Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
40 folios on paper, watermark: heart surmounted by a cross, similar to Briquet 4235, Metz, 1492, and Briquet 4233, Châlon-sur-Marne, 1491, Mainz, 1492, Metz, 1492-6, Cologne, 1495, and others in this region, modern foliation in pencil, 1-40, complete (collation i-v8), frame ruled with lead point (justification c. 114 x 73 mm.), written in brown ink in a small hybrid script in single column on c. 29-32 lines, capitals touched in red, rubrics, paragraph marks and some underlining in red, 2-line red initials throughout, one 3-line blue initial on f. 1, minor water damage in the inner margins and some small stains, overall in good condition. Bound in simple paper covers, on the spine written in ink “Mss. Sec XV” and stamped with the book number “90891,” covers very worn. Dimensions 162 x 102 mm.
Something of a medieval “best-seller,” surviving in numerous manuscripts, this influential work of edificatory and pastoral literature is little known today and is relatively rare on the market. It was consulted when composing sermons and preparing to hear confessions, and its remarkable success in the later Middle Ages is in part due to its attribution (maintained until the twentieth century) to Albertus Magnus. The present copy was made for use in a Benedictine monastery, as suggested by the inclusion of an extract of Benedict of Aniane’s text on monastic rules.
1. The style of the script and watermark indicate that the manuscript was written in the late fifteenth century, c. 1490-1500. Judging from the watermarks, the book was made in the region that stretches from Lorraine (perhaps in Metz?) in northeastern France to Cologne and Mainz on the German side of the border.
The short text added at the end of the manuscript, on f. 40v, suggests that the manuscript was very likely made for use in a Benedictine monastery. The wording of the opening rubric is particularly interesting. Following Bendict of Aniane’s text, one would expect, “The Provost of the Monastery, but here we have instead, “Provost Peter.” Could this be the name of the provost of the monastery where our manuscript was copied?
2. Ownership inscription in brown ink in the upper margin of f. 1: “Bibliotheca P Niefers (?) […] 1816 (?),” perhaps by the same person who wrote “Scriptura Sec XV.-” inside the front cover.
3. Belonged in the nineteenth century to the German Jesuit biblical scholar, Karl Josef Rudolf Cornely (1830-1908) in Münster, where he studied philosophy and theology; his ownership inscription, found inside the front cover, is written in brown ink, and dated December 14, 1851: “Rudolf Cornely o/m Heinr(ich) Schmitz. Munster 18 14/12 51” (cf. Online Resources).
4. Cornely probably gave it to a library in Trier, where he died; the library stamp of the Redemptorist Fathers in Trier in blue in on the front cover and f. 1, now rather worn, but recognizable as, “Bibliotheca Con. S. Red. Treviris.”
The Redemptorist Congregation (CSSR) was founded by Alfons of Liguori (1696-1787) in 1732. The Lower German Province was established in 1859, and the order opened a seminary and college in 1861 in Maria Hamicolt near Dülmen, Westphalia, which was relocated to Trier in 1898. In 1902, the college moved again to Geistingen in Siegtal. In 1996, it ceased use as an active seminary, but the buildings were used for conferences and retreats until January 2006, when it was sold by the Order (Online Resources). Their library, an extensive one, perhaps including as many as 50 manuscripts and 43 incunables, was dispersed when the house was closed. Some of the manuscripts and incunables are now at Redemptorist monastery Heiligenstadt and others at the Order’s house in Rome; the remainder were sold starting in 2005.
ff. 1-40v, Albertus magnus de veris virtutibus. Prologus, incipit, “Sunt quedam vicia que frequenter speciem virtutis pretendunt ut cum vere sint vicia credantur esse virtutes … “; De caritate Ca(put) I, incipit, “Caritas ad Deum vera et perfecta est … et qui crescit in una simul crescit in omnibus et qui in una decrescit in omnibus simul decrescit et qui una caruerit nullam habet quia omnes virtutes sunt in gratia,” Explicit liber domini Alberti magni de veris virtutibus;
Pseudo-Albertus Magnus, Paradisus animae or Tractatus de virtutibus, edited in Borgnet 1890-1899, vol. 37, pp. 447–520; see Glorieux, Répertoire, 6cq, and Bloomfield, 1979, no. 5875. At least 163 manuscripts survive; for the manuscript tradition, see Fechter, 1976. On the authorship, see Söller, 1987 and 1989.
