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Add MS 35180
- Record Id:
- 032-002088581
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002088581
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000051.0x000030
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059100270.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 35180
- Title:
-
Peter the Chanter, Verbum Abbreviatum; Metrical life of Thomas of Canterbury; Marbod of Rennes, De Lapidibus (excerpt); French notes on the compass
- Scope & Content:
-
This early 13th-century manuscript originates from the Cistercian monastery of Byland Abbey in North Yorkshire, as is indicated by its ownership inscription. The manuscript primarily contains a biblical commentary of the French theologian Peter the Chanter (d. 1197), the Verbum Abbreviatum (Abbreviated Word), that has been signed by a scribe who refers to himself as ‘Simon’ (f.140r: ‘Simon ei nomen cui felix det deus amen’). The manuscript ends with a poem on magnet stones by Marbodius (b. c. 1035, d. 1123), archdeacon at Angers and Bishop of Rennes, and notes in French on the compass.
Contents:
ff. 1v-2v: A table of the manuscript’s contents.
ff. 3r-140r: Peter the Chanter, Verbum Abbreviatum.
ff. 140r-142v: A metrical life of Thomas of Canterbury, beginning: ‘Ante chaos iurgium indigeste molis Adhuc yle grauida fetu magne prolis’.
f. 142v: Marbod of Rennes, De Lapidibus, excerpt of a Latin poem on magnet stones, beginning ‘Magnetes lapis est inventur trogoditas [sic]’.
f. 142v: Note in Anglo-Norman French on the mariner's compass, beginning: ‘E ki est en peril de mer’.
[f. 1r is blank].
Decoration:
1 large red initial with arabesque motifs and knot-work motifs (f. 3r). Medium and small initials in green or blue with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing, or red with penwork decoration and pen-flourishing in blue and once in the same colour (f. 79r); some with minor arabesque motifs and one featuring a fish in its pen-flourishing (f. 119r); two initials with frames in red or blue (f. 81v and f. 82r). Medium initials in two colours: red and blue with penwork decoration and pen-flourishing in red and blue (ff. 29v, 67v); red and green with penwork and pen-flourishing in red and blue (ff. 44r, 69v). Plain large initials in red (ff. 104r, 108v, 110r, 111v, 112r). Rubrics in red. Marginal references in red. Headers in red or green. Roman numerals in red. Paraph markers in red. Manicules in brown ink added to the margins throughout the manuscript.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002088581", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 35180: Peter the Chanter, Verbum Abbreviatum; Metrical life of Thomas of Canterbury; Marbod of Rennes, De Lapidibus (excerpt); French notes on…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002088581
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002088581
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100059100270.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Anglo-Norman
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1200
- End Date:
- 1224
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 235 x 150 mm (text space: 330 x 235 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 143 ( + 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 at the end); f. 143 is a modern paper pastedown on a paper leaf; 1 paper pastedown on f. [ii] recto; 1 paper pastedown on f. 143r.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Pre-1600. Half-leather binding with old oak boards with hollow spaces for two clasps; re-backed at the British Museum, the spine inscribed in gold: ‘PETRI CANTORIS VERBUM ABBREVIATUM.’.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ? Byland Abbey, Northern England.
Provenance:
The Cistercian monastery of Byland Abbey: its erased ownership inscription (‘de Bella Landa’) faintly legible on f. 2v and f. 3r. Perhaps the abbey’s shelf-mark reference on the inside of the upper cover: ‘P.r ue’; perhaps its additions to f. 1r: Latin text and neumes added in a 15th-century script.
An unknown 16th-century owner: a note on Peter Cantor (transcribed by a modern owner on the paper pastedown on f. [ii] recto).
An unknown 16th- or 17th-century owner: added a Latin description of the manuscript on the paper pastedown on f. 143r.
An unknown 17th-century English owner: inscribed a note on f. 1r: ‘Vide Cass. t9 de Judicio ferri et aquae where is found the story of the English and documented in the trial by water on the suspicion of having murdered his fellow traveller, But the Companion returned from [afterwards]’.
An unknown 19th-century owner: crossed out ownership inscription on f. 143r: ‘This MS in our possession – 1814’.
Benjamin Heywood Bright (b. 1787, d. 1843), book and manuscript collector: his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 18 June 1844, lot 153; probably purchased by Sir Thomas Phillipps.
Sir Thomas Phillipps (b. 1792, d. 1872), baronet, collector of books and manuscript: his shelf-mark inscribed on f. 1r (2x) and f. 2v: ‘Phillipps MSS 11753’.
Harry Sidney Nichols (died 1939), antiquarian book dealer, owned in 1895: purchased at the seventh sale of Phillipps library, London, Sotheby’s, 21 March 1895, lot 69 (see Murby, The Dispersal (1960), p. 57 n. 4); probably sold the manuscript to Harold Baillie Weaver.
Harold Bailie Weaver (d. 1926), owned in 1898: his sale at London, Christie’s, 29-31 March 1898, lot 141 (see f. [i] recto). Perhaps his book label with the number ‘171’ pasted on f. [ii] recto. Purchased from him by the British Museum.
- Information About Copies:
- Fulldigital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1894-1899 (London: Longmans, 1901), pp. 202-03.
Mary Caroline Spalding, 'Landericus and Wacherius', Modern Language Association, 25:1 (1910), 152-63 (p. 158).
Alan Noel Latimer Murby, The Dispersal of the Phillipps Library, Phillipps Studies, 5 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), p. 57 n. 4.
Neil Ripley Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 22.
Anne Lawrence-Mathers, ‘The Artistic Influence of Durham Manuscripts’, in Anglo-Norman Durham 1093-1193, ed. by David Rollason, Margaret Harvey, and Michael Prestwich (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1994), pp. 451-469 (p. 465).
Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2003), pp. 210 n., 214, pl. 30.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.