150 folios on thin parchment, contemporary foliation 1-149 in arabic numerals upper right corners rectos, used here, 144 omitted, first and last leaves as pastedowns are unnumbered, complete (collation 130 [1 as pastedown] ii-v16 vi14 vii-viii16 ix8 x2 [2 as pastedown]), quires ii-v horizontal catchwords in simple rectangular frames lower right corner last versos, quires vi-ix designated primus-quartus in same location, written in three principal tiny gothic hands, (1) ff. 1-27v, 46 long lines, faintly ruled in lead, single vertical bounding lines, written below single top line (justification 115 x 74 mm), lemmata underlined in red, red capital strokes in text, 2-line initials in blue or red flourished in the opposite color, (2) ff. 30-95v, 2 columns of 41 lines, ruled in lead, single vertical bounding lines, single horizontal bounding lines top and bottom (2 each from f. 84v), prickings visible in outer margins, written below top line (justification 110 x 78 mm), running titles in a cursive hand added in upper margins, rubrics in red, tiny guide letters for rubricator in margin, 2-line initials in red or blue flourished in the opposite color, (3) ff. 95v-143, 2 columns of 41 lines, ruled in lead, single vertical bounding lines, single horizontal bounding lines top and bottom (justification 110 x 75 mm), prickings occasionally visible in outer margins, books designated in top margin of rectos, rubrics in red, red paragraph signs and capital strokes in text, tiny guide letters for rubricator, 2-line red initials flourished in brown. First leaves stained with no loss of legibility, small original defects to parchment in margins or carefully avoided by scribes. ORIGINAL BINDING, blind-ruled brown leather over wooden boards, 5 star-shaped bosses (of 10) remain, lacks two clasps catching on back cover (old repairs and wear to spine, pastedowns stained, some worming to boards, worming to pastedowns and last leaf with some loss of text). Dimensions 150 x 100 mm.
Written in tiny compact script on thin parchment and preserved in an original binding, this medieval pocketbook presents a miscellany of theological and devotional texts by important, yet diverse medieval authors. Although none of the works is especially rare, the combination is unusual and suggests a specially curated volume. Within decades of its composition, the manuscript was owned and used in 1391 by a distinguished theologian-cleric, who appended an alphabetical table of subjects.
Provenance
1. To judge from the script and decoration, the manuscript was copied in Southern France or Catalonia in the late thirteenth century or first half of the fourteenth century. As termini post quem, Frachet’s work was completed in 1258, and Brito’s dates from c. 1250-1272.
2. Contemporary marginal notes in several hands and occasional manicules (pointing hands), ff. 1-95v.
3. In October 1391 the manuscript belonged to Lazaro Martin de Bordalba, who, working at “Claremonte,” entered the alphabetical table of subjects found on ff. 143v-147, and possibly numbered the manuscript leaves to provide the references; see his titulus on f. 143v: Incipit tabula per alfabetum super operibus huius libri edita a Lazaro Martini de Bordalba in Claremonte anno domini Mo ccco xci in mense octobris (“Here begins an alphabetical table indexing the works contained in this volume, compiled by Lazaro Martini of Bordalba at Claremonte in October 1391”). “Claremonte” is possibly Clermont-Ferrand in France in the Auvergne; Lazaro Martin de Bordalba is attested as dean of the cathedral of Huesca in Spain from 1404, and possibly earlier. It seems likely that the manuscript was in Spain by the time of his death c.1410, if not earlier.
Lazaro Martin de Bordalba studied theology in Paris and in Rome, and in 1404 Pope Benedict XIII authorized him to teach in any faculty of theology. In 1407 Benedict appointed him, with two others, as a legate to Charles, King of France, and authorized him to collect any funds owing to the Apostolic Camera (Cuella Esteban, 2005, nos. 92, 448, 250, 251). He died c. 1410, when he bequeathed a manuscript Bible to his brother Roiz, his grammar and philosophy books to his nephew Garcia de Borau, and a Nicholas de Lyra and other biblical glosses to the Cathedral of Huesca (Duran Gudiol, 1953, quoting Archivio de la Catedral de Huesca, 2-9-548: “En 1410 el deán Lázaro Martín de Bordalba legaba al maestro Roiz de Bordalba, su hermano, unam bibliam de duabus [sic] quam idem testator habet; a su sobrino García de Borau todos sus libros gramaticos et logicos et philosophie y, si quiere estudiar derecho canónico, le deja también decretales, sextum, clementinas et decretum; y a la Catedral Nicolaum de Lyra super Bibliam et glossas ordinarias super Bibliam que quidem glosse seu lecture voluit idem dominus testator poni in sacrario donec libraría eiusdem ecclesia [sic] sit parata et perfecta.”).