f. 40v, [Added in another hand; Benedict of Aniane, Concordia regularum, caput XXVII, 16a], Prepositus Petrus, incipit, “Non etate senili sed moribus constituendus est. Multos enim prolixitas annorum attollit … et tepescentium ignavium excitare. [Continuing from another source] Secundum uabit regulam monasterii ita agens … Non sit zelotipus … et actiones non tollere malorum.”
Several extracts on monastic life, added in a contemporary hand. The passage begins with Benedict of Aniane (c. 750-821), Concordia regularum, caput XXVII, 16a, “De praeposito monasterii” (On the Provost of the monastery); for a modern edition, see Bonnerue, 1999, ch. 27, p. 228, line 322; also edited in Migne, vol. 193, col. 948. As far as we can determine it then continues from another source, adding a few more lines about the Provost, and then concluding with six lines with some similarities to, but not directly from, chapter 4, “On the ordination of the Abbot” (cf. Migne, vol. 103, col. 758). The rubric in our manuscript is quite interesting. One would expect, following Benedict of Aniane’s text, “The Provost of the Monastery.” Here however, the manuscript reads, “Provost Peter,” perhaps the name of the provost of the monastery where our manuscript was copied?
This extensive Latin treatise on the virtues was composed at the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century and was copied widely in an unbroken tradition until the age of printing (Söller, 1989; Gotthschall, 2013, pp. 748-9). It was transmitted anonymously in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but in the fifteenth century, when it was known under the title De veris virtutibus or Paradisus animae (On the True Virtues or The Paradise of the Soul), it was attributed almost exclusively to Albert the Great (c. 1200-1280), the German Dominican friar and bishop, known during his lifetime as Doctor universalis for his encyclopedic intellect, and considered by many as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. In 1890-1899 it was edited among the thirty-eight volumes of the collected writings of Albert the Great. However, as Bertram Söller demonstrated in 1987, the work is pseudo-epigraphical and its author remains anonymous. The original Latin text, as contained in our manuscript, survives in at least 163 manuscripts, not counting our copy; in addition, four different translations into German are transmitted in 65 manuscripts (Fechter, 1976; Gotthschall, 2013, pp. 748-749).
In addition to their value for personal edification, treatises on the virtues and vices were essential resources for the pastoral work of priests, consulted as sources for sermons, as well as aids to administering confession. The Paradisus animae is divided into 42 chapters, each one treating a virtue (virtus) and its opposite (falsa virtus). It takes its sources especially from the Holy Scripture and the Church Fathers (especially Augustine, Gregory the Great and Jerome), and to a lesser degree, the medieval authors Bernard of Clairvaux and Anselm of Canterbury. The virtues discussed in the work include, among others, caritas (ff. 1v-3; charity), humilitas (ff. 3-4), obedientia (ff. 4v-5v), patientia (ff. 5v-6v), paupertas (ff. 6v-7v; poverty), castitas (ff. 7v-9; chastity), abstinentia (ff. 9-10), prudentia (ff. 10-11), fortitudo (ff. 11-11v; strength), compassio (ff. 13-14), letitia (ff. 21v-22; joy), maturitas (f. 27r-v; the rubricator wrote in error “De taciturnitate” and inserted the initial “T” and the chapter number “31”, the last which he corrected as “29”), taciturnitas (ff. 28v-29v; silence, reticence), discretio (ff. 32-33), and perseverantia (ff. 39v-40v).
