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Detailed record for Royal 4 D VII


Part 1	ff. 9-232
	Author		Petrus Comestor, Richard of Saint-Victor
	Title		Historia scolastica, with glosses and the paraphrase of the Acts of the Apostles; Liber exceptionum
	Origin		England, S. (St Albans)
	Date		c. 1195-c. 1215
	Language		Latin
	Script		Gothic, written above top line
	Decoration		26 foliate initials, some with zoomorphic decoration, in colours and gold, at the beginning of books and the prologue (ff. 9, 32, 32v, 45v, 51, 59, 62, 65, 71v, 78v, 85, 95v, 104v, 106v, 107v, 109v, 110v, 111v, 120, 122v, 124, 130, 131, 134v). Puzzle initials in blue or red and blue with dark red and blue pen-flourishing, at the beginning of the paraphrase of the Acts of the Apostles and of book 10 of Liber exceptionum (f. 160v, 214v). Initial in blue with red pen-flourishing or in red with blue pen-flourishing, some with long marginal extensions in red and blue. Running titles and chapter numbers in red and blue
	Dimensions in mm		385 x 260 (235 x 145), in two columns

Part 2	ff. 1v-2v, 233-249
	Author		Robert Grosseteste
	Title		Translation of Testamenta duodecim patriarcharum, and Suidas De probatione Virginitatis Beate Marie
	Origin		England, S. (St Albans)
	Date		c. 1236-c. 1259
	Language		Latin
	Script		Gothic, written above top line
	Scribe		Matthew Paris
	Artists		Matthew Paris
	Decoration		2 diagrams in red ink (f. 1v) and 2 in tinted drawing (f. 249). 3 marginal drawings in ink of candelabres, and of a human head (ff. 2, 238). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or in red with blue pen-flourishing. Notabilia in blue or red frames.
	Dimensions in mm		385 x 260 (250 x 150), in two columns

Official foliation		ff. 249 (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves and 1 medieval parchment flyleaf at the beginning and at the end, f. 1 is a medieval parchment flyleaf)
Form		Parchment codex.
Binding		BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1970.
Provenance		Raymond, prior of the Benedictine abbey of St Albans (1195-1214), commissioned by him; confiscated from Raymond and presented c. 1215 to the abbey by William de Trumpington, abbot of St Albans abbey (1214-1235): to be identified with a manuscript mentioned in the Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani(ed. by H. T. Riley, Rolls series, 1887, I, pp. 233, 294); pressmark of St Albans library, 'B 8 gra[dus]', and an ownership inscription, 'Titulus istius libri in dorso / Scolastica historia W. Abbati[s] / in quo continentur testamentum / .XII. patriarcharum translatu[m] / a mag[istr]o Roberto Linc[olniensi] Ep[iscop]o / de Greco in Latinum. Item al[iu]d / ab eodem in quo probatur vir/ginitas sancte Marie', 14th century (f. 1). Added tables of content of the Historia scolastica and the paraphrase of the Acts of the Apostles, 13th century (ff. 3-8). Matthew Paris, (c.1200, d. 1259), monk of the Benedictine abbey of St Alban, historian (from c. 1236): Robert's Grosseteste's translations of the Testamenta duodecim patriarcharum and of the Suidas De probatione Virginitatis Beate Marie with additional texts and diagrams added by him (see part II, ff. 1v-2v, 233-249). Inscription mentioning the discovery in 1371 of a marble slab of Merlin's prophecy: 'Anno ab incarnac[i]o[n]e d[omi]ni n[ost]ri Ih[es]u Xr[ist]i m ccc / lxxi. Indict[i]o[n]is secunde anno quarto. L[iter]a d[o]m[i]nicali / p[er] E apice[m] c[ur]su[m] agente et conc[ur]ente nu[mer]o dec[ur]re[n]te binario / anno vid[e]l[ice]t t[er]tio post bissextu[m] in mense Augusti, fuit / invent[us] quid[a]m lapis marmore[us] et quadrat[us] frustum / plumbi in se claudens quadratu[m] et in eod[em] plumbo / v[er]sus qui sequunt[ur] descripti...'; which incorporates a double acrostic naming the monk Roger Horte, 'anno 1370 Rogerus Horte mona[c]hus ortinis albi'; with a drawing showing where the slab was found, 'Huiusmodi fiebat una pars lapidis in quo plu[m]bum / inve[n]tum est et in plumbo v[er]sus p[re]dicti' (f. 1). The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 1335' (f. 1), acquired by the Upper Library at Westminster after the inventory of 1542; in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 17; 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. 7951, 7952, 8198 and 7957). Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
Notes		Part I Includes the Historia scholastica of Peter Comestor (ff. 9-160v), the paraphrase of the Acts of the Apostles (ff. 160v-181v), with added tables of content of both texts, in a later hand (ff. 3-8), and the Liber exceptionum of Richard of Saint-Victor (ff. 182-232). Part II includes 2 rubrics 'De candelabro quod precepit dominus fieri' and 'De significatione candelabri' (f. 2r-2v); 2 translations by Robert Grosseteste from Greek, 'Testamenta duodecim patriarcharum' (ff. 233-246v) and 'Suidas De probatione Virginitatis Beate Marie' (246v-248), a rubric 'Testamentum Aser de duabus faciebus malicie et virtutis' (ff. 248v-249) with an added text beginning 'Labarum Constantini magni (f. 249). Catchwords (ff. 9-232 and 233-249). Foliation (ff. 233-249).
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), I, p. 90. Philip S. Moore, ‘The Authorship of the Allegoriae Super Vetus et Novum Testamentum’, New Scholasticism, 9 (1935), 209-25 (pp. 211 n. 11; 224-25 n. 46). Samuel Harrison Thomson, The Writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, 1235-1253 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940), pp. 5, 42, 64-65 [edition of the text, ff. 233-248]. Richard Vaughan, 'The Handwriting of Matthew Paris', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 1 (1953) 376-94 (pp. 378, n. 5, 282, 389 391, pl. XVIIa, XVIIIf). Richard Vaughan, Matthew Paris (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958), pp. 104, 109, 187. 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), pp. 167, 301, 302. A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts (London: British Library, 1979), I, no. 867. Rodney M. Thomson, Manuscripts from St Albans Abbey 1066-1235 (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1982), pp. 72-73, pls. 240-47. C. F. R. De Hamel, Glossed Books of the Bible and the Origins of the Paris Booktrade (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1984), p. 37. Suzanne Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the 'Chronica Majora' (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1987), p. 482, n. 10. Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other Libraries 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), pp. 198-199. The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library in association with The British Academy, 2000), H2.1335 Petri Comestoris, Scolastica Historia, Liber Genesis, ed. Agneta Sylwan, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, 191, (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005), p. xxxii n. 39.
Last revised: 18 September 2009