Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.6.42
Sol meldunensis
Contents
Physical Description
Collation
Additions
Annotated by one or two Gothic textura hands, 13th century: ff. 9r, 28r, 13v–14r, 34v, 166r, 214v, 224r, 225r, 235r, 237v. The addition on f. 166r is later framed by the original decorator (cf. the integrated additions on ff. 172r and 183r). The annotation on f. 235r is corrected by the plummet annotator, implying that this is either a canon of Cirencester or a monk of Malmesbury.
Annotated in plummet with many added nota marks and corrections, some of which are later executed by the original scribes. Some of the corrections are presumably by Geoffrey Brito, and some of the contemporary annotations may also be from Geoffrey of Malmesbury. There are at least two hands adding similar nota marks: ff. 4r, 4v, 11r, 11v, 13r, 13v, 14r, 16v, 17r, 20r, 20v, 21r, 21v, 28r, 29v, 30r, 31r, 35r, 37v, 41v, 43r, 50r, 51r, 61v, 62v, 63r, 64r, 64v, 65r, 67v, 69r, 72v, 73r, 73v, 76v, 77r, 77v, 78r, 79r, 85r, 85v, 86r, 87v, 88r, 89r, 90r, 92r, 93r, 93v, 95r, 96r, 96v, 97v, 99v, 101v, 102v, 103v, 104r, 105v, 107r, 112r, 112v, 114v, 116v, 117v, 123v, 126r, 128r, 128v, 129r, 130v, 131v, 134r, 136r, 140v, 141r, 142r, 143r, 143v, 144r, 145v, 146v, 148r, 148v, 149r, 150v, 151r, 154r, 157r, 157v, 158r, 159r, 162r, 163v, 165v, 169r, 169v, 170r, 171v, 172r, 174r, 175r, 175v, 176v, 178r, 178v, 180r, 197v, 183r, 183v, 184r, 184v, 185r, 185v, 187r, 189r, 198v, 190r, 190v, 191r, 192r, 192v, 193r, 193v, 194r, 195r, 195v, 197v, 198r, 199v, 200r, 201r, 201v, 202r, 202v, 203r, 206v, 207v, 208v, 208v, 209r, 209v, 210v, 211r, 215r, 217v, 218r, 218v, 219r, 219v, 220v, 221r, 229v, 233r, 234r, 235r, 236r.
Gothic semihybrida annotations, ff. 82v (?), 214r (?), 215r, 217r.
Gothic semihybrida marginalia, often beginning with a paraph mark: ff. 9r, 83r, 84r, 86v, 87r (corrections as well as annotations), 87v, 106v, 117v, 123r, 124r.
Added headings by a humanist hand, 16th or 17th century (ff. 3r, 215r).
Thomas Tanner (1674–1735) inscribed the opening flyleaf, Galf. de Meldy (f. 1r); his entry on the manuscript in CUL MS Oo.7.50.2 indicates that the text was written per quendam Galfridum monachum. He also added marginalia and running headings, mostly analysing the structure of Sol meldunensis book 2, with occasional annotations to other sections (ff. 74v, 75r, 75v, 86v, 87v, 88r, 89v, 91v, 92r, 93r, 93v, 94r, 94v, 95r, 95v, 96r, 114r, 115r, 116r, 117r, 119r, 121r, 121v, 122r, 122v, 123r, 123v, 125r, 125v, 126r, 127v, 129r, 130r, 131v, 132r, 132v, 133r, 134r, 135r, 136r, 137r, 138r, 139r, 140r, 141r, 166r, 167v, 168r, 170r, 171r, 173v, 174v, 175r, 179r, 180r, 181r, 182r, 183r, 184r, 185r, 186r, 187r, 189r, 190r, 198r, 198v, 201r, 205r, 223v, 224r).
Henry Bradshaw added quire signatures and a collation formula (ff. 237v–[ii] recto).
Binding
Full leather with two blind-tooled rectangular frames, 17th-century (left cover, outer; right cover, outer). Each quire is sewn onto a parchment station.
Rebacked (spine) by Gray, Cambridge, 1956 (annotation, left cover, inner).
