Egerton MS 3661

ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR, compotus tables, and 'paschalis gemma', written apparently by Ulric, Prior of St. Nicholas', Passau, and Archdeacon of Austria, at Salzburg in 1216. Latin. Arranged as follows:- (1) Astronomical calendar, the only liturgical feasts in which are (2 Feb.) the Purification, (5 May, sic) the Ascension, (6 Aug.) the Transfiguration, (15 Aug.) the Assumption, (17 Sept.) 'Dedicatio modemstorf', (25 Dec.) 'Natiuitas solis iusticie'. At 3 June Erasmus is added, 13th cent. 'Modemstorf' is possibly Modminsdorf, a village belonging to, and adjacent on the east to, the Cistercian monastery of Baumgartenberg, in Upper Austria (see Urkunden-buch des Landes ob der Enns, Vienna, ii, 1856, pp. 193, 516, 519). ff. 1-12 rectos only;-(2) Compotus tables, those on ff. 13-13b covering the period 1140-1654. ff. 1-12 versos only and 13-14;-(3) 'Paschalis gemma', that is, mnemonic verses for finding Easter, based on the cycle of Dionysius Exiguus, and beginning at 1216. Beg. 'Abdita uera refers preco bone nuntie misse', ends 'Electis uenia sub gaudia uera gregari'. A colophon on f. 15b records that the Dionysian cycle, 'qui ex nouella translatione paschalis gemma dicitur', was rendered into eighty-four verses 'in Salzpurgensi choro', sc. at Salzburg Cathedral, by Ulric, a priest and member of the Augustinian house at Suben am Inn, in Upper Austria. It is further stated that Ulric was born at Simmenthal, in the canton of Berne, Switzerland, and in 1210 became Prior of the Augustinian house of St Nicholas, at Passau, and at the same time Archdeacon of Austria, namely that portion of the diocese of Passau which was in the duchy of Austria. The colophon ends incompletely with a reference to the Emperor Otto IV and Pope Innocent III which needs a verb, apparently one stating the excommunication of the former by the latter. Ulric appears as Prior of St Nicholas' in Urkunden-buch, op. cit., i-iii, 1852-1862, passim: at the earliest in 1218, at the latest in 1237. In a document dated in 1227, and printed ibid., ii, pp. 665-666, he is described as both Prior of St Nicholas' and Archdeacon of Austria. ff. 14b-15b. Vellum and paper; ff. vi+15. 310 mm.x225 mm. A.D. 1216(?). Two gatherings of 8 leaves (1 of i cancelled). Written by one hand throughout, apparently that of Ulric, Prior of St Nicholas', Passau, and Archdeacon of Austria, the text of two colophons on f. 15b being in a more cursive style. Binding, 19th cent., of pigskin moulded over decorated boards, with two brass clasps. Belonged, according to an early 19th cent. note on f. 1, to an Augustinian house at Korneuburg, near Vienna. A note at the foot of the same page records the purchase of the MS. in Vienna, 16 July 1821, by Gabriel Nagy, of Debrecen, in Hungary (bookplate, f. i), and his gift of it to his daughter Joanna Cornelia, 7 Mar. 1824. Observations on the MS. by Nagy, dated 29 Dec. 1835, are inserted as f. vi. On f. ii are notes by Nicholas Jankovich, who purchased the MS. in Pest, 29 Jan. 1840, for 20 crowns, and, in 1884, by Béla Jankovich. Also inserted are a note (f. iii), circ. 1885, on the Salzburg Breviary, MS. V 1 D 47 in the Studienbibliothek, Salzburg, by the librarian there, Alois Joseph Hammerle; and a letter (f. iv), and a note (f. v), both dated 25 Feb. 1885, probably to Béla Jankovich, from Willibald Hauthaler, Abbot of St. Peter's, Salzburg, 1901. From the Farnborough Fund.