4. Certainly in Spain in the fifteenth century to judge from the translations of diplomatic cipher phrases entered on f. 148.
5. Later Spanish inscription on front pastedown: Opusculo de Sancto Bernardo y Cronica de la orden de Predicadores año 1326 (“Works of St. Bernard and Chronicle of the Order of Preachers, 1326”).
6. Private Collection.
Text
Front pastedown, Distinctiones (beginning incompletely, rubbed and partially illegible)
ff. 1-27v, incipit, “Abba sicut dicit glosa Galatas 4 hebraice est … Tunc ad verbium dum temporis ad verbium ordinis. Quere littera .V. et .Z. in littera .C. sub tali signo .X.”; [f. 28r-v blank];
Selections from Guillelmus Brito, Expositiones vocabulorum Biblie, also known as Summa Britonis, edited by Daly and Daly, 1975. Over 130 surviving manuscripts are known, dating from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (Daly, 1975, p. xxxvi); only one is held in a North American collection, University of Pennsylvania, MS lat. 39.
Brito, a member of the Franciscan order and probably a master at Paris, is thought to have compiled the work between c. 1250 and 1272, when it was cited by Roger Bacon. Significant words found in the Bible are listed in alphabetical order, accompanied by commentary drawn from a variety of sources, including the Glossa ordinaria, the Derivationes of Hugutio of Pisa, Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, the Elementarium doctrine erudimentum of Papias, and Petrus Comestor, among others (Daly, 1975, pp. xxvi-xxxiv).
f. 29, incipit, “Deus est in aliquo per nature identitatem sicut filius in patre … Infra omnia quia omnia susternum[?]”; [f. 29v blank];
A distinction, in typical diagrammatic form.
ff. 30-33, Incipit liber Augustinus de dolore matris de passione Christi, incipit, “Quis dabit capite meo aquam et occulis meis ymbrem lacrimarum ut possim flere die et nocte donec servo suo appareat dominus ihesus visu vel sompno consolaturus animam meam … concede ut eorum protectione munitus ad te dulcissimum dominum valeam pervenire securus. Qui unus et regnas cum deo patre in unitate etc.”;
De planctu B. Mariae Virginis, an account of the suffering of the mother of Christ during his Passion. One of the most popular devotional texts of the later Middle Ages, it survives in a large number of manuscripts, in at least three recensions, and in several vernacular translations.
Sometimes credited, as here, to St. Augustine, it was most often attributed to St. Bernard, but is now thought to be an excerpt from a larger text, De laudibus sanctae Dei genetrix, by Oglerius Locediensis. Oglerius (1136-1214; also known as Ogier, Ogerius, or Ogerio) was from Trino, Italy, served as a papal legate, and became abbot of the Cistercian monastery in Locedio in northwestern Italy (Barré 1952, Marx 1994, Bestul 1996).
ff. 33-37, Incipit liber beati Augustinus de salute anime, incipit, “Quoniam in medio laqueorum positi sumus facile a celesti desiderio frigescimus. Quapropter assiduo indigemus munimento … Celum et terra et omnia que in eis sunt non cessant mihi dicere ut amen deum meum. Explicit”;
Pseudo-Augustine, Manuale, printed in GW 2960 (Treviso, 1471) and later editions; cf. PL 40, 951 seqq.
ff. 37-40v, Tractatus beati Bernardi abbatis de conflictu babilonie et iherusalem et de obviatione misericordie et veritatis et de osculo iusticie et pacis, incipit, “Inter babilonem et iherusalem nulla pax est sed guerra continua. Habet denique quacumque civitas regem suum. Rex iherusalem christi dominus. Rex babilonis est diabolus … Ad hanc vero bonam voluntatem studerat quisquis pacem habere desiderat. Parante domino nostro Iesu Christo cui est gloria et honor et regnum in secula seculorum. Amen.” Amen;
Pseudo-Bernard, printed as part of GW 3914 (Augsburg, ca. 1475/77); see also PL 183, 761-765.
