Parker Library On the Web

Alternative title

R. Higden Polychronicon. Biblia Pauperum etc.

Type of resource

mixed material

Extent

ff. 1+ 42 + 18 + 34 + 2

Date created

[ca. 1300-1399]

[ca. 1200-1299]

Language

Latin

Material

Vellum

Layout

four portions

Height (mm)

299

Width (mm)

202

Collation

1 flyleaf, 1(8) 2(10) 3(8)-5(8) | A(12) (11, 12 canc.) B(8) || a(12) b(12) c(10) || d (two).

Writing

well written

Foliation

ff. a-b + i + 1-94 + ii-iii + c-d

Provenance

At the bottom of f. ir is: liber m. Johannis Gunthorp decani Wellensis emptus a dauid lyenel 13a Julii ao vijo h(enrici) vijmi pro iiijs iiijd. Gunthorp was a considerable collector of books. He was Dean of Wells and died in 1498.

Additions

(f. iv) The flyleaf, of smaller size than the rest, has a late list of contents.

2 fo.

uocionis

Summary

CCCC MS 164 contains several distinct elements, an incomplete copy of Ranulf Higden OSB (d. 1364) Polychronicon, dating to the late fourteenth century, a number of works of Hugh of Fouilloy OSA (d. c. 1172/3) (including De columba, De rota praelationis and Auicularius) and a number of sermons all in various thirteenth-century hands, and an early fifteenth-century Biblia pauperum, the illustrated version of the Life of Christ parallelled by their Old Testament types. This Biblia pauperum is illustrated by drawings and was probably made in the Netherlands. It is an unusual version very iconographically close to a fully painted version, London, BL MS King's 5, made in the North Netherlands c. 1400-1410. The later provenance of this manuscript is partially attested by a record of the purchase of the book in 1492 by John Gunthorpe (d. 1498), dean of Wells cathedral and Richard III's Keeper of the Privy Seal, from 'David Lyenel' for 4s 4d. Gunthorpe donated some of his manuscripts to Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1496 and much of the rest of his library was left to Wells cathedral, but exactly how this manuscript came into Parker's collection is unknown.

Contents

Polychronicon (incomplete) -- Auicularius (De auibus) -- De dominica oratione -- De rota praelationis -- Sermons -- Biblia pauperum -- Moralia siue Liber de uirtutibus (excerpt)

M.R. James Date

xiv, xiii, xv

Downloadable James Catalogue Record

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:dj979vn4120/MS_164.pdf

Superseded Interim Catalogue Record

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:dp734zk1719/164.pdf

Contains

• Ranulf Higden OSB, Polychronicon (incomplete). 1r-42v

  Nasmith

  Ranulphi Higdeni polychronici Lib. I. et pars 2ndi. 1r-42v

  Author

  Ranulf Higden OSB

  Note

  Prologue to Higden's Polychronicon

  Incipit

  (1r) Post preclaros arcium scriptores

  Note

  (4r) This page is left blank for a large circular diagram of the world
  (25r) The poem on Wales is in triple columns
  Liber II begins f. 37v; ends f. 42r with ch. vi

  Explicit

  (42r) Ninus et Semiramis ampliarunt

  Note

  Rolls ed. II 250
  (42v) blank: pencil note: numerus fo. script. 41 (xv)
  (42v) A sketch of a ship drawn with dry point

• Hugh of Fouilloy OSA, Auicularius (De auibus). 43r-50v

  Nasmith

  Moralizationes avium. 43r-50v

  Author

  Hugh of Fouilloy OSA

  Note

  In hoc tractatu spatia ubique occurrunt vacua figuris avium ut videtur designata
  2a
  Begins with a portion of an imperfect tract: about the Fall, and origin of Evil

  Incipit

  (43r) Quod quia falsum est a deo hoc esse necesse est. Nam quia ab alio hic sit quam a solo deo cum ex ipso auctore operis mali non sit

  Note

  (43v) Ending unfinished

  Explicit

  (43v) cui omnis est subiecta ratio nature quam ut aiunt in muliere. hoc

  Note

  Change of hand
  2b
  (43v) Libellus cuiusdam ad Rainerum de tribus columbis: no title

  Incipit

  (43v) Desiderii tui karissime peticionibus satisfacere cupiens columbam cuius penne etc.

