Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

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

Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.6.51

Collection of theological works

Contents

Introduction: This composite manuscript consists of two separate parts that were written towards the end of the 14th-century in England (ff. 4r-63v and ff. 64r-92v). It features theological works by Bernard of Clairvaux, Honorius of Autun and a previously unidentified compilation of extracts from Bonaventure's Breviloquium. The manuscript also features several Middle English cosmetic and medical recipes that were added in the late 15th or early 16th century (ff. 2r, 83v, 92v-93v). Dr Clarck Drieshen| Project Cataloguer| Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: Codex: ii + 3 + 60 | 29 4 + ii leaves.
Foliation:

Mid-20th century foliation

[i]-[iv] + 1-3 + 4-63 | 64-92 + 93-96 + [v]-[viii]

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. ff. [iii]-[iv] and [v]-[vi] are early modern paper endleaves; ff. [i]-[ii] and [vii]-[viii] are stubs conjoint with those leaves (not counted in Extent).

Collation

  • Quire 110 (ff. 4-13)
  • Quires 2-4 12 (ff. 14-49)
  • Quire 514 (ff. 50-63) |
  • Quire 612 (ff. 64-75)
  • Quire 78 (ff. 76-83)
  • Quire 88+1 (ff. 84-92: 9th leaf inserted, after f. 91)

110 2-412 514 | 612 78 88+1 (9th inserted)

Additions

Table of contents for the manuscript as a whole (f. 1v), written in Latin in a 17th-century hand, listing only Bernard of Clairvaux, Liber de gratia et libero arbitrio; Honorius of Autun, Imago Mundi; and the anonymous theological treatise identified by its first section: ‘De sapientia dei’; perhaps added when it was acquired by Cambridge University Library as part of the library of Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649), Master of Emmanuel College (see Provenance): the table of contents matches exactly with the manuscript's description in the inventory of Holdsworth's manuscripts compiled by William Crowe (Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.8.45, f. 153v [p. 301]).

Quire signatures ('1-8') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, written in pencil by a hand of the 19th century.

Binding

Early 18th-century 'Cambridge' binding of stained brown calfskin with two blind-tooled panels consisting of a large rectangular frame of 2 lines around the cover's edges with a smaller rectangular frame with blind-stamped flower motifs in its corners at the centre.

The spine has a gold-stamped title label of red russia leather in a gold-tooled frame.

Paper pastedowns on the inside covers are leaves from an early modern printed book, containing a Latin poem with reference to Classical works, including Virgil's Aeneid.

Dark stained fore edges.

Binding height: 140mm; width: 100mm; depth: 25mm.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

One of the manuscripts of Richard Holdsworth (1590-1649) , Master of Emmanuel College.

Acquired by the University Library in July 1664: no. 174 (this number also inscribed on f. 1r) in the inventory of Holdsworth's manuscripts compiled by William Crowe (Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.4.27 / Dd.8.45).

Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.6.51, ff. 1r-63v]

Contents

Language(s): Latin with Middle English additions

1. 2r
Cosmetic and medical recipes
Language(s): Macaronic Middle English and Latin, with Latin headings
Incipit: 2r Ad de albandam faciem: Take freshe bores grece
Explicit: 2r makyth hym fayre ycolowryd certisime

Added in the late 15th or early 16th century. The recipes are to whiten the face ('Ad dealbandum faciem') and for a marvellous water that works against all infirmities ('Aqua mirabilis contra omnes infirmitates'). The latter concludes: 'It is a precious water, with which one can cleanse onself of leprosy, which does not come, in truth, and all other sickness of the body and of the eyes, and keeps a man younger for longer, and in health, and makes him [i.e. his skin] fair-coloured, most certainly' ('ys ys precyus watur cum qua mundari potest lepra quae non venit ex uera et omnia alia sekenes corporis et oculorum and kepyth a man long ȝongur and in hele and makyth hym fayre ycolowryd certissime').

eVK2 5392.00 (v0059480000)
2. 4r-32r
Bernard of Clairvaux, Liber de gratia et libero arbitrio
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 4r Bernardus de gratia et libero arbitrio
Incipit: 4r Domino Willelmo abbati sancti theodoric frater bernardus
Explicit: 32r Denique quos iustificavit non quos iustos in venit: hos et magnificavit
3. 32v-62v
Bernard of Clairvaux, Liber de praecepto et dispensatione
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 32v Bernardus de maioritate et obedientia
Incipit: 32r Dono abbati columbensi frater B. abbas dictus de clara valle
Explicit: 62v Vestre Debui quod et studui Satisffacere Voluntati
Leclerq, Talbot, and Rochais (1957-77), III (1963), 253–94
4. 63r-63v
Theological tract
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 63r Item fides vivificat
Explicit: 63v quod experti egipcii de uoti sunt

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 5r volentis: sed miserentis est dei
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: 3 + 60 leaves. 130 × 100 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 110 (ff. 4-13)
  • Quires 2-4 12 (ff. 14-49)
  • Quire 514 (ff. 50-63)

Horizontal catchwords, but mostly cropped off.

Condition

The outer margins of ff. 11-63 have been stained, possibly due to water damage, and in many cases torn, but without loss of text; there are sewing marks around a tear in the outer lower margin of f.41.

Layout

105 × 75 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame, with occasional line ruling. Single columns. 25 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

This part of the manuscript is written by a single scribe in Northern Gothica Textualis.

Added cosmetic recipes on f. 2r are written in Secretary, but with occasional Anglicana round 'e'.

Decoration

Partial (one-sided) border of blue and red penwork on f. 4r.

