|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed record for Royal 12 G XIV
|
|
|
|
| Author |
Hrabanus Maurus |
| Title |
De universo seu De rerum naturis |
| Origin |
England, S. (St Albans) |
| Date |
2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Protogothic |
| Decoration |
1 large foliate initial inhabited with human figures and animals, in colours and gold, at the beginning of the text (f. 6). Decorated initials with arabesque foliate ornament in blue, red, and green, larger at the beginning of books, and smaller at the beginning of chapters. Small initials in red, blue, or green throughout the text. |
| Dimensions in mm |
420 x 285 (305 x 200), in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. i* + 282 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end, and 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf at the beginning and 2 at the end, f. i* is a medieval parchment flyleaf) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1971. |
| Provenance |
The Benedictine abbey at St. Albans: inscribed 'Hic est lib[er] s[an]c[t]i Alb[an]i, que[m] q[ui] ei abstulerit aut titulu[m] deleu[er]it anathema sit. Am[en]', 13th century (f. 6).
Thomas Wolsey (b. 1470/71, d. 1530), royal minister, archbishop of York, and cardinal: 'TC' monogram, perhaps for Thomas Cardinalis (see Carley 2000, p. xxxiii), 16th century (f. 1).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 1099' (f. I*), iacquired by the Upper Library at Westminster after the inventory of 1542; in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 8v; and in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James's Palace (see [Edward Bernard], Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), no. 8524).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
This is an encyclopaedia arranged in 22 books, based on the 'Etymologies' of Isidore, compiled by Rabanus Maurus (b. c. 776, d. 856), abbot of Fulda and later archbishop of Mainz (ff. 6-282v), preceded by the letters to Louis the Germanic, king of Germany (843-876) (ff. 1-2), and to Haymo, bishop of Halberstadt (840-853) (ff. 2-2v), with a table of capitula (ff. 3-5v).
Includes the punctus flexus punctuation mark. |
| Select bibliography |
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, pp. 73-74.
[J. A. Herbert], Illuminated Manuscripts and Bindings of Manuscripts Exhibited in The Grenville Library: Guide to the Exhibited Manuscripts (Oxford: British Museum, 1923), no. 106.
Otto Pächt, C. R. Dodwell, and Francis Wormald, The St. Albans Psalter (Albani Psalter) (London: Warburg Institute, 1960), p. 277, ns 3, 4.
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. 167.
Walter Cahn, 'St. Albans and the Channel Style in England', in The Year 1200: A Symposium (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975), 187-230 (p. 201, fig. 1).
Rodney M. Thomson, Manuscripts from St Albans Abbey 1066-1235, 2 vols (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 1982), I, p. 48, no. 31.
William Schipper, 'Annotated Copies of Rabanus Maurus's De rerum naturis', in English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 6 ed. by Peter Beal and Jeremy Griffiths (London: British Library, 1997), 1-23 (pl. 6a).
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H2.1099, p. xxxi, n. 33.
Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 89 [exhibition catalogue]. |
| Last revised: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
f. 1
Decorated initial |
f. 3
Table of contents |
f. 5v
Text page |
| |
f. 6
Inhabited initial |
f. 6
Inhabited initial |
f. 6
Inhabited initial |
| |
f. 6
Inhabited initial |
f. 14
Text page |
f. 45
Decorated initial |
| |
f. 60v
Decorated initials |
f. 127v
Decorated initial |
f. 270
Decorated initial |
| |
|
|
|
|
