Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Royal MS 8 E IV
- Record Id:
- 040-002106375
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000277.0x000350
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100063228362.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 8 E IV
- Title:
- Magnus Felix Ennodius, Dictiones, Epistule and extracts from Opuscula; Epistles
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
This manuscript contains the Epistles of Ennodius (d. 521) from book 1 to 9 and some extracts from the Opuscula and the Dictiones. The texts are largely corrupted and abridged. The manuscript also includes a series of anonymous epistles (ff. 50r-55r), perhaps in order to provide examples in the ars dictaminis, according to Polak, Medieval and Renaisance Letter Treatises (1994), p. 344. These epistles were probably written in an Italian context because most of the cited names are Italian (see Warner, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts (1921)).
The lower margins of ff. 1-8 have been trimmed off. These folios were once separated, possibly after the fire of 1731, and they were formerly numbered Royal Appendix 8, ff. 19-26.
ff. 1r-50r: Magnus Felix Ennodius, Dictiones (Discourses), Epistule (Letters) and extracts from Opuscula, imperfect, out of order, and in some cases abridged, especially in the earlier part. It begins with the first discourse, Dictio in natali Laurentium, for the consecration of Lawrence, bishop of Milan, beginning: 'Usu rerum venit inter homines' (f. 1r), imperfect, followed by Dictio 7, (ff. 2r-v), beginning: 'Ut campus militem' and by the Epistle to John (Book 1, Epistle 1) (ff. 2v-3r): 'Cum (sic) saluum (sic) queris verbis in statione componitis'; ending with the Epistle to Apodemia, Book 9 (the end of the Epistle is lacking): 'tamen meriti sui nobilitate'.
ff. 50r-55r: Anonymous, Epistles, probably intended as exemplars, according to Polak, Medieval and Renaissance Letter Treatises (1994), beginning: 'Vegilianus amici mei Faustus et ipse honestatis intuitu', ending 'sed non mediocriter'.
Decoration:
Historiated initial 'U'(su) in colours and gold of an ass playing a harp (f. 1r).
One puzzle initial 'D'(e) in red, blue and green (f. 51v). Initials in blue or green with red pen-flourishing, or in red with blue pen-flourishing. Smaller plain initials in red or blue.
One rubric in red (f. 51v).
Prominent quire signatures are visible at the bottom centre of each last verso, except for the first quire: ff. 16v, 24v, 32v, 40v, 48v.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Royal Collection - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002106375 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 8 E IV : Magnus Felix Ennodius, Dictiones, Epistule and extracts from Opuscula; Epistles - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[0608]/040-002106375
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100063228362.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1175
- End Date:
- 1199
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 220 x 145 mm (text space: 170 x 110 mm).
Foliation: ff. 55 ( + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 2 at the end).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. White parchment.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
The Cistercian abbey of St Mary, Rievaulx, Yorkshire (founded in 1131), based on the style of the script, see Richard Sharpe and James Willoughby, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (Oxford: The Bodleian Libraries, 2015) http://mlgb3.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/mlgb/book/4629/?search_term=Royal%208%20E.iv&page_size=500 [accessed 26 October 2016]; probably written by one of the same scribes as Royal MS 8 D XXII from Rievaulx (according to unpublished notes of Michael Gullick); perhaps the copy seen by John Leland (d. 1552) at Rievaulx and cited in Leland's catalogue of 1536-40.
Henry Savile of Banke, Yorkshire (b. 1568, d. 1617), collector of manuscripts: his shorthand inscription (f. 1) (see Warner and Gilson, Catalogue of Western Medieval Manuscripts (1921)).
Patrick Young [Junius] (b. 1584, d. 1652), royal librarian and scholar: marginal notes in his hand refering to the edition by Andreas Schottus, 1611 (ff. 40v, 41v, 42 r-v).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): possibly included in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 20v.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Former Internal References:
- Royal Appendix 8, ff. 19-26
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), I, p. 252.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 159.
The Libraries of the Cistercians, Gilbertines, and Premonstratensians, ed. by David N. Bell, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 3 (London: British Library, 1992), Z21.23 (p. 140).
Emil J. Polak, Medieval and Renaissance Letter Treatises and Form Letters: A Census of Manuscripts Found In Part of Western Europe, Japan and the United States of America (Leiden: Brill, 1994), p. 344.
Peter Orth, 'Eine vermeintliche Sammlung von Briefen aus dem Ostgotenreich', in Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 53(Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 1997), pp. 555-561.
Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2003), pp. 208 n. 67, 209.
Richard Sharpe and James Willoughby, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (Oxford: The Bodleian Libraries, 2015) http://mlgb3.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/mlgb/book/4629/?search_term=Royal%208%20E.iv&page_size=500 [accessed 26 October 2016].
- 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.