Royal MS 10 B XII

MISCELLANEOUS TALES, theological and other commonplaces, &c., in Laiin. All the articles are defective or unfinished. A table of contents (to all except the flyleaves) in a 15th cent. hand is at f. 7 b. Contents:-

1. Disciplina Clericalis: a collection of tales, by Petrus Alfunsi, a converted Jew, baptized at Huesca in Aragon in 1106. Imperfect by loss of leaves at the end. Comprises twenty-nine tales. For fuller description see Ward, Cat. of Romances, ii, p. 235. Title 'Incipit pro. logus in libro Petri Amphuli', with 'Petrus Adelfonsus' written above in the same hand, Beg. 'Dixit Petrus Adelfonsus . . . Gracias ago deo'. Breaks off 'quoniam uite terminus est incertus '. A note in the hand of the Bury librarian (cf. 7 C. II) adds 'Deficiunt viii. capitula parua de isto opusculo videlicet unum folium et dimidium'. f. 8. Art. 1 is in a hand of the first half of the 14th cent; artt. 2-4 in late 13th cent. hands.

2. 'Dicta sancti Bernardi' the tract variously called Meditationes S. Bernardi or Liber Hugonis de S. Victore de anima (Migne, Patr. Lat. clxxxiv, 485, cf. 6 B. XI, art. 9, &c.). Incomplete, containing only the first two chapters, followed immediately by the beginning of art. 3 in the same hand. Beg. 'Multi multa sciunt et semetipsos nesciunt'; ends 'ca que nescit'. f. 20.

3. Notes, verbal ortheological, on the Scriptures, &c., not apparently in any systematic order. Beg. 'Anti' prosopon est quando pro homine ingrato ponitur persona gratissima. Cherubin id est plenitudo sciencie'. Ends 'Melius est arare quam saltare'. f. 21 b.

4. Another collection of brief excerpts, apophthegms, tags of verse, scraps of grammar, &c. Apparently begins (with large initial) on f. 44, 'Qui reseras riscum Christum pete, cerliis yconam, whence the text is continuous to f. 99 b; the catchword then refers back to f. 25 b, whence the text continues to f. 42 recto. Another hand continues for fourteen lines only on f. 42b, with pencil note appended, 'Cum Nigellus sit infirmus hunc libellum det Alano'. Beg. 'Octo sunt pronomina primitiua'. f. 25 b. Art. 5 is in two 14th cent. hands (change at f. 161 b).

5. Two fragments of the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa (1292-1298), viz.:-

(a) Preface and capp. iiii, Advent to S. Nicholas (ed. Graesse, 1846, pp. 1-26). Beg. 'Uniuersum tempus presentis uite'. Breaks off 'destruetur. cui ille. . .' f. 100; -(b) S. Alexius to S. Bartholomew, capp. xciv-cxxiii (ib. pp. 403 sqq., but the last chapter is numbered here cxix). Beg. 'Alexius fuit filius'; ends 'cathenis igneis', f. 112.

The fly-leaves (ff. 1-6, 172-175) are from a 13th cent. MS. of the Digest, containing lib. vi and lib. vii, tit. i, capp. 1-57, ending 'vita decedentium' (Corpus Iuris Civilis, Berlin, 1889, pp. 89-102). The order of the leaves is 172, 173, 1-6, 174, 175. Many annotations in a minute hand. Among the scribbled verses on f. 43 are:-(a) A prophecy for 1266 (sic, for 1260) elsewhere attributed to Abbot Joachim (see Harley MS. 1280, f. 427, and 8 D. II, f. 70 b, where the date is 1300). Beg. ' Cum fuerint anni completi mille ducenti';-and (b) Serlo's farewell to his scholars, a six-line version (the fifth is the same as the second of the couplet printed by Leyser, Poetae Medii Aevi, p. 443) as follows:-

'Vnda lauans trireres, bos litus arans, sine re res, stan mola, surda nola, sterilis uola nunc scola sola. dici Serlo miser merui, non Serlo magister, sic sit adulari scola discola mosque sinister. ad logicam pergo que mortis non timet ergo, vos mihi valete, uobis ego dico ualete.' At the foot of f. 25 is erased the beginning of a letter, 'Nobili uiro magistro N[icholao, 1249-1268?] archidiacono de Ely pauperrima soror eius Lucia de Sancto Eadmundo'. Vellum; ff. 175. 12 in. x 81/2 in. XIII (artt. 2-4) and XIV centt Gatherings, fly-leaves⁶; a single leaf; art. 1, i¹² (double cols.); artt. 2-4, i-x⁸; art. 5, i-vi¹² (double cole.); fly-leaves ⁴. Sec. fol. pro sibi necessariis'. Border-initials flourished in red, blue, and green. Belonged to Bury St. Edmunds Abbey (table of contents and press-mark D on f. 7 b, see M. R. James, Abbey of S. Edmund, p.56, no. 109; afterwards to [John, Lord] Lumley. Lumley cat. f. 106; cat. of 1666, f. 5 b; CMA. 8092, 8093.