Egerton MS 3055

Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1931-1935 (London: British Museum, 1967), I, p. 301-02:

‘GAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS, ‘DE VITA CAESARUM' in twelve books, in Latin. Late XII cent. The text has the characteristics of the 12th-cent. Montpellier, Ecole de Medecine MS. 117 (from Clairvaux) collated as `f' by L. Preud'homme (Leyden, 1905) and M. Ihm (Leipzig, 1933) and is apparently a direct copy from it, see A. J. Dunston, 'Two MSS. of Suetonius' De Vita Caesarum', The Classical Quarterly, N.S., ii, 1952, pp. 146-151. The work is followed by verses in Latin of Ausonius, viz.:—(I) 'De cesaribus versus', f. 127;—(2) 'De longitudine regni eorum', ff. 127-127 b ;—(3) De finibus eorum' (lacks first three lines), f. 127 b ;—(4) Tetrasticha '1 (first couplet only), f. 127 b ; for which see Migne, Patr. Lat., xix, cols. 865-866, and R. Peiper, D.M. Ausonii Opera, Leipzig, 1886, pp. 183 sqq. At f. 1 b, which is a flyleaf, the following verses in Latin have been added in contemporary charter hands :—(i) 'Epitaphium Cesaris', II couplets, beg. Nitor ad impar opus', end. 'numine factus homo', which are also found added in a late 12th-cent. hand before the text of Suetonius in Vatican MS. Lat. 1904, f. I b, see B. Nogara, Codices Vaticani Latini, iii, 1912, p. 347, and, with the title ‘ad regem', in a miscellaneous 14th-cent. collection of Latin verse in Titus A. xx, f. 113 b;—(ii) 'Epitaphium neronis’, 3 couplets, beg. Concepit facinus mens', end. 'nec cinis exequias' ;—(iii) 'Epitaphium cuiusdam hominis mall', one couplet, beg. 'Hie iacet Herodes', end. spiritus ossa solum', of which a slightly different version is printed by J. Werner, Beiträge zur Kunde der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 1905, from Zurich, Stadtbibliothek MS. C. 58/275, f. 142 ;—(iv) Five couplets, without title, beg. ‘Hic situs est quem nil decuit nisi dedecus', end. ‘vester erit'. A further four couplets of Latin verse, beg. 'Hoc malum ne facias cesar', end. ‘bithinie sacras fed[at edes]', have been written in the margin of f. 11r in a 13th-cent. hand with reference to Divus Julius 49.1: these are also found in Vatican MS. Lat. 1904, f. 8 b, see Nogara, loc. cit. Vellum; ff. ii + 127. 288 mm. x 208 mm. (original margins cut). Late XII cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves, xvi (last) lacks 8. Ruled, double columns of 30 lines. Sec. fol. ‘fecit. adulteratam'. Red, green and buff initials throughout, some with flourishes; at ff. 2 and 120 more elaborate ones, of which the former, with blue, is reproduced in Brit. Mus. Quart., vii, 1932-1933, p. 38, pl. xv. Animals' heads, drawn in ink, appear in support of word endings carried down into the lower margin, ff. 23 b-125 passim, and at f. 120 there is a marginal plummet sketch of a man on horseback, probably of later (13th cent. ?) date. Page headings, giving the names of the emperors, have been added throughout in a 15th-cent. hand. Bound, green stamped morocco, t8th cent., similar to Burney MS. 59. Belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of St Benigne at Dijon, see the erasure at f. 127 b, below the conclusion of the text, ‘Iste lib. est de Scto Bengno', and similar erasures, now undecipherable, at ff. 1 and 2. The number `231' written in a 17th-cent.hand at the top of either margin on f. 2 is presumably its number in the abbey which appears, incorrectly, as '131 ' in Montfaucon, Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum Manuscriptorum, p. 1287. (The latter number is also assigned there (p. 1286) to the ‘Historia Jacobi Perchet(t)i' which is now Dijon MS. 532 (304) and in fact bears it.) Facsimiled excerpts made, 18th cent., by Dom U. Plancher are in Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 9089, ff. 153 sqq. Various sale-marks, etc., and the date 'le 30 prairial, ran 3' (18 July 1795) have been written in pencil on ff. i b–ii. Belonged, 19th cent., to Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart. (MS. 385), whose printed catalogue (Middle-hill, 1837) describes it as ‘olim MacCarthy', i.e. Count Justin Macarthy-Reagh. Subsequently acquired privately, in 1921, from the Phillipps collection by A. Chester Beatty (Western MS. 33), see E. G. Millar, The Library of A. Chester Beatty, Western MSS., Text, i, pp. 111-112. Sotheby's sale-cat., 7 June 1932, lot 9’.