History
The core of the volume, ff. 3–212, was finished at Cirencester Abbey, 1246 × 1260. Oxford, Jesus College, MS. 94, from the abbey, has annotations corresponding to extracts used in Sol meldunensis. The writer names himself Galfridus, who is presumably the nephew of Alexander Neckam (1157–1217), Geoffrey Brito. Geoffrey developed Sol meldunensis as it was being copied, with several layers visible. He repeatedly invites the work’s recipient, Geoffrey, abbot of Malmesbury from 1246 until 1260, to correct his text and collaborate. This is a standard trope of literary patronage and friendship, but the various layers of addition within the volume may reflect this desired exchange between Cirencester and Malmesbury.
Provenance and Acquisition
Malmesbury Abbey: Sol meldunensis is dedicated to Geoffrey of Malmesbury (ff. 3r, 71v).
? Cirencester Abbey: the inserted miniature of friars (f. 5) and the Geoffrey of Monmouth quire (ff. 213–222) are of an undetermined English origin. Both these and the verse anthology (ff. 223–237) appear to be additions, since Sol meldunensis has a planned conclusion at f. 212v, though not copied with the earlier part of the page; and the additions have a reduced level of annotation in comparison to ff. 3–212. A consistent decoration scheme found across the manuscript (added to Geoffrey of Monmouth at f. 214r) show that all parts of the volume were at one point at Cirencester. A possible interpretation of this evidence is that on receipt of the manuscript, the monks of Malmesbury added marginal additions, the friars miniature, and Geoffrey of Monmouth before returning the manuscript to the canons of Cirencester, who integrated the additions through decoration and appended the verse anthology before sending the book back to Malmesbury.
? Malmesbury Abbey: a fifteenth-century inscription may be from the abbey, suggesting that the volume was returned to Cirencester at this time, To Cirencester & bid them pray for me. | He that prayethe for me Jesu have merci on hym. (f. 2v).
Cirencester Abbey: an effaced inscription at the head of f. 3r appears under ultraviolet light to read Cyrencestrie, in a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century hand, similar to inscriptions in other Cirencester manuscripts by John Leland.
Maurice Gyffard, 16th century: inscribed, Iste liber constat moritio | Gyffardi Testante Ihesu (f. 2v). The Gyffard or Giffard family was prominent in Cirencester and the name occurs frequently in the abbey’s cartularies.
John Moore (1646–1714), bishop of Ely: no. 131 (f. 1r) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (1697); no. 958 (f. 1r) in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore’s manuscripts, now CUL MS Oo.7.50(2), compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674–1735), who also annotated the volume extensively.
Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I: donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736 on the inside of the left board.
Part 1: Sol meldunensis [Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.6.42, ff. 3–212]
Contents
Language(s): Latin with some Anglo-Norman (e.g. glosses at ff. 15v, 61v, 62r, 85r, 127r).
" Sol meldunensis et cinthia lux monachorum. Suscipiat tua queso nouum dignatio carmen⹎ Quod tibi Galfridi deuotio simplicis⹎ offert. Te correctorem sicio pastor pie˷ limam⹎ Apponas operi. qui corrigis aspera claustri. Sis pius indultor culpe. Iudexque benignus⹎ Absoluas⸝ quod deliqui\t/ presumptio lingue. "
Added on an inserted slip in the scribal hand.
ZoilusZoilus Amphipolitanus, 4th century was a grammarian who later took the name took the name Homeromastix or Homer whipper.
"Carminis ergo mei ceptum seruabo tenorem."
"Inceptis cristus. dux. uia. lux. lumen. erit."
" Pagina dulce putat cum te mea sponte salutat⹎ O Gaufride pie pater. omnis papa sophie. Sit precor eius aue tibi gratum dulce suaue. Esse quidem gratum tibi wlt o uir probitatum⹎ Quod te magnificat de te bona singula dicat. Grates esse. putes tibi nostras ergo salutes. Nunc bone Gaufride laus cuius ubique sonatur. Tucior ut per te sit littera nostra precatur. Hic si forte tibi liber inconcinna loquatur⹎ Iudex parce sibi ne statim proiciatur. Sepe relegisse cartam iuuat et meminisse. Sepius adde manum. quod habebis erit puto planum. "
Adapted from Reginald of Canterbury, Vita sancti Malchi 1.2–9, 29–31. Geoffrey Brito substitutes the name Gaufride for the original Lamberte.