The short text added on the last leaf includes part of a chapter from the Concordia regularum (The agreement of the Rules) by the monastic reformer, St. Benedict of Aniane (c. 750-821). This commentary explains and clarifies each chapter of the sixth-century Benedictine Rule with reference to the corresponding passages in other monastic rules. The chapter of the Rule discussed here is chapter 27, about the Provost of the monastery. This text, specifically discussing the virtues important for this monastic office, generally complements the long treatise on the virtues, but would of course be most relevant to Benedictine monks. Its presence here is interesting evidence of the continued circulation of this early medieval text in the fifteenth century.
Albertus Magnus, Pseudo. Paradisus animae, ed. by A. Borgnet, Alberti Magni opera omnia, Paris, 1890-1899, vol. 37, pp. 447–520.
Benedicti Anianensis. Concordia Regularum, ed. by P. Bonnerue, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medaevalis, vol. 168/168A, Turnhout, 1999.
Bloomfield, M. “A Preliminary List of Incipits of Latin Works on the Virtues and Vices, mainly of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth centuries,” Traditio 11 (1955), pp. 259-379 (in this preliminary compilation, Bloomfield identified 15 manuscripts; see p. 366, no. 971).
Bloomfield, M. Incipits of Latin works on the virtues and vices, 1100-1500 A.D., Cambridge, Mass., 1979.
Briquet, C.-M. Les filigranes: Dictionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu’en 1600…, vol. II, Paris, 1907, pp. 259, 261, figs. 4232-4235.
Available online: https://archive.org/details/BriquetLesFiligranes2/page/n37/mode/2up
Fechter, W. “Zur handschriftlichen Überlieferung des ps.-albertischen “Paradisus animae” und seiner Übersetzungen ins Mittelhochdeutsche,” Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 105/1 (1976), pp. 66-87.
Glorieux, P. Répertoire des Maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIIIe siècle, 2 vols, Paris, 1933-1934.
Gotthschall, D. “Albert’s Contribution to or Influence on Vernacular Literatures,” A Companion to Albert the Great: Theology, Philosophy, and the Sciences, ed. by I. Resnick, Leiden, 2013, pp. 726-757.
Kretzmann, N. et al., ed. The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy: from the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism, 1100-1600, Cambridge, 1982.
Le Goff, J. Les Intellectuels au Moyen Âge, Paris, 1957.
De Libera, A. Penser au Moyen Âge, Paris, 1991.
Migne, J.-P. patrologiae cursus completus … series latina, in qua prodeunt patres, doctores scriptoresque ecclesiae latinae, a Tertulliano Ad Innocentium Iii], Paris, 1864, vol. 103.
Available online, https://books.google.com/books?id=L_9R0Jh-DRkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=aetate&f=false
Resnick, I., ed. A Companion to Albert the Great: Theology, Philosophy, and the Sciences, Leiden, 2013.
Söller, B. Der Traktat “Paradisus animae” des Pseudo-Albertus Magnus im deutschen Spätmittelalter, Würzburg, 1987.
Söller, B. “Paradisus animae,” Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, vol. 7, ed. by K. Ruh et al., Berlin, 1989, pp. 293-298.
Karl Cornely (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Josef_Rudolph_Cornely
“The Redemptorist seminary library in Hennef-Geistingen,” Monumenta germaniae historica
http://webserver1.mgh.de/bibliothek/provenance/geistingen/
Albertus Magnus. Alberti Magni Enchiridion plane aureum de veris perfectìsque virtutibus…, Munich, Johann Jakob Remy, 1714
https://books.google.fr/books?id=Vh9RAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Concordia regularum, Geschichtsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters, BADW
http://www.geschichtsquellen.de/werk/595
Concordia regularum, Mirablile, Digital Archives for Medieval Culture
http://www.mirabileweb.it/title/concordia-regularum-benedictus-anianensis-abbas-n--title/4750
Concordia regularum, in “Corpus corporum,” University of Zurich, text from Migne, Patrologia latina, v. 103
http://mlat.uzh.ch/MLS/xanfang.php?tabelle=Benedictus_Anianensis_cps2&id=Benedictus_Anianensis_cps2,%20De%20concordia%20regularum&corpus=2
TM 1130