ff. 40v-54, [Liber beati Augustini de cognoscendo dominum], incipit, “Quoniam dictum est ut me ipsum cognoscam sustinere non possum ut me habeam incognitum. Magna namque negligentia … apponit et dolorem scilicet peregrinationis sue ex desiderio patrie sue et visione dei quem cernere finis est sine fine. Amen. Amen. Amen”;
The rubric was left blank; the title has been supplied from running title. The work, formerly attributed to St. Augustine, is now ascribed to Alcher of Clairvaux (12th cent.) under the title De spiritu et anima; printed in PL 40, 779 seqq. The work circulated widely in at least three versions; some 250 manuscripts have been recorded (Mews, 2018).
ff. 54-62v, Incipit liber beati Bernardi de diligendo deo, incipit, “Viro illustri domino Aimerico romane ecclesie diachono cardinali et cancellario Bernardus abbas dictus Clarevalle domino vivere et in domino mori. Orationes a me et non questiones a me poscere solebatis … Proinde ubi iam non erit misercordie locus autem misericordia tempus. Nullus poterit profecto esse miserationis affectus etc.,” Explicit liber de diligendo deo;
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, De diligendo deo, edited by Leclercq and Rochais (1963), vol. 3, pp. 109-154. This was one of St. Bernard’s most popular works, surviving in more than 60 Latin manuscripts.
ff. 62v-68v, Incipit liber apologeticus Bernardi abbatis Clarevallis, incipit, “Venerabili patri Guilllelmo frater Bernardus fratrum qui in clara valle sunt inutilis servus Salutem in domino. Usque modo si qua me scripitare iussistis … Hoc non est detraction sed attractio quod ut nobis a vobis semper fiat omnino precor et supplico. Valete”;
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Apologia ad Guillelmum abbatem, edited by Leclercq and Rochais (1963), vol. 3, pp. 61-108. Written c. 1124-1125, the work is noted for its defense of the austerity practiced by the Cistercian order and its condemnation of the luxury of traditional Benedictine houses. 68 manuscripts, plus the present one, are known to survive.
ff. 68v-81, Incipit liber Bernardi de colloquio Simonis Petri ad Ihesum, incipit, “Ut tibi dilectissime presentis exortationis cedulas destinarem que ociosa esse patitur nimirum credens omnia et omnia sperans … De commendatione obedientie et verborum ihesu. Dixit Simon Petrus ad ihesum ecce nos reliquimus omnia et secuti sumus te. Fidelis sermo et dignum omni acceptione colloquium Simon Petri et Iesu.… ut vitam habemus et habundantius habemus ihesus christus dominus noster. Amen”;
Formerly attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, now regarded as the work of Geoffrey of Clairvaux (also known as Geoffrey of Auxerre, c. 1115-c. 1188); printed in PL 184, 435 seqq. Also published as part of GW 3957 (Naples, ca. 1480).
ff. 81-82, Ex sermone fratres enim [ ?] qui alicubi intitulatur Augustinus alibi Ieronimi De commendatione beate Marie, incipit, “Voluit occulte dimittere eam. Crisostomus super Mt forsitan enim cum esset iustus et videret eam gravidam hec apud se cogitabat … cum ipso preciosa virgo Maria fugit in Egyptum.”;
Not identified, apparently a work on the experiences of Mary the mother of Christ.
ff. 82-84, Incipit epistola beati Dyonisii ad Tymotheum discipulum beati Pauli de passione apostolotum Petri et Pauli, incipit, “Saluto te divinum discipulum et filium spiritulem veri patris et boni amatoris qui consumasti voluntatem magistri tui et sustinuisti cum eo tribulationes et omnes passiones … caput erat Pauli inmaculati qui fuit servus et apostulus domini nostri Ihesu Christi quem decet laus et cultus cum patre et spiritui sancto nunc et semper in secula seculorum. Amen”;
Pseudo-Dionysius the Aeropagite, printed in Pitra, vol. 4 (1883), pp. 261-271.
