208 + 1 (former pastedown) + ii leaves. 316 × 227 mm.
Foliation:

Late 19th/early 20th-century foliation:

1-290

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the first leaf of each quire, possibly by M.R. James. Full foliation added after digitisation.

Collation

The manuscript comprises twenty-eight quires composed of eight leaves. Various quires have missing leaves.

  • Quire 18 (ff. 1-8)
  • Quire 28-1 (ff. 9-15: second leaf, after f. 9, missing)
  • Quires 3-98 (ff. 16-71)
  • Quire 108-1 (ff. 72-78: last leaf, after f. 78, cancelled)
  • Quire 118-1 (ff. 79-85: second leaf, after f. 79, missing)
  • Quires 12-228 (ff. 86-173)
  • Quire 238-7 (f. 174)
  • Quires 24-278 (ff. 175-206)
  • Quire 288-6 (ff. 207-208: 6 leaves missing after f. 207)

18 28-1 (2 missing) 3-98 108-1 (8 cancelled) 118-1 (2 missing) 12-228 238-7 (all leaves missing but one) 24-278 288-6 (2-7 missing)

Quires signed, in a modern hand, in the lower right-hand corner of the first leaf recto of each quire.

Contemporary catchwords, some trimmed.

Layout

198 × 69 mm. Text: Frame and lines ruled in leadpoint, 16-19 lines, written below top line, in two columns.

Gloss: Ruled in two columns with leadpoint on either side of the text column, for approximately 31-37 lines of gloss written below top line (though not all lines accommodate a gloss). The gloss columns are roughly 45mm and 48mm in width. Prickings in both margins.

Hand(s)

Text and gloss are each written by an English scribe, in gothic bookhand.

The Gospel of John (ff. 174-208) is written by a different scribe.

Decoration

Pink and white-patterned initial (P, 10 ll., f. 79r) on an outer white-patterned blue ground, bordered in gold, and inner burnished and punched gold ground, with infill of stylized leaf forms arranged in coils in pink, orange, blue and white, for the opening to the Prologue to Luke.

Red or blue paragraph marks on ff. 1-173; red or blue plain initials (1 l.) on ff. 174-208.

Glosses have paragraph marks in the same ink as the text, some stylized: f. 21v stylized oak branch; ff. 23r, 25v, 90r, 15v, etc. stylized leaf forms.

Additions

Occasional notes in at least two different hands. Some notes seem to have been washed off (e.g. 31r, 84v, 107r, 198v). Occasional manicules.

Binding

Late twentieth-century alum-tawed calfskin over original oak boards on three sewing stations. Recesses for two straps on front board.

History

Origin: First half of the 13th century ; England

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry derives predominantly from data assembled for the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Cambridge Illuminations project (publication forthcoming) and draws on the description in M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the western manuscripts in the library of Queens’ College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1905).

Availability

For further information on the availability of the manuscript, please contact Queens' Old Library and Special Collections.

Bibliography

    A catalogue of the library of the college of St. Margaret and St. Bernard, commonly called Queen's College in the University of Cambridge, Horne, Thomas Hartwell (London, Society of Queen's College, 1827) A descriptive catalogue of the western manuscripts in the library of Queens' College, Cambridge, James, M.R. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1905)

Funding of Cataloguing

Dr Virge James in memory of the late Dr Nigel James (Queens' mat. 1960)

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

Abbreviations

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