Royal MS 2 C XII

1. COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SOLOMON, in Latin, in five books. No author's name is given, and the work is not printed in Migne. Prologue beg. 'Sciendum est in primis quod auctor huius operis'. Book i beg. 'Osculetur me, &c. Hoc itaque tam dulce desiderium' (f. 3 b). Colophon (f. 72 b), 'Expliciunt Cantica Canticorum'.

2. [Quaestiones in Vetus Testamentuml by Isidore, Bishop of Seville [599-636]. 'Incipit prefacio Ysidori beati Gregorii pape discipuli Yspalensis postea postea (sic) episcopi. Hystoria sacre legis non sine aliqua prenuntiatione ... conscripta est,' f. 73. The commentaries on the various books follow thus: Genesis, beg. 'Creatura celi et terre quomodo ... condita sit', f. 73.-Exodus, beg. 'Quedam misteria ex libro Genesi', f. 95 b;-Leviticus, beg. 'Sequens liber Leviticus hostiarum diversitates exequitur', f. 105 .-Numbers, beg. 'Hic liber unus ex quinque libris Moysi ', f. 109;-

Deuteronomy, beg. 'Liber Deuteronomii repeticio est quatuor precedentium librorum legis', f. 115,-Joshua, beg. 'Post mortem Moysi loquitur Dominus', f. 118;-

judges (including Ruth), beg. 'Mysteria [should be Historia] Iudicum non parva mysteriorum indicat sacramenta', f. 121;-1 Kings, beg. 'Post librum Iudicum sequitur Regum, f. 124 b;-2 Kings, beg. 'Post mortem itaque Saul unguitur David', f. 130;-3 Kings, beg. 'Succedit deinde Salomon', f. 131. The notes on 4 Kings, Esdras, and Maccabees are omitted. A table of capitula is prefixed to each book; that to 3 Kings includes an additional chapter, 'De Heliseo et virtutibus eius', which does not appear in the text or in the printed editions. Printed in Migne, lxxxiii. 207.

3.'Liber de natura quorundam animalium et lapidurn et quid significetur per eam.' In thirty-nine chapters, with a table of headings prefixed. Beg. 'De natura leonis, bestiarum seu animalium regis'. An early form of the Latin version of the 'Physiologus', resembling

the A-B text printed by Cahier (Mélanges, ii-iv), with the addition of the corresponding passages from Isidore's Etymologiae. The last three articles seem to contain later accretions (cf Stowe MS. 1067, which is free of them), but as a whole it has a simpler and earlier form of text than 12 C. XIX, 12 F. xiii, &c. For the history of the 'Physiologus' cf. Lauchert, Geschichle des Physiologus (Strassburg, 1889). f. 133. Vellum; ff. 146. 13.1/4 in. x 9.1/2 in. Early XIII cent., in several hands. Gatherings of 8 leaves. Double columns. Sec. fol. '-tationem mundanarum'. Coloured initials, with little ornamcntation. Belonged (14th cent. inscription on f. 1) to the monastery of S. Peter at Gloucester (afterwards Gloucester Cathedral). On the binding and in Casley's catalogue it is also stated to have belonged to Thomas de Bred. [i.e. Bredonel, Abbot of Gloucester [1224-1228]; but the inscription-to this effect in the MS. itself has probably been cut off in binding, the upper margin having been cropped very closely throughout. Old Royal press-mark 'no. 1147'; cat. of 1666, f. 15 b; CMA. 7762, 8476.