Raginald von Canterbury https://digizeitschriften.de/dms/resolveppn/?PID=PPN345858530_0013|log48 Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 13 3 517–556 1888 pp. 531–532" Nunc pater et domne tu uideris hic liber omne⹎ Seu punctum tulerit seu uiciosus erit. Stare uelis⹎ stabit. si non⹎ hunc flamma cremabit. Laus sua sermo tuus interitusue suus. Si posui partes uelud is qui ne⟨s⟩ciit artes. Hac miserere uice doctor apostolice. Laude tui plena dedit hec rudimenta camena. Ob decus ingenue laudis ubique tue. Mutua discurrant inter nos pagina. nota⹎ Mens tua mensque mea sit mediante nota. Gaudia presentis uite semperque manentis⹎ Et bona cuncta deus det tibi domne meus. "
Adapted from Reginald of Canterbury, Domno Gilleberto abbati Westmonasteriensi 23–28, 37–38, 39–40; together with two lines from Alexander Neckam (1157–1217)’s poem Quem tibi transmitto doctor Radulfe nepotem (Accept, teacher Ralph, the nephew I send to you, ed. Hochgürtel, carmina metrica 17.17–18), on sending his nephew (presumably the manuscript’s compiler) to school at Dunstable.
The Anglo-Latin satirical poets and epigrammatists of the twelfth century https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001652230 Thomas Wright (editor) London Longman 1872 Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 59 vol. 2, pp. 259–260Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 110+1 (ff. 3–13; 3rd added)
- Quires 2–610 (ff. 14–63)
- Quire 78+1 (ff. 64–71; 8th added, f. 70bis)
- Quire 810 (ff. 72–81)
- Quire 910+1 (ff. 82–92; 11th added, f. 92)
- Quires 10–2110 (ff. 93–212)
Layout
170 × 100 mm. Ruled in leadpoint. Written in long lines, typically 26 per page, beginning below the top line.
Hand(s)
Gothic textualis.
At least two scribes working together: shifts visible, for example, at ff. 14r, 79v, 134v, 145r, 172r, 191r, 212v. Shifts in hand can also be found in the rubrics, such as at ff. 43r, 70v.
Decoration
Margins decorated with hybrids (most often birds with human heads) and grotesques in blue and red ink. These are sometimes elaborate frames to notes on the text and relate to their subject:
- f. 9r: standing figure with the note Ennon proprium est nomen hominis
- f. 40r: peacock with a note on pauo
- f. 145r: parrot with a note on psitacus
Pen-flourished two-line initials alternating between red and blue open new sections of the text.
Citations of works from which the extracts are taken are specified by marginal rubrics, either simply framed with a line of blue ink or with simple flourishing (e.g. ff. 7r–9r), and correlated with each abstract with a red signe de renvoi .
Marginal notes are written in a triangular or circular pattern in black ink, usually with red or occasionally blue frames, explaining unusual or difficult words in the text: ff. 3r, 9r, 12v, 15r, 15v, 24v, 27r, 29r, 49v, 55v, 58v, 59r, 59v, 61v, 62r, 68v, 69v, 82r, 85r, 85v, 87r, 96r, 117v, 127r, 128v, 139r, 140r, 145r, 151r, 159v, 168r, 168v, 185r, 211r.
Some of the latter marginal notes are introduced with a paraph mark touched in red, in a format used later in the verse anthology: ff. 166v, 179v, 180r, 186v, 189r. Most of the notes are copied from the source manuscripts.
Capital letters, including versals, touched in red. The opening section has coloured versals in red and blue (f. 3r).
Rubricated headings and nota bene marks.