  Note

  Another copy, illustrated, is at Sidney Sussex College, no. 100 in my Catalogue: another at Sion College, London. The tract not infrequently accompanies Bestiaries
  Printed with the works of Hugo de S. Victore II 394
  Spaces are left here for 28 pictures
  Ends with a section on the eagle

  Incipit

  (50r) Aquila uocata ab acumine oculorum

  Explicit

  (50v) dum se ipsum christo per bonam operationem conformem reddit

  Note

  As in the copy at Sion College

• Cyprian of Carthage, De dominica oratione. 50v-50v

  Author

  Cyprian of Carthage

  Note

  2c

  Rubric

  (50v) Ex tractatu beati cipriani martiris de oratione dominica

  Incipit

  (50v) Sit orantibus sermo et disciplina

  Note

  Followed by extracts from Jerome, Augustine, Gregory

• Hugh of Fouilloy OSA, De rota praelationis. 50v-54r

  Nasmith

  Tractatus de rota fortunae; cum duabus illuminationibus ipsius rotae fraterculis circumdatae, omni venustate denudatis. 50v-54r

  Author

  Hugh of Fouilloy OSA

  Note

  (50v) Prologue (no title)

  Incipit

  (50v) Sicut comperi non est tibi frater honerosum diu fuisse discipulum

  Explicit

  (50v) rotam prelationis in capite presentis opusculi pingam

  Note

  (51r) List of capitula (18). (1) de pictura rote; (2) de hiis que sunt in rota; (3) de axe; (4) de modiolo etc.; (18) qualis debeat esse prelatus teste beato Gregorio

  Incipit

  (51r) Uiri religiosi uita sicut rota uoluitur

  Note

  (51r) Half the page is occupied by a picture of the wheel of Prelacy. At the top is throned the Abbas with crosier: on each side is a monk turning the wheel by the tyre. At bottom sits another with book on desk. All are in black habits. Many inscriptions in red explain the picture. The twelve spokes of the wheel, and its other parts, symbolize virtues
  (52v) The first part ends

  Explicit

  (52v) si culmen prelationis ascendere contradicat

  Note

  (52v) Part II

  Incipit

  (52v) Post rotam uere religionis locuturi sumus frater de rota simulationis iob

  Explicit

  (52v) a legente facilius intelligi possint

  Note

  (52v) Capitula (14). (1) de pictura rote...; (14) de circuitu rote
  (52v) Half the page is occupied by a picture of the same character as before. Abbot at top, monk in brown on L. in black on R., one at bottom sits dejected. These four are respectively Honor possidentis, labor adquirendi, dolor amittentis, pudor nil habentis. The parts of this wheel symbolize vices
  The edges of 2 leaves following f. 12r are intrusive, apparently
  Text

  Incipit

  (53r) (S)tatura rote similitudinem designat ypocrite

  Explicit

  (54r) Et hoc iterum de predictis rotis sufficiat donee de his aliquis potiora dicat

  Note

  This text occurs, without the prologue, in Bodl. MS. Digby 171 f. 71

• Sermons. 54v-60v

  Nasmith

  Sermones in diversos festos. 54v-60v

  Note

  (54v) Sermons

  Incipit

  (54v) Sufficit tamen de una uirgine loqui uerum

  Note

  Treats of various classes of feasts

  Incipit

  (56v) Sapientia edificauit sibi domum
  (59v) Adorna thalamum
  (60r) Septuagessima in alterius rei memoriam
  (60v) Vi(n)centi dabo manna absconditum

  Note

  (60v) Pencil note. Numerus fo. script. 18

• Biblia pauperum. 61r-94v

  Nasmith

  Delineationes historiarum veteris et novi testamenti numero XCVII haud inelegantes, coloribus leviter tinctae. 61r-94v

  Note

  The pictures (lacunae excepted) exactly coincide with a set in British Museum (King's MS. 5) of Flemish (Dutch) work, very finely coloured. The arrangement in the copy before us is peculiar. The two types are on the Left page one above the other; the antitype on Right page with four busts of prophets bearing scrolls:
  The text on the Left page is a brief explanation of the type, beginning: Legitur [Gen. cap. xxixo] quod...
  On the Right page are usually three verses, e.g. for Epiphany
  (63r) Plebs notat hec gentes christo iungi cupientes.Christus adoratur aurum thus mirra letatur.Hoc tipice gentem notat ad christum uenientem,
  of which the 1st and 3rd refer to the types and the 2nd to the antitype
  A reduced facsimile of two pages is given in Camb. Ant. Soc. Proceedings Vol. VII, pi. xii
  The British Museum MS. has its pictures arranged as a series of triptychs
  I give a list of the subjects, with notes from the British Museum MS., which I will call k
  (93v) On this page a pencil note. Numerus fo. pict. 33. Numerus fo. script, et pict. totius libri 92
  ff. 34r-34v blank

• François de Meyronnes OFM, Moralia siue Liber de uirtutibus (excerpt). iir-iiiv

  Nasmith

  Fragmentum sermonis. iir-iiiv

  James

  The Moralia of Fr. de Mayronis, imperfect. iir-iiiv

  Author

  François de Meyronnes OFM

  Incipit

  (iir) Auditu auris audiui te etc. quia uero audicio diuina pertinet etc.

  Note

  See MS. Merton College, Oxford 201. 1

TJames

98

Stanley

I. 4

Repository

UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library

Location

MS 164

Use and reproduction:

Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License