Two- or three-line blue initials with red penwork decoration on ff. 4r, 32r-33r.

One-line capitals highlighted in red throughout.

History

Origin: Second half of the 14th century. ; England.

Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.6.51, ff. 64r-92v]

Contents

Language(s): Latin, with added Middle English recipes

1. 64r-82v
Honorius of Autun, Imago Mundi
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 64r Liber qui apellatur Imago Mundi
Incipit: 64r Ad instruxionem multorum quibus deest copia librorum hic libellus edatur
Explicit: 82v hinc longe dicitur supereminere celum celorum in qui habitat rex angelorum per omnia secula seculorum. Amen
Flint (1982)
2. 83v
Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 83v For stynkyng breth: Take red mente and rew
Explicit: 83v for þe stomake: Take centaney and rosmary and seþe with wyne

Added in the late 15th or early 16th century. The recipes are for bad breath ('for stynkyng breth'), for bad breath caused by the stomach ('Pro fetido anelitu oris ex causa stomachi'), for bad breath ('Pro fetido anelitu') and for the stomach ('For þe stomake').

eVK2 5870.00 (v0059490000)
Connolly (2009), pp. 164-165
3. 83v-92v
Bonaventure, Breviloquium pauperis seu compendium sacrae scripturae (Five exctracted chapters)
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 84r De sapientia dei / De voluntate dei / De integritate eukaristi / De integritate penitentie
Incipit: 83v De sapiencia dei hec sunt tenenda
Explicit: 92v reconsilienti deo et sancte matri ecclesie veraciter penitentes

Anonymous theological treatise in five chapters extracted from Bonaventure, Breviloquium: ‘De sapientia dei’ [I.8], ‘De voluntate dei’ [I.9], ‘De creatura mundi’, [II.1] (omitted from the rubric heading), ‘De integritate eukaristie’ [6.IX], and ‘De integritate penitentie’ [6.X].

Peltier (1864-1871), VII (1866)
4. 92v-93v
Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English recipes with Latin headings
Incipit: 92v Pro obturacione stomachi: Take egremoyne and stampe hit well
Explicit: 93v Also take j Archangel and seþe hit in water and þat is good for þe same

Added in the late 15th or early 16th century. The recipes address the following issues:

  • f. 92v: for blocking of the stomach ('Pro obturacione stomachi')
  • f. 93r: for hoarseness and to clear the voice, to make a man sleep all day, for a woman that may not conceive, for a man that sleeps too much, and two for loss of speech when sick
  • f. 93v: for a leperous face, two for an adder or snake in a man's or woman's body, and three for scabs on a man's hands

eVK2 4917.00 (v0059500000)
Connolly (2009), pp. 164-165
5. 94r
Peter Lombard; Pseudo-Augustine, Theological tract on the Four Cardinal Virtues extracted from Peter Lombard, Sententiarum libri IV, Distincio XXXIII, and Pseudo-Augustine De Spiritu et Anima
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 94r: Iustitia est in subveniendo miseris
Explicit: 94r: Prudentia consistit in eligendis. fortitudo in tollerandis: temperancia in utendi. iusticia in distribuendis

Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

6. 94r
Note about sacerdotal powers
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 94r Dicitur antem proprius sacerdos quicumque habet potestatem absolvendi ordinariam vel delegatam sive sit communis sive singularis

Full transcription; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

7. 95v
Gregory IX; Raymond of Peñafort, Decretals of Gregory IX (Extract)
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 95v: Deus in signum universalis dominii iussit decimas dari
Explicit: 95v: Extracta de decimis capitulo tua nobis

Extract of the Drecetals of Gregory IX, Book III, Chapter XXVI, added in the late 15th or early 16th century.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 65r scribitur. Ecce nona facio omnia
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: 29 + 4 leaves. 130 × 100 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 612 (ff. 64-75)
  • Quire 78 (ff. 76-83)
  • Quire 88+1 (ff. 84-92: 9th leaf inserted, after f. 91)

Condition

f. 96 features several large cuts, perhaps made with a pen knife.

Layout

105 × 75 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Single columns. 25 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

This part of the manuscript is written by a single scribe in Northern Gothica Textualis.

Added medical recipes on ff. 83v, 92v-93v are written in Secretary, but with Anglicana features, including the round 'e' (regular) and long 'r' (occasional).

Decoration

Two-line blue or red initials with with penwork decoration in the opposite colour and sometimes with partial (singl) J-borders in blue and red.

One-line initials alternatively in blue and red used in the table of contents on 64r.

One-line capitals highlighted in red throughout.

Line filler in red ink on 84r.

Headings rubricated in red ink throughout.

Marginal chapter numbers in Roman numerals in blue and red.

Paraphs alternatively in blue and red.

Underlining in red.

History

Origin: Second half of the 14th century. ; England.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on Margaret Connolly, Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) , The Index of Middle English Prose, 17 (Cambridge: Brewer, 2009); and an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1926 and 1930 by M.R. James , now held in the University Archives (UA ULIB 7/3/74).

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library). For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.

Custodial History

Recorded as no. 494 in an inventory of Cambridge University Library's manuscripts compiled c. 1672 (now Cambridge, University Library, MS Oo.7.59).

Bibliography

    S. Bonaventurae opera omnia, Peltier, A.C. (Paris, 7, Vivès, 1866) Sancti Bernardi Opera, (Rome, Editiones Cistercienses, 1957) Honorius Augustodunensis, "Imago mundi" Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge, Flint, Valerie I. J. (49, 7-153, 1982) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009)

Funding of Cataloguing

Wellcome

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library