History
Written at Cirencester Abbey, completed 1246 × 1260. The manuscript used Oxford, Jesus College, MS. 94 as one of its sources, which was at Cirencester. Passages to be quoted were marked up in the manuscript and copied directly. For example, a passage from Alexander Neckam, Tractatus super mulierem fortem on f. 169r can be found in MS. 94, fol. 120v, with both a marginal x and r marked in the margin at the beginning and end of the passage quoted. At f. 173v, the scribe copies more of Alexander’s Tractatus super parabolas than intended from Jesus College MS. 94, f. 57v.
The writer of the text names himself Galfridus and describes his offering as claustralis (f. 3r). This writer is presumably Geoffrey Brito (Galfridus Britonus), a canon at Cirencester Abbey in the middle of the thirteenth century who had both the education and motivation to produce Sol meldunensis. Geoffrey was the nephew of Alexander Neckam, and he quotes Alexander’s poem on sending his nephew to school at Dunstable in his conclusion (f. 212v). A document issued between 1215 and 1230 made Master Geoffrey Brito the vicar of Milborne Port, which he probably did not serve directly (Ross, no. 592). Between 1222 and 1230, Geoffrey was assigned a stall in Cirencester’s church of St John the Baptist, in a charter memorializing Alexander Neckam, issued on the anniversary of his death on 31 March 1217 and naming Geoffrey as Alexander’s nephew (Ross, no. 332). Between 1230 and 1236, he was assigned a messuage near the abbey, in a charter similarly framed (Ross, no. 336). Both were witnessed by William de Blois, bishop of Worcester from 1218 to 1236 (where Alexander was buried), and John Walsh, abbot of Malmesbury from 1222.
Geoffrey Brito could in theory have intended the book originally for John Walsh and begun work on it before 1246. Geoffrey of Malmesbury is not named until f. 71v (as Gaufridus), and the irregular quire 7 corresponds to the end of Book 1, which unlike Book 2 is not designated as such with a rubric. This suggests that the text was planned initially to end with f. 69v, though the quire also precisely fits the proem to Book 2. The end of Book 2 was not yet fixed when it was copied, as the concluding verse envoi is a contemporary addition (f. 212v).
Additional Information
Bibliography
-
A critical edition of Alexander Neckam’s Corrogationes noui Promethei with
introduction, textual notes, and commentary Corrogationes noui Promethei, Cropp, Laurel Susan (1991, PhD, University of Toronto)
The origins of the university: The schools of Paris and their critics, 1100–1215, Ferruolo, Stephen C. (Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1985)
Malmesbury Abbey 670–1539: Patronage, scholarship and scandal, McAleavy, Tony (Woodbridge, Suffolk, Boydell Press, 2023)
Alexander Neckam: Creation and paradise in Book 2 of the Suppletio
defectuum Suppletio
defectuum Anglo-Latin and its heritage: essays in honour of A.G. Rigg on his 64th
birthday Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin Journal of Medieval Latin, McDonough, Christopher J. (Turnhout, 129–148, Brepols, 2001)
Cambridge, University Library, Gg. 6.42, Alexander Neckam and the Sacerdos ad
altare Sacerdos ad
altare Studi medievali 3rd ser., McDonough, Christopher J. (46, 2, 783–809, 2005)
The Laus beatissime Virginis and the canon of Alexander Neckam Laus beatissime Virginis
Mediaeval Studies, McDonough, Christopher J. (66, 99–128, 2004)
A history of Anglo-Latin literature, 1066–1422, Rigg, A. G. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992)
The cartulary of Cirencester Abbey, Gloucestershire, (London, Oxford University Press, 1964)
Alexander Neckam in England The English Historical Review, Russell, Josiah Cox (47, 186, 260–268, 1932)
Tropology in practice: Alexander Neckam’s Solatium fidelis anime Solatium fidelis
anime Viator, Záhora, Tomáš (42, 1, 113–138, 2011)
Inserted leaf with miniatures of friars [Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.6.42, f. 5]
Contents
Language(s): No linguistic content
Physical Description
Decoration
Two full-page drawings tinted in brown, pink and yellow; framed in pink:
- 5r: St Francis, bearing stigmata, standing on a hillock with a younger friar. Both are barefoot, dressed in cowls, cord at waist, and carrying books.
- 5v: Two Dominicans, the bearded one presumably St Dominic. Both wear hooded cloaks and walk with staffs, one T-shaped and the other with a curved top.
