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Detailed record for Royal 15 B XI
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Part 1 |
ff. 1-69 |
| Author |
Dionysius Periegetes (translated by Priscian); Solinus; Dares Phrygius |
| Title |
Periegesis (f. 2v); Collectanea rerum mirabilium (f. 12); De excidio Troiae historia (f. 57); Prophetia Sybillae (f. 67) |
| Origin |
England, S.E. |
| Date |
4th quarter of the 12th century or 1st quarter of the 13th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Protogothic |
| Decoration |
3 large initials in yellow or red with penwork decoration in red, green and yellow (ff. 2v, 52, 57). 1 large initial in brown ink with foliate decoration on a yellow ground (f. 12). Initials in red, green or yellow, some with penwork decoration in the same or other colours. Rubrics and marginalia in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
240 x 170 (180 x 120) |
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Part 2 |
ff. 70-102 |
| Title |
Lamentations of Jeremiah, with commentary |
| Origin |
England, S.E. |
| Date |
1st quarter of the 13th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic, written above the top line |
| Decoration |
2 zoomorphic initials (ff. 70v, 78v) and 1 historiated initial with a mermaid (f. 93v), outlined in brown on blue or blue and red grounds. 1 initial in silver, red and green with foliate decoration (f. 99). 1 initial with foliate decoration in red and green on a blue ground (f. 85v). Small initials and script in red, blue, green and light brown. Paraphs in brown. |
| Dimensions in mm |
250 x 180 (190 x 145) in two columns |
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Official foliation |
ff. 102 (ff. 1 and 102 are parchment flyleaves + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end) |
Form |
Parchment codex |
Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1970. |
Provenance |
Part 1: ?Walter of Merton, Bishop of Rochester, 1274-77, and afterwards the cathedral priory of St. Andrew, Rochester: inscribed 'Liber de Claust[r]o Roffens[is] per W. Roffens[em] ep[iscopu]m' (f. 3).
All parts: The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 808'; included in the inventory of books in the Upper Library at Westminster of 1542 (f. 34), in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71 (f. 20) and in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James’s Palace (see [Edward Bernard], Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 3 vols. (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), II, nos. 8310, 8357, 8522). Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
Notes |
The commentary on the Lamentations of Jeremiah was complied by Gilbertus Autissioderensis (Gilbert the Universal, Bishop of London, 1128-1134), as stated in the colophon on f. 101v. The manuscript has much in common with London, British Library Royal 15 A.xxii and London, British Library Cotton Vespasian D.xxi ff.1-17, one of which was probably used as the exemplar. (For this information we thank Michael Gullick for making available his unpublished notes). The final folio of the Dares text is missing, and was bound along with two texts by Nennius into London, British Library Cotton Vitellius A. xiii (ff. 91-100). |
Select bibliography |
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I, 14-15.
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, p. 157-58.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 163.
Katharine Mary Waller, 'The Library, Scriptorium and Community of Rochester Cathedral Priory c. 1080-1150' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Liverpool, 1980), p. 361.
Mary Ella Milham, 'A Handlist of the Manuscripts of C. Julius Solinus', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 37 (1983), 126-29 (p. 127).
B. Munk Olsen, L’Étude des auteurs classiques latins aux XIe et XIIe siècles, 2 vols (Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1982-85), II, 502 (C. 44).
James P. Carley, 'The Royal Library as a Source for Sir Robert Cotton's Collection: A Preliminary List of Acquisitions', in Sir Robert Cotton as Collector, ed. by C. J. Wright (London: The British Library, 1997), 208-29 (pp. 221-22).
Anke Holdenried, 'The Bedan Recension of the Sibylla Tiburtina: New Manuscript Evidence and its Implications, in Latin Culture of the Eleventh Century: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Medieval Latin Studies, (Cambridge: Brepols, 1998), pp. 410-443 (p. 442).
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H2.847, p. lxxxiii.
Anke Holdenried, The Sibyl and Her Scribes: Manuscripts and Interpretation of the Latin ‘Sibylla Tiburtina c.1050-1500 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006), p. 246. |
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Part 1
ff. 1-69 |
Dionysius Periegetes (translated by Priscian); Solinus; Dares Phrygius Periegesis (f. 2v); Collectanea rerum mirabilium (f. 12); De excidio Troiae historia (f. 57); Prophetia Sybillae (f. 67) |
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f. 2v Decorated initial |

f. 12 Decorated initial |

f. 28 Text page |
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f. 52 Puzzle initial |

f. 57 Two decorated initials |
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Part 2
ff. 70-102 |
Lamentations of Jeremiah, with commentary |
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f. 78v Zoomorphic initial |

f. 93v Mermaid |

f. 99 Decorated initial |
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