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Burney MS 42
- Record Id:
- 040-002236391
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002236305
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x000061
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059154032.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Burney MS 42
- Title:
- Ambrosiaster, Commentaria in Epistolas Beati Pauli
- Scope & Content:
-
This 12th-century English manuscript contains the Commentaria in Epistolas Beati Pauli (Commentary on the Pauline Epistles), a 4th-century work that is considered to be an important source for the reception of the Pauline Epistles before St Augustine of Hippo. The Commentaria was written by an unknown author who is now known as Ambrosiaster (‘would-be Ambrosius’), since the work was erroneously attributed to St Ambrose during the Middle Ages (e.g. see f. 1v).
Contents:
ff. 2r-140r: Ambrosiaster, Commentaria in Epistolas Beati Pauli.
The manuscript contains a number of additions:
f. 1v: A title in a 12th-century script: ‘Ambrosius super epistolas Pauli’.
f. 1v: A prayer, added in a 16th-century script by John Prise: ‘Omnipotens et misercors deus, qui per predicationem sancti apostoli tui Pauli, divinam voluntatem tuam toto terrarum orbi notam fecisti. Clementer facias, ut nos qui mirabilem conversionem suam memoria tenemus : adimpleamus sacrosancta traditione tua qua per illum reddidisti ; per Jesum Christum dominum nostrum - Amen’.
ff. 142r-142v: A table of contents (‘Index Ambrosii’) by Charles Burney (b. 1757, d. 1817).
[ff. i recto-ii verso, 1r [but with blind ruling], 140v-141v [except for faded 12th-century annotations], and 143r-145v are blank].
Decoration:
1 large initial in green, red, and blue with geometric decoration (f. 2r). Large and medium sized initials in red or green, some decorated with foliate arabesques (e.g., f. 101v and f. 111v). Small one-line initials in red or green, some in purple or black ink. Rubrics in red. Paragraph markers in red. Running headers, quotation marks (margins), and quire signatures (final versos) in brown ink. Manicules in brown ink added to the margins.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Burney Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002236305
040-002236391 - Is part of:
- Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts
Burney MS 42 : Ambrosiaster, Commentaria in Epistolas Beati Pauli - Hierarchy:
- 032-002236305[0042]/040-002236391
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100059154032.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1125
- End Date:
- 1174
- Date Range:
- 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 290 x 185 mm (text space: 225 x 130 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. ii + 145; ff. i-ii are modern paper leaves; f. 142 is a modern paper containing Burney’s table of contents, with the lower margin cut out; ff. 143-145 are modern paper leaves (f. 143v has a dark grey colour); f. 1 has been mounted on a paper stub; 2 parchment stubs between f. 139 and f. 140; a modern paper has been pasted on f. ii recto (bibliographical notes) and f. 145r (notes about foliation); pagination (crossed out) by Charles Burney throughout the manuscript.
Collation: i8+1 (1st leaf inserted; ff. 1-9), ii-iv8 (ff. 10-33) [quire v missing] vi-vii8 (ff. 34-49), viii8-6 (middle three bifolia missing; ff. 50-51), ix-xiii8 (ff. 52-91) [quire xiv missing] xv8-1 (7th leaf excised; ff. 92-96), xvi8-1 (3rd leaf excised; ff. 97-103), xvii8 (ff. 104-111), xviii10 (ff. 112-121), xix8-6? (only the first two leaves survive; ff. 122-123), xx-xxi8 (ff. 124-139), xxii2 (ff. 140-141).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house: gold-tooled brown half leather binding, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘S. AMBROSIUS IN S. PAULI EPISTOLAS’; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ? Southwestern England.
Provenance:
An unknown monastery in the west of England, owned in the 12th century: this is suggested by the script (ex info. Michael Gullick), and by the fact that most of John Prise's religious manuscripts came from monastic houses; 12th-century marginal annotations and headers by members from this monastery throughout the manuscript.
Sir John Prise [Syr Siôn ap Rhys] (b. 1501/2, d. 1555), administrator and scholar: his ownership inscription on f. 2r: 'John Prise: is Owner of this booke' (see Ker, 'Sir John Prise' (1955), pp. 1-24, and Ker, 'Sir John Prise' (1985), pp. 471-96; the present manuscript cited with the siglum 'P. 8.'); added a prayer on f. 1v, some marginal annotations, and headers throughout the manuscript.
Charles Burney (b. 1757, d. 1817), D.D., classical scholar.
Acquired by the British Museum as part of Burney’s library from his son Charles Parr Burney in 1818.
- Information About Copies:
-
Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), Part II (184): The Burney Manuscripts, p. 8.
Neil Ripley Ker, 'Sir John Prise', The Library, 5th series, 10 (1955), pp. 1-24; repr. in Neil Ripley Ker, Books, Collectors and Libraries: Studies in the Medieval Heritage, ed. A. G. Watson (London: Hambledon Press, 1985), pp. 471-96.
- 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.