Zutshi dated the drawings stylistically to the middle of the thirteenth century, drawing attention to the lack of a nimbus as evidence of an earlier date and English influence. He argued that the insertion is a direct response to the surrounding text, against Little (p. 41), who saw no connection.
Nigel Morgan suggested that the artist was directly acquainted with the earlier work of Matthew Paris at St Albans Abbey and dated the page to the 1240s; Suzanne Lewis supported this view. Zutshi compared the iconography to a wider range of contemporary examples and did not argue for a connection to St Albans in particular.
History
Additional Information
Bibliography
-
English art, 1216–1307 Oxford history of English art, Brieger, Peter H. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1957)
The art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica majora Chronica majora California studies
in the history of art, Lewis, Suzanne (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1987)
Franciscan history and legend in English mediaeval art, Little, A. G. (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1937)
Early Gothic manuscripts A survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British isles, Morgan, Nigel J. (London, Miller, 1982)
The Franciscan heritage in England (c. 1240–c. 1350) The English province of the Franciscans
(1224–c.1350) The medieval Franciscans, Robson, Michael J. P. (Leiden, 448–470, Brill, 2017)
Postcards on parchment: The social lives of medieval books, Rudy, Kathryn M. (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2015)
Images of Franciscans and Dominicans in a manuscript of Alexander Nequam’s Florilegium
(Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.6.42) Florilegium The Franciscan order in the
medieval English province and beyond, Zutshi, Patrick N. R. (Amsterdam, 51–66, Amsterdam University Press, 2018)
Part 2: Prophecy of Merlin [Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.6.42, ff. 213–222]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
This work circulated both independently and as De gestis Britonum 110–117.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 2210 (ff. 213–222)
Layout
160 × 100 mm. Ruled in leadpoint. Written in long lines, typically 20 per page, with wide line spacing (8.5 mm) that provides 3.5 mm space for glosses above each line of text.
Hand(s)
Gothic textualis.
A shift in hand at f. 217v.
Decoration
Two fire-breathing dragons painted in blue, red, and orange above the beginning of Prophetia Merlini (f. 214v). These are fully shaded, in contrast to the line drawings found in most of the volume.
Added line drawings in red and blue by the decorator of the rest of the volume in the border of the opening epistle, showing two animals with human heads, one with a crown (f. 214r).
Blue two-line initials with red pen flourishing opening the two major divisions in the text, shaded to create depth in contrast to the flat colours used elsewhere in the volume (ff. 214v, 214r).
Opening rubric, likely added by one of the rubricators of the preceding part (f. 213v, copied from a trimmed guide, f. 214r).
Additions
Added glosses in a Gothic semihybrida script, ff. 214r, 214v, 216r, 219r.
Binding
Written with an integral parchment wrapper.
History
Written in England, 1220s × 1240s. The quire may have originated at Malmesbury Abbey. Its contents appear to be a humorous response to the preceding material: Sol meldunensis is from one Geoffrey to another concerning the works of an Alexander, and Prophetia Merlini opens here with a letter from a Geoffrey to an Alexander (f. 214r). The wide spacing between its lines invites the addition of glosses. Its parchment wrapper would have allowed it to be added loose to the rest of the volume.
Provenance
Cirencester Abbey: the decorator of the other parts of the volume adds a border matching the volume’s scheme (f. 214r), and the opening rubric appears to have been added by one of the Cirencester scribes (f. 213v).
Additional Information
Bibliography
-
The Historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth, III: A summary
catalogue of the manuscripts Historia regum Britannie, Crick, Julia C. (Woodbridge, Suffolk, Brewer, 1989)
Pseudepigrapha Notes II: 3. The contribution of the manuscript catalogues of M.R.
James Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, DiTommaso, Lorenzo (18, 2, 83–160, 2008)
The Prophetia Merlini of Geoffrey of Monmouth: Latin manuscript copies Prophetia Merlini
Manuscripta, Eckhardt, Caroline D. (26, 3, 167–176, 1982)
Geoffrey of Monmouth. The history of the kings of Britain: An edition and translation
of
De gestis Britonum (Historia regum Britanniae) The history of the kings of Britain
De gestis Britonum Historia regum Britanniae Arthurian studies, (Woodbridge, Suffolk, Boydell Press, 2007)
Part 3: Verse anthology [Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.6.42, ff. 223–237]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Thomas Carbonel was abbot of Gloucester from 1179 until 1205. Peter of Blois, a correspondent of Alexander, wrote a letter criticizing a Thomas for his preference of beer to wine (ed. Revell, no. 31).
With French glosses: Ydioma. est in gallico⹎ language ; Glaucoma. idem est quod macula oculi. gallice⹎ maele .
Quotation in the margin beside the stanza beginning Vina libens libo tunc audax carmina scribo.
" Et breue sit dedecus. et longum decus amicus. Hostibus eueniat dedecus atque decus. In nobis amor. In reliquis sit amor. "Nigel of Longchamp. Speculum stultorum Oxford Oxford University Press 2023 Oxford medieval texts pp. 102–103 Serlon de Wilton. Poèmes latins Jan Öberg (editor) Stockholm Almqvist & Wiksell 1965 Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Studia Latina Stockholmiensia 14 pp. 33–34, 124
"Maturum medium cingit utrimque uiror."
"Gratior est inter iuuenes matura senectus."
" Dulcedo rara. dulcescere cogit amara. Vnica dulcedo condit amara duo. "
" Inter serta sales excusant seria tristes. Grata quies solet alternos lenire labores. "
" Vnica maturat geminum matura uirorem. Vnica sepe duas uirides excusat honestas. "
" Cur homo qui cinis es. per auaritiam sepelis es? Eri cur heres eris qui non eris heres? Quando sepultus eris. quicumque sepultor es eris? Non hodie quod heri. nouus heres imperat eri. "
" Redde michi uires. sum debilis. et sine ui res. Corpore mente uires. corpore mente uir es. "
" Casu labor aui. uisu subito labo raui. Surge labora ui bonus est ueniens labor aui. "
" Multa deus de te dicunt per signa prophete. Et dicunt per te que dicunt set nec aperte. Loquuntur deus multa de te prophete figuraliter. "
" Vrbe licet mesta. faciunt turbe sibi festa. Ala teget messem sedes sanas tenet ara. "
" Lumine pretendor. ne ledat lumina splendor. Et michi debetur⹎ quod pagina munda tenetur. "
"Sum. ne lux lumen ledat. nec cera uolumen."
" Lucida laterne facies est grata lucerne. Gaudet laterna. latitans lucere lucerna. "
"Sic rego⹎ dat reges. dat duco⹎ duces. lego⹎ leges."
"Vi ualeo tota marcas dor. subtrahe iota."
"Forma decens oris⹎ expugnat castra pudoris."
"Post pira presbiterum quere uel adde merum."
" Gaudeo legatus niueum michi misit olorem. Hunc michi liuor edax nunquam subducet honorem. "
"O stupor. anguillas martyr mutauit in hillas."
With the note: Hec hila. le. id est andoile. Hec hinnula. le. id est oscaloma. Hic
hinnulus. li. est fetus cerue. In gallico foun.
Added in a fifteenth-century cursiva antiquior hand on a previously blank page.
Also in Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.4.25, ff. 61v–67r; Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.6.16, f. 156v; Dublin, Trinity College, MS. 172 (B.2.7), p. 405b; London, British Library, Arundel MS. 66, f. 291v; London, British Library, Cotton MS. Titus D. vii, f. 31r; London, British Library, Cotton MS. Vespasian E. vii, f. 95r; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 59, f. 78r; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Digby 196, f. 29r; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Hatton 56, f. 66v. Several of these also include Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Prophecy and public affairs in later medieval England Woodbridge, Suffolk York Medieval Press 2000 pp. 148–149, 150, 153, 155, 193, 212, 223, 247 The royal image and diplomacy: Henry VII’s Book of astrology (British Library, Arundel MS. 66) 10.23636/1078 Electronic British Library Journal 2014 p. 27" Hec suamsunt signa ruit urbs cum presule digna Funere detectus N successor abibit Et lapis erectus ad terram funditus ibit "
There are several variants on this text. Adam Usk fills in N as Thomas, while a seditious preacher in the time of Henry VIII gives it as Petri.
