Add MS 6045

'SMARAGDUS': 'Diadema Monachorum'; 812-816. Latin. Origin: Mosan? Smaragdus, Abbot of

St Mihiel on the Meuse, diocese of Verdun, fl. 805-827. Preface beg. 'Hunc modicum operis nostri libellum' (f. 2). Text beg. 'Hoc est remedium eius qui vitiorum temptamentis exestuat' (f. 5v). There is a table of chapters between the Preface and Chapter I (ff. 2v-5v). After the explicit (f. 125), is written 'Probatio incausti'. Printed in Migne, PL, cii (1851), 594-690. For a modern discussion of the life and work of Smaragdus, see F. Rädle, Studien zu Smaragd von Saint Mihiel, Medium Aevum, Philologische Studien, 29 (1974), and O. Eberhardt, Via Regia. Der Fürstenspiegel Smaragds von St. Mihiel und seine Literarische Gottung. Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften, 28 (1977), pp. 29-78. For other MSS. of this text see: Add. 15725, ff. 1-67, 16567, ff. 36v-63v (imperf.); Harley MSS. 3007, 3078, 5248B; Royal MSS. 7 D.VI., 8 D.XIII, 8 E.XVIII, 12 B.IV,

ff. 82-166v. A small number of contemporary and later medieval marginals and interlinear corrections, see ff. 10, 33, 50, 54-54v, 61, 76, 90. Marginals have been erased on ff. 58, 109v and 117v. The manuscript belonged to the Benedictine abbey of St Maximin at Trier, probably from soon after it was written until at least the 13th cent. St Hudolfus (see below) retired to this abbey in 671. The abbey's ex libris, in hands of the 10th-13th cent., appear on f. 125v. This provenance is noted in an 18th cent. hand on f. 1v. Library mark 'N.41', 17th? cent., f. 2. The MS. was the property of Charless Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Bishop of Autun and Prince of Benevento (1754-1838). His library was brought to England for sale in Sept. 1814 and sold in 1816, Bibliotheca Splendidissima. . ., Leigh & Sotheby, 8 May 1816. The present MS., lot 3442, was purchased by Henry Harvey Baber, Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum on 28 May 1816. Acquired by the British Museum in May 1816.

Vellum and paper (f. 1); ff. 125. Pagination, probably 16th-17th cent., 1-55 (lacking 14) on ff. 6-32v. Sec. fol.: 'viii De prudentia'. 215 x 170mm. Gatherings of 8 (i lacks 1, xvi irregular). Quires marked at foot of final folio with a small roman numeral; some marks cropped. Single columns. Carolingian minuscule script, probably from the Mosan region. Two contemporary hands: (a) ff. 2v-25v line 8, ff. 89-125; (b) ff. 25v line 9 - f. 88v. Headings in rustic capitals. Original punctuation with later additions. Attempts have been made to overwrite faded words and whole pages, imitating the original script, in particular: (a) The first page of text (f. 2) has been overwritten, probably in the 13th cent. The heading has been almost totally excised and rewritten in red in a gothic script;

(b) overwriting and additions to punctuation occur throughout ff. 2v-18 in a 17th-18th cent. hand (see f. 6). Some headings and capitals in red: decorated penwork initials ff. 93v (blue), 104. The following sketches occur: (a) Pencil designs.

f. 85, lower margin; (b) St Hudolfus, Archbishop of Trier (d. circa 707); 13th cent. Pen. f. 125v.