ff. 84-85, incipit, “Factum est tempore Tiberii et Brelii [Vitellii] consulum. Tiberius cesar gubernabat imperium et necesse fuit ut in partibus iherosolimorum virum prudentem dirigeret … tyberius cesar credens in christo et sanus a plaga siringii defunctus est in loco suo. Explicit”;
Pseudo-Nicodemus, Cura sanitatis Tiberii, (Cure of the Health of Tiberius), edited by Dobschütz 1899, vol. 2, pp. 157**-203**, who lists 33 manuscripts dating from the eighth to the fifteenth entury and admits that this census is not complete. The work, thought to have originated between the fifth and seventh centuries, provides the first written evidence of the legend of St. Veronica and her veil, the cloth imprinted with the face of Christ at the time of his Passion. In this version, sometimes found in Latin manuscripts of the Gospel of Nicodemus, Veronica and the veil are brought to Rome, where the miraculous image cures the Emperor Tiberius of a serious illness and causes him to convert to Christianity.
ff. 85v-95v, Incipit liber florilegii Agustini, incipit, “Quorundam librorum gloriosi et incomparabilis doctoris Augustini tractatus … Da mihi domine scire et intellegere quid sis … Sic accipietur sic aperiatur sic invenietur te parante qui vivis et regnas in secula seculorum. Amen.”
Not identified. Florilegia based on works of Augustine, but often including quotations from other sources, were common in the later Middle Ages (Dekkers, 1990).
ff. 95v-143, incipit, “Incipiunt vite fratrum predicatorum gloriosis sanctorum patrum exemplis tam novi quam veteris testament quibus copiose mundus habundat… [f. 141v] Cronica ordinis fratrum predicatorum. Anno domini Mo cco iiio beatus Dominicus natione Hispanus sciencia dei plenus … migrans ad christum fratrem rhomam de lentino predicatorem egregium in prioratu huic successorem. Explicit cronica ordinis fratrum predicatorum. Amen.”
Gerard de Frachet, Vitae fratrum ordinis predicatorum, edited by Reichert (Louvain, 1896). Gerard de Frachet (1205-1271), made his profession in the Dominican order in 1226. In the following years he held various administrative positions, while also collecting accounts of the early years of the order. In 1255 the general chapter requested the compilation of a history of the order, with special emphasis on the miracles performed by St. Dominic and St. Peter Martyr, and in 1256 Humbert of Romans, then Master General, asked Gerard to incorporate these reports into the work he had already begun. An official version of the text was completed in 1258, to which Gerard added his chronicle of the order. The work, however, circulated in several versions, to which additions and revisions were made at various times and places, with the result that there is no definitive text, and there appears to be no systematic list of manuscripts (Tugwell, 2001; Schürer, 2005)
ff. 143v-147, Incipit tabula per alfabetum super operibus huius libri edita a Lazaro Martini de Bordalba in Claremonte anno domini Mo ccco xci in mense octobris, incipit, Abstinencia 74 …”;
Alphabetical index to the subjects of the works copied on ff. 1-143 in this volume, keyed to the leaf numbers.
f. 147v, Recepta pro memoria, incipit, “Dicit Galianus quod ipse fuit … quod durat diu effectus istius medicine”;
Added in the 15th century on an originally blank leaf.
f. 148, Three sets of code symbols, the first and last giving only the equivalent symbols for individual letters of the alphabet. The third evidently constitutes notes for a diplomatic cipher for which some interlinear translations into Latin are provided, e.g., Rex Francie, Rex Aragone, Rex Castelle, etc.
Added in the 15th century, to judge from the script.
f. 148v, Table of contents, listing the works copied in this volume through the Recepta pro memoria, with reference to folio numbers.
ff. 149rv, Concordances of texts under topical headings, from De amore to De fide.
Although the script resembles that found earlier in this manuscript, the system of numbering the texts copied under each heading does not correspond to any used elsewhere in the present codex.
Back pastedown, Fragment of a highly abbreviated Latin text, wormed and defective.
The present manuscript offers an assemblage of seemingly disparate texts, but one that gives every evidence of having been deliberately compiled. Summa Britonis, the first work in the volume, provides a dictionary of significant words found in the Bible, and as such would have been an aid to preachers as well as commentators. The last work, Gerard de Frachet’s “Lives of the Brothers of the Dominican Order,” tells of the lives and miracles of the early saints and brothers of the order, establishing Frachet as an important hagiographer.
