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Add MS 16961
- Record Id:
- 032-002094756
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002094756
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000044.0x00013c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100055975752.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 16961
- Title:
- Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel, Commentary on the Rule of St Benedict
- Scope & Content:
-
This 10th-century manuscript contains a commentary on the Rule of St Benedict. The commentary was written by Smaragdus (b. c. 760, d. c. 840), a monk from the Benedictine abbey of of Saint-Mihiel near Verdun, after the Rule of St Benedict (b. 480, d. 547) had been made the norm for all monastic communities in the Synods of Aachen (816–819). The manuscript remained at Stavelot until the sale of its manuscripts in 1847.
Contents:
ff. 2r-2v: A table of contents for the Rule of St Benedict, in a 14th- or 15th-century script (‘Tabula huius libri’).
ff. 3r-182v: Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel, Commentary on the Rule of St Benedict.
The manuscript contains two fragments from a manuscript of the first half of the 9th century. Two other leaves survive in Add MS 16962, f. 1 and f. 211 (see Bischoff, Katalog,I (1998); p. 75 (no. 357); II (2004), p. 96 (no. 2371)). The two leaves in this manuscript contain the following passages:
ff. 1r-1v contains 1 Maccabees 15.
ff. 183r-183v contains 1 Maccabees 9-10.
Decoration:
Large and small initials in red or brown ink, some with some foliate decoration and red fillers (e.g. f. 2r). Small initials with red and green or red and yellow fillers (ff. 158v, 159v, 163v, 166v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002094756", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 16961: Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel, Commentary on the Rule of St Benedict" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002094756
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002094756
- 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_100055975752.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0850
- End Date:
- 0874
- Date Range:
- 3rd quarter of the 9th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 265 x 195 mm (text space: 210 x 150 mm).
Foliation: ff. 183 ( + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); f. 1 and f. 183 originally were flyleaves; 15th-century foliation in rubricated Roman numerals on each verso.
Script: Caroline minuscule.
Binding: Pre-1600. Blind-tooled and blind-stamped (a fleur de lis within a lozenge and a six-petaled flower within a circle) brown leather binding with two clasps datable to c. 1485 (see Weale and Taylor, Early Stamped Bookbindings (1922), p. 121 (no. 286)), re-backed and the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘COMMENTARIUS IN REGULAM S. BENEDICTI.’.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Stavelot, Southern Netherlands (now in Belgium).
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of Stavelot, owned from the 10th century until 1847 (the sale of its manuscripts at Ghent): a 15th-century ownership note on f. 1v: ‘Liber ecclesie sancti Remacli in Stabulans’; a 17th-century ownership note on f. 3r: ‘Liber Monasterij Stabulensis’; a note on f. [ii] recto: ‘(Lot 268 of the 2nd Stavelot sale at Ghent)’. Purchased by Thomas Rodd.
Thomas Rodd the Younger (b. 1796, d. 1849), London bookseller: purchased from him (a note on f. [ii] recto: ‘Purchased of Tho. Rodd. 22 May, 1847’) by the British Museum on 22 May 1847 (a note on f. [ii] recto: ‘Purchased of Tho. Rodd. 22 May, 1847’) for £31.10.0.
- Information About Copies:
- Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digital Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1846-1847 (London: Woodfall and Kinder, 1864), p. 332.
Theodor Gottlieb, Über Mittelalterliche Bibliotheken (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1890), p. 287 (no. 120).
Wilhelm Köhler, ‘Die Karolingishen Miniaturen’, in Zweiten Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), pp. 52-77 (pp. 59-60).
W. H. James Weale and Lawrence Taylor, Early Stamped Bookbindings in the British museum: Descriptions of 385 Blind-stamped Bindings of the XIIth-XVth Centuries in the Departments of Manuscripts and Printed Books (London: Longmans & Green, 1922), p. 121 (no. 268).
Bernhard Bischoff, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts, 2 vols (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998-2004), I (1998): Aachen-Lambach; p. 75 (no. 357); II (2004): Laon-Paderborn, ed. by Birgit Ebersperger, p. 96.
- 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.