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Manuscripts in the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
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  • Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 164: Ranulf Higden OSB, Polychronicon. Biblia pauperum etc

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 164: Ranulf Higden OSB, Polychronicon. Biblia pauperum etc

Description

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

Abstract/Contents

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)

Bibliographic information

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

Access conditions

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
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