The central portion of the book presents theological or devotional texts that reflect Cistercian sensibilities, evidence of the continued importance of these texts in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries outside of Cistercian circles. This section contains two genuine treatises by St. Bernard, “On the Love of God” and the very important “Apology to Abbot William” (quite possibly the most frequently cited text dealing with medieval art). This grouping is also of interest in that most of the texts are pseudonymous, showing how popular texts such as these circulated in the later Middle Ages under the names of various respected theologians. Several works here attributed to St. Augustine are now considered to be by Bernard, and two attributed to St. Bernard are now recognized as being by other Cistercian monks. Also noteworthy are two texts purporting to report on supposed incidents in the early history of Christianity, the letter of Pseudo-Dionysius the Aeropagite concerning the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul, and the Cura sanitatis Tiberii (“Cure of the Health of Tiberius”), attributed to Pseudo-Nicodemus, which contains the earliest written evidence of the legend of St. Veronica and her veil. Most of the texts in this middle section of the manuscript appear to be selections from the longer works with which they are now associated, or variant versions of those works, topics that deserve further study.
The final texts in the manuscript are an intriguing and important coda. Lazaro Martin de Bordalba’s alphabetical subject index to the texts in this manuscript (discussed above, provenance), affords us a very concrete example of how this complex miscellany was used. The format and content of the manuscript fall in line with miscellanies made for itinerant mendicant friars, making its ownership – and use – by a prominent secular cleric in 1391 particularly interesting. Its history continues into the fifteenth century, with diverse additions: a medical “recipe” for memory, a diplomatic cipher (surely quite rare), and finally a topical concordance, which invites further study (it is not biblical).
Literature
Barré, H. “Le ‘Planctus Mariae’ attribué à St. Bernard,” Revue d’ascetique et de mystique 28 (1952), pp. 243-266.
Bestul, Thomas H. Texts of the Passion. Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society, Philadelphia, 1996.
Cuella Esteban, Ovidio. Bulario Aragonés de Benedicto XIII, [vol.] II: La curia itinerante (1404-1411), Zaragoza, 2005. [Vol. I of this work, covering the years 1394-1403, the early years of Benedict’s papacy, was not available for consultation.]
Daly, Lloyd W. and Bernardine A Daly, eds. Summa Britonis sive Guillelmi Britonis Expositiones vocabulorum Biblie, 2 vols., Padua, 1975.
Dekkers, Eligius. “Quelques notes sur les florilèges Augustiniens anciens et médiévaux,” Augustiniana 40 (1990), pp. 27-44.
Dobschütz, Ernst von. Christusbilder: Untersuchungen zur Christlichen Legende, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1899.
Duran Gudiol, Antonio. Manoscritos de la Catedral de Huesca, Huesca 1953. Also online at grupo.cmd (aragon.es).
Leclercq, Jean, and H. H. Rochais, eds. S. Bernardi Opera Vol. III : Tractatus et Opuscula, Rome, 1963.
Marx, C. W. “The Quis dabit of Oglerius de Tridino, Monk and Abbot of Locedio,” Journal of Medieval Latin 4 (1994), pp. 118-129.
Mews, Constant J. “The Diffusion of the De spiritu et anima and Cistercian Reflection on the Soul,” Viator 49:3 (2018), pp. 297-330.
Pitra, Johannes Baptista. Analecta sacra spicilegio Solesmensi parata, 7 vols., Paris, 1876-1891. Also online at HathiTrust Digital Library.
Reichert, Benedictus Maria. Fratris Gerardi de Fracheto O.P. Vitae fratrum ordinis Praedicatorum, nec non cronica ordinis ab anno MCCIII usque ad MCCLIV, Monumenta Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum Historica, Louvain 1896. Also online at Internet Archive.
Schürer, Markus. “Mémoire et histoire dans l’ordre des Prêcheurs vers le milieu du XIIIe siècle,” in Écrire son histoire: Les communautés régulières face à leur passé, Saint-Étienne, 2005, pp. 147-169.
Tugwell, Simon. “L’évolution des vitae fratrum: Résumé des conclusions provisoires,” Cahiers de Fanjeaux 36 (2001), pp. 415-418.
Vattasso, Marcus. Initia patrum aliorumque scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum ex Mignei Patrologia et ex compluribus aliis libris, Studi e Testi, vols. 16, 17; Rome, 1906-1908.
Online Resources
GW: Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de
PL: Patrologia Latina mlat.uzh.ch/browser?path=/38
TM 1265
