Add MS 40882

JOHANN BUSCH, treatises relating to the order of canons regular of Windesem or Windesheim, in the form found in all MSS. except that at Gaesdonk, representing a revision of the original work (for the two editions see an article by V. Becker in Die Katholiek, New Ser., xxi, 1885, p. 388). First printed by Heribert Rosweyd in his Chronicon Windesemense, 1621, from this MS., then in the library of the Windesheimian house of St. Martin's, Louvain (cf. the entry in the catalogue of 1639, Sanderus, Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta, 1664, ii, p. 218: "Joannes Buschius de viris illustribus Canonicorum Regularium Capituli Windesemiensis"). Rosweyd rearranged the separate treatises in the logical order of events. Notes in his hand, chiefly on words requiring explanation, occur throughout and these words are generally explained in the glossary to his edition. The treatises were edited again, with Busch's Liber de reformatione monasteriorum, by K. Grube, Chronicon Windeshemense, 1886, as vol. xix of Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachsen, from the MS. in the Royal Library at the Hague, Aevum medium, script. ecclesiastici 335, with collation of other MSS. For the existing MSS. see Grube, op. cit., p. xxxvii, and J. G. R. Acquoy, Het Klooster le Windesheim, 1875, pp. 314-317. The work contains the following treatises :-

1. "Liber de viris illustribus patrum et fratrum antiquorum in Windesem." The prologue, headed "Prologus in librum de viris illustribus ordinis canonicorum regularium monasterii in Windesem diocesis Traiectensis," beg. "Illustrium patrum gesta preclara" (f. 5), and is followed by a list of chapters (f. 6), after which the text beg. "Laudemus viros gloriosos patres ordinis nostri primitiuos" (f. 8 b). Rosweyd, p. 247; Grube, p. 1. f. 5.

2. "Incipit epistola de vita et passione domini nostri Ihesu Christi et aliis deuotis exerciciis secundum que fratres et laici in Windesem se solent exercere a teutonico in latinum per libri huius editorem translata": the "libellus dictus [from its incipit] Qui perseuerauerit autem dilecte frater," translated from a Dutch original usually attributed to Johan Vos of Heusden, second prior of Windesheim (cf. Valerius Andreae, Bibliotheca Belgica, p. 578; Foppens, Bibliotheca Belgica, ii, p. 748), but believed by Acquoy, Kloster van Windesheim, i, p. 161, to have been merely used by him and recommended to the brethren for their spiritual exercises (cf. Liber de viris illustribus, cap. xi). Rosweyd, p. 217; Grube, p. 226. f. 109 b.

3. "Incipit liber de origine moderne deuotionis ommum deuotorum presbyterorum clericorum et sororum siue beginarum totius nostre patrie regionis Almanie, et consequenter de origine processu et consummacione temporali et spirituali monasterii nostri in Windesem ordinis canonicorum regularium Traiectensis dioeesis ac de origine et consummatione capituli nostri generalis": the account of the foundation of Windesheim and the extension of the houses under its general chapter. Preceded (f. 116 b) by a prologue, headed "Incipit prologus in librum de origine moderne deuocionis, de origins monasterii in Windesem ordinis canonicorum regularium, et de origine capituli nostri generalis et eiua consummacione," and beginning "In nomine sancte et indiuidue trinitatis. Autenticorum scriptores volliminum." A list of chapters follows (f. 117 b). Rosweyd, p. 1; Grube, p. 245. f. 118 b. Paper (watermarks, ox's horns with star on line, cup, etc.) and (the two middle leaves of each gathering) vellum; ff. iii + 162.

8.1/4 in. x 5.1/2 in. Late xv cent. Gatherings of 10 leaves (last of 8), signed A-Q, preceded by an unsigned gathering of 4 leaves originally blank. Two large initials in blue with leaf patterns in white, other initials in red. On ff. i, iii (vellum, pasted on the inside of the covers) are extracts from Thomas de Cantimpré, Bonum Universale de proprietatibus apum, consisting of the accounts of the habits of bees from the beginnings of various chapters. On the blank leaves of the unsigned gathering the following certificates relating to the passage in the De viris illustribus concerning Thomas a Kempis have been written:-(a) V[ictor] Becker, S. J., Oudenbosch, 22 Jan. 1886, stating that he bought the MS. at the Van der Straelen Moons sale at Antwerp, 18 Jan. [1886], that it formerly belonged to St. Martin's, Louvain, that it was exhibited in evidence at the congress at Paris in 1681, and that it was the basis of Rosweyd's edition. f . 1 b;-(b) Jodocus Eckermans, notary of Louvain, certifying that the MS., as shown to him by Thomas Bosmans, prior of St. Martin's, contained the passage in question; Liége, 28 Nov. 1760 (copied by E. Waterton from Amort, Deductio Crica, pp. 96, 97). f. 2;-(c) Edmund Waterton, stating that he acquired the MS. from Becker and had kept it under lock and key until the date when he sent it to the British Museum for examination; Deeping Waterton Hall, 4 May 1886. f. 3. At f . ii is a letter signed jointly by Edw[ard] A[ugustus] Bond and E[dward] Maunde Thompson, stating that the passage relating to Thomas a Kempis (f. 36 b) is "an integral part of the text, without erasure, interpolation, or parenthesis"; British Museum, 21 May 1886. Original binding (rebacked) of wooden boards covered with brown leather, blind-stamped with trellis-work design formed by intersecting triple fillets within a frame of quadruple fillets, rosettes in the centre of the lozenge-shaped spaces and quatrefoil arrangements of five pellets in the triangular spaces and on the intersections. This binding resembles in style two Louvain bindings described by E. P. Goldschmidt, Gothic & Renaissance Bookbindings, 1928, i, pp. 152, 153, and illustrated, ii, pl. xii. Brass clasp-fittings and remains of leathern thongs. On. f. 1 is the obliterated inscription: "Est liber hie sancti Martini Louaniensis" (15th cent.), and the MS. was still at St. Martin's in 1621, 1639 and 1681 (see above). The house was finally dissolved in 1797 (Acquoy, op. cit., iii, p. 154). The MS. was bought by Victor Becker at the Van der Straelen Moons sale at Antwerp, 18 Jan. 1886, acquired from him in the same year by Edmund Waterton, and purchased for the Museum at a sale at "The Bury," Arlesey, 17 Oct. 1923, lot 615.