Schoolbook, transcribed in the early 12th century, containing notes and glosses (in Latin and German) on authors studied in schools and other texts which could be used in teaching.

File

Identifier: Adv.MS.18.5.10

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The contents of the manuscript are as follows:

(i) Juvenal, 'Satires': citations with commentary in alphabetical order of keyword, incipit 'Maior auaritie patuit'. (i.88). (Folio 1.)

(ii) Lucan, 'Civil War': introduction and citations with and without commentary from books 1-6 and 9, incipit 'Lucanii sum(m)a utilitas e(st) i(n) topog(ra)phia'. (Folio 5 verso.)

(iii) Philosophical notes, possibly connected to Porphyry's introduction to Aristotle's 'Analytica Priora' (translated by Boethius, 'Aristoteles Latinus', volume iii.1.4, 1962), incipit 'Sex omnino magist(ri) i(n) o(mn)i expositio(n)e'. (Folio 7 verso.)

(iv) Persius, 'Satires': life, 'accessus', and citations with commentary in alphabetical order of keyword, incipit 'Aulus persi(us) flacc(us) nat(us) patre flacco (et) mat(re) fuluia'. (Folio 8.)

The text jumps from folio 10 verso 1.5 to folio 11 without apparent gap: item (v) was added here later.

(v) Explanations of various words, incipit 'Spinx erat mo(n)stru(m) i(n) articulo rupi(s)'. Printed in 'Zwischen den Zeilen …', pages 31-32. (Folio 10 verso 1.7.)

(vi) Sedulius, 'Carmen Paschale': life ('Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum', x, page xi) and citations in alphabetical order of keyword, incipit 'Seculi(us) Macedonio ep(istu)la p(re)missa p(re)sb(yter)o'. (Folio 12 verso.)

(vii) Horace, 'Odes', 'Ars Poetica', and (not separated) 'Satires' and 'Epistles': for each work introduction and citations (few in number in the 'Odes', often in pairs of verses in the 'Ars Poetica') with commentary in text order, incipit 'in uatecinio p(ro)thei egida pectorale scutu(m)'. (Folio 14.)

(viii) Virgil, 'Eclogues', 'Georgics', and 'Aeneid': life and for each work introduction and citations with and without commentary in text order, incipit 'Virg(ilius) publi(us) maro dict(us) e(st) a uirga'. (Folio 22.)

(ix) Prudentius: life by Gennadius ('Patrologia Latina', volume lviii, 1068) and citations with and without commentary (from the 'Iso- scholia', 'Patrologia Latina', volumes lix-lx), incipit '[P]rudenti(us) uir se(cu)laris litt(er)are editus (com)posuit kypiuxhvie'. The order of poems is that of the Bb class of manuscripts (from south-west Germany or Switzerland); there are close textual links to Kiel, Univ.bibl. K.B. 145. (Folio 30.)

(x) Thebaldus, 'De primis syllabis', without author or title, incipit 'Ante p(er) exemplu(m)'. See S A Hurlbut in 'Speculum', volume viii, pages 258-263. (Folio 34.)

(xi) Explanations of scientific and Greek grammatical terms, incipit 'Mathematica doctrinal(is) sci(enti)a d(icitu)r' and 'Sineresis e(st) u(bi) lit(er)a`. Printed in 'Zwischen den Zeilen…', pages 42-43 and 44. (Folio 39 verso.)

122 glosses in German (late Old High German or early Middle High German) occur in the text and between the lines; only those on Virgil and Prudentius have parallels in other glossaries. There are also interlinear glosses in Latin.

Series of letters in the margins, as far as folio 26 verso but omitting Horace's 'Odes', are the initial letters of the keywords in the text.

All text, glosses and marginalia so far mentioned are by one hand, with the exception that items (v) and most of (x) (from folio 34 1.16) are by another contemporary hand.

Various headings are by two later hands (one in Juvenal, Lucan and Prudentius, the other in Persius, Sedulius, Horace and Virgil). That this is a transcript, not the original compilation, is deduced from various errors and misunderstandings in the glosses.

There is no decoration. On a piece of paper pasted inside the upper board is written 'f391'; on the inside of the lower board is written in red 'T.N'; the number XLI formerly appeared on the spine.

Dates

Creation: Early 12th century.

Language of Materials

Latin; German, Middle High (circa 1050-1500); German, Old High (circa 750-1050)

Extent

1 Volumes (39 folios.)

Additional Description

Arrangement

Collation: 1-3¹⁰, 4¹⁰ (-4). No signatures. Pricking with a triangular awl in the outer margins, from first recto to last verso of each gathering. Ruling with a hard point. 1 column (except that part of item (x) is written with two verses to a line, part in two columns). 36 lines. Ruled area 157 x 89 millimetres (in (x) 157 x 95 millimetres). Secundo folio: ‘coss⁹ ē q`liby’.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Vellum. Binding of white paper boards covered with rough brown paper.

Custodial History

The manuscript was acquired by the Advocates’ Library before circa 1825.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Presented, 1925, by the Faculty of Advocates to the nation on the foundation of the National Library of Scotland.

Existence and Location of Copies

Microfilms available:

Mf.Sec.MSS.221;

Mf.Sec.MSS.703.

Related Materials

Kiel, Univ.bibl. K.B. 145.

Bibliography

Langbroek, Erika. ‘Zwischen den Zeilen. Untersuchungen zu den lateinischen Kommentaren und den deutschen Glossen der Edinburgher Handschrift Adv. MS. 18.5.10’ (Amsterdam, 1995).

Porphyry`s introduction to Aristotle’s ‘Analytica Priora’ (translated by Boethius, ‘Aristoteles Latinus’, volume iii.1.4, 1962).

Huemer, J, edition of Sedulius in ‘Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum’, x (1885).

‘Patrologia Latina’, volumes lviii-lx.

‘Speculum’, volume viii (1933).
The German glosses are edited by Erika (Tiemensma-)Langbroek in ‘Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik’, volume xi (1976), pages 1-36, volume xix (1983), pages 79-104, volume xxvi (1987), pages 11-16, and volume xxxiii (1991), pages 25-38, and discussed by her in ‘Zwischen den Zeilen…’ (as above).