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Burney MS 340
- Record Id:
- 040-002237251
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002236305
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x000184
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056013616.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Burney MS 340
- Title:
- Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Numbers 15-19
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript was written at a scriptorium in Northern France, most likely the Benedictine abbey of Corbie, in the 4th quarter of the 7th century. It was certainly in the abbey's library from the 12th century onward. In 1638 the manuscript was transferred to the Benedictine abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés in Paris and, at an unknown point in time, to the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Laurent in Liège. It remained there until the abbey’s dissolution by French Revolutionary troops in 1794. The manuscript originally contained both a collection of homilies on the Book of Numbers by the Greek theologian Origen of Alexandria (b. 184/185, d. 253/254) and De Reparatione Lapsi (On the Reparation of the Fallen) by the Church Father John Chrysostom (d. 407). In the 1790s, however, the two works were separated. The part with Origen’s homilies (ff. 1-60) entered the collection of the classical scholar Charles Burney (b. 1757, d. 1817) and was subsequently acquired by the British Museum. The part with John Chrysostom's work (ff. 61-104) was acquired by Peter Dubrovsky (b. 1754, d. 1816) and is now in Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS. Lat. F v I (the off-set of the former subsequent text is still visible on f. [61] verso).
Contents:
ff. 1r-60v: Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Numbers 15-19, beginning ‘INCIPIT TRACTATUS ORIGENIS DE BALAHAM ET BALAC’.
Decoration:
Rustic display capitals in green and pink (ff. 1r, 11r), or green and black (ff. 27v, 51v, 60v) for the title, explicit, and certain beginnings of homilies. Large capitals in green, black and pink (f. 4r (2x), 4v, 9v, 11r), green and red (f. 4v) or green and black (ff. 5v, 9r, 12r, 12v, 17r, 17v, 27v, 34v, 51v), some with zoomorphic figures (a bird (f. 4r) or a fish (12r, 12v)). Small initials in brown ink. Running heads in blue ink on ff. 30v-31r.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Burney Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002236305
040-002237251 - Is part of:
- Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts
Burney MS 340 : Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Numbers 15-19 - Hierarchy:
- 032-002236305[0335]/040-002237251
- 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_100056013616.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0675
- End Date:
- 0699
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 7th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 315 x 225 mm (text space: approximately 235 x 185 mm).
Foliation: ff. 60 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning and at the end); f. [i] recto has been glued together with a layer of grey silk; f. [ii] recto has two modern paper pastedowns; f. [62] recto has a modern paper pastedown; f. [62] verso has been glued together with a layer of grey silk.
Script: Uncial (Merovingian), with rustic capitals.
Binding: Post-1600. Crimson velvet binding with grey silk doublures over wooden boards, with Burney’s bookplate (‘CODEX BURNEIANUS’) blind-stamped on the upper and lower covers (there is an earlier binding structure under the current binding), the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘ORIGENIS HOMILIAE DE VISIONIB. BALAAM.’; gilt and crimson book edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France, N. (Corbie ?).
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of St-Pierre, Corbie, France, 12th century: inscribed 'lib[er] s[ancti] pet[ri] corbeie' (f. 1r); the manuscript is listed in a 12th-century catalogue of Corbie's manuscripts (Delisle, Recherches (1860), p. 53 (no. 89)).
The Benedictine abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés, Paris: transferred there in 1638, with an 18th-century French note regarding the manuscript’s provenance (see pastedown on f. [ii] recto, and 'No 197' on f. 1r, lower left corner).
The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Laurent in Liège, until its dissolution by French revolutionary forces in 1794: according to the 18th-century French note regarding the manuscript’s provenance on the pastedown of f. [ii] recto.
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:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digital Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I, part II (1840): The Burney Manuscripts, p. 91.
Léopold Delisle, Recherches sur l'ancienne bibliothèque de Corbie (Paris: Durand, 1860), p. 53 (no. 89).
Léopold Delisle, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Impériale [Nationale]: Étude sur la formation de ce dépôt, 3 vols (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1868-1881), II (1874), pp. 427-40 (pp. 428, no. 28; 431 no. 230) [Appendice I: Bibliothèque de Corbie: XIe et XIIe siècle].
Edward Maunde Thompson and George F. Warner, Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1881-1884), II (1884): Latin, p. 49, pl. 5.
Ernst Heinrich Zimmermann, Vorkarolingische Miniaturen, Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst: Malerei, 3 (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1916), pp. 73, 201.
André Wilmart, ‘La collection des 38 homélies latines de saint Jean Chrysostome’, The Journal of Theological Studies, 19 (1918), 305-27 (p. 327 n. 2).
Codices Latini Antiquiores, ed. by Elias Avery Lowe, 11 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934-1966), II (1935): Great Britain and Ireland, p. 19, no. 182.
Leslie Webber Jones, ‘Pricking Manuscripts: The Instruments and their Significance’, Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies, 21 (1946), 389-403 (p. 393 n. 17).
Leslie Webber Jones, ‘The Scriptorium at Corbie: II. The Script and the Problems’, Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies, 22 (1947), 375-94 (pp. 381, 387) [a translation of Delisle].
Elias Avery Lowe, The Oldest Omission Signs in Latin Manuscripts: Their Origin and Significance, Miscellanea Giovanni Mercati, VI, Studi e Testi, 126 (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1966), pp. 37-38, no. 144.
Christian de Merindol, La production des livres peints à l’Abbaye de Corbie, 3 vols (Lille, 1976), III, 1094-97.
David Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance, Beihefte der Francia, 20 (Sigmaringen: Thorbecki, 1990), pp. 40-41, 126.
Michelle P. Brown and Patricia Lovett, The Historical Source Book for Scribes (London: British Library, 1999), pl. on p. 40.
Trismegistos, no. 66286 «http://www.trismegistos.org/tm/detail.php?tm=66286» [accessed 27 November 2017].
- 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.