Letters and papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII: preserved in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and elsewhere in England https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007446617 J. S. Brewer (editor) James Gairdner (editor) R. H. Brodie (editor) London Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green 1862 vol. 4, part 2, p. 1795 (19 Henry VIII, no. 4040) The version quoted here is Walther, Initia carminum 3210. Llandaff https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89097230072 London Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 1902 Diocesan histories p. 72 Chronicon Adæ de Usk: A.D. 1377–1404 https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x000299327 Edward Maunde Thompson (editor) London Murray 1876 p. 38" Coruus cum pica miluo figurat Signis erit pica ceteris erit hec inimica "
Also in Dublin, Trinity College, MS. 172 (B.2.7), p. 405b.
Presumably a slightly later addition written on a formerly blank or inserted leaf: written using a different layout in double columns and with a different decorative scheme, with capitals alternating between red and green.
"Ambrosius de sacramentis. Didicistis quod ex pane corpus fiat cristi. et que in diuinum calicem mittitur. set fit sanguis consecratione uerbi celestis."
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 2310 (ff. 223–232)
- Quire 2410–5 (ff. 233–237; 6th–10th cancelled)
Layout
165 × 100 mm. Ruled in leadpoint. Written in long lines, typically 30–32 per page, beginning below the top line.
A different layout is used for f. 237r–v, executed at a different stage. Ruled in leadpoint. Written in two columns of 23–30 lines, above the top line.
Hand(s)
Gothic textualis.
A shift in hand at f. 235r.
Decoration
Pen-flourished two-line initials alternating between red and blue open new sections of the text.
On f. 237r–v, new stanzas exceptionally open with initials alternating between red and green, with red or blue pen flourishing.
Citations of works from which the extracts are taken are specified by marginal rubrics, often framed with a line of blue ink, the text beginning with a paraph mark (e.g. ff. 223r, 224v, 226v, 229r, etc.).
Marginal notes written in black ink, introduced with a paraph mark touched in red: ff. 224r, 224v, 225r, 231r.
Versals touched in red.
Rubricated headings and nota bene marks.
History
Written at Cirencester Abbey, 1246 × 1260. This part of the volume uses the same format as ff. 3–212, but the variation in contents and layout suggest it was produced at a different time. The section is less heavily annotated than other parts of the manuscript, but a hand annotating in plummet can be found across the volume (see Additions).
Additional Information
Bibliography
-
On some unpublished poems attributed to Alexander Neckam The English Historical Review, Esposito, Mario (30, 119, 450–471, 1915)
Alexandri Neckam Suppletio defectuum, Carmina minora Corpus Christianorum, continuatio
mediaevalis, (Turnhout, Brepols, 2008)
Teaching and learning Latin in thirteenth-century England, Hunt, Tony (Woodbridge, Suffolk, Brewer, 1991)
Alexander Neckam. Suppletio defectuum, Book I Per verba, (Florence, SISMEL, 1999)
Additional Information
Record Sources
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.
Bibliography
-
Western illuminated manuscripts: A catalogue of the collection in Cambridge University
Library, Binski, PaulZutshi, P. N. R. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011)
Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ in unum collecti, cum indice
alphabetico, (Oxford, Sheldonian Theatre, 1697)
Alexander Neckam’s manuscripts and the Augustinian canons of Oxford and Cirencester, Dunning, Andrew N. J. (2016, PhD, University of Toronto)
A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1856)
Alexander Neckam, Hunt, R. W. (1936, DPhil, University of Oxford)
The schools and the cloister: The life and writings of Alexander Nequam (1157–1217), Hunt, R. W. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984)
Friendship and publishing in Geoffrey Brito's <hi rend="italics">Sol Meldunensis</hi>:
a collaborative gift
book from Cirencester Abbey for Geoffrey, abbot of Malmesbury, 1246-60 Transactions
of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Dunning, Andrew N. J. (17, 3/4, 340-375, Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 2022,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27474828)
Funding of Cataloguing
Munby Fellowship in Bibliography
Darwin College
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
