The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

Shelfmark O.3.7
Manuscript Title

Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae with commentary

Alternative Title

Boethius

James Number 1179
Century 10th
Physical Description

In a fine miniscule, written in England. The initials are plain capitals filled in with colour, usually yellow. The metrical portions are written in rustic capitals. There are interlinear and marginal glosses, contemporary, in a very beautiful small hand.

Provenance

Part of the Gale collection, given to T.C.C. by Roger Gale in 1738. H. 20. No. 334. The book is from St Augustine’s, Canterbury. In the Catalogue of that Library (p.66) is the entry: Boecius de cons. phil. cum C. 2 fo. limen

Second Folio limen tristis
Religious House Canterbury, Kent, Benedictine Abbey (St Augustine's)
Donor Gale, Roger (1672-1744), Antiquary
Size (cm) 30.5 x 23.5
Folio 52 ff.
Material Parchment
Language LatinMusicOld English
Collation

18-58 614 (6 and 14 canc.).

IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.3.7/manifest.json
Online Since 03/10/2018

Contents

On the recto of f.1 is a full-page drawing, by an English artist of the time, of a female figure (Philosophy) standing full-face with veiled head, holding in her R. hand an open book (tall and narrow) and in her L. a flower or short floriated sceptre. This drawing is in outline, touched with vermillion.

On f.1b are introductory glosses in paragraphs.
Boetius iste fuit de familia mallii torquati
-gladiis est interemptus.
Iste liber componitur de quinque partibus
-ad summum gradum perueniebat.
Carmen dicitur quod carptim ponatur
-effetae dicuntur.
Felicem dicit fore fortunam
-Malefida · cum male fiditur.
Title in capitals.
f.2 Inc. liber primus Anicii Manilii Seuerini Boetii excons. ord. Patr. De consolatione Philos.
Carmina qui quondam studio florente peregi.
This line is in capitals, filled in with yellow and red. The initial is of Celtic form and has two Dragons' heads.
The 4th meter (f.4) appears to have neumes.
f.9 Liber II. good initial in black, red and yellow
f.17b Liber III.
On f.24b in the lower margin is a diagram of the elements.
f.31 Liber IV. Initial with birds' and dragons' heads
f.43 Liber V.
Ends f.51b: et ideo immutabilis.
Expl. liber Anicii Manili-Seuerini Boetii exconsulis ord. patr. de consol. phil.
Δω ΓΡΑΘΥΑΣ ΑΜΕΝ.
Notes in the smaller hand follow.
Queri autem a nonnullis solet cuius temporibus boetius fuerat.
Notes on the 27 metres employed follow.
The writing on f.52b has been treated with galls.
After the notes on the metres is:
Epitaphium Helpis coniugis Boetii.
Helpes dicta fui siclae regionis alumna.
...
Et socius uite............

I have not detected any but Latin glosses in this book.

Bibliography

Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Trinity College Library: De consolatione philosophiae, Library Blog (2018)

Barker-Benfield, B. C., ed., St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues 13, (London, 2008), 3 vols., p. 69 n. c.

Bolton, D. K., 'Remigian Commentaries on the Consolation of Philosophy and their Sources', Traditio 33 (1977), 381-94.

Bolton, D. K., 'The Study of the Consolation of Philosophy in Anglo-Saxon England', Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age 44 (1977), 33-78.

Cropp, G. M., The Occitan Boecis : the Medieval French Tradition of the Consolatio Philosophiae and Philosophy's Gown, Etudes de Langue et de Littérature Médiévales Offertes à Peter T. Ricketts à l'Occasion de son 70ème Anniversaire, éd. Dominique Billy et Ann Buckley (Turnhout, 2005)

Dale, W., 'Ivory and Miniature: a Matter of Comparison', British Museum Yearbook 1 (1974), 228-35.

Gibson, M. T., and L. Smith, Codices Boethiani: a conspectus of manuscripts of the works of Boethius: 1, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland (London, 1995)

Godden, M and J. Roberts and J.L. Nelson, ed., Alfred the Wise: Studies in Honour of Janet Bately on the Occassion of her Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Cambridge, 1997)

Gneuss, H., Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: a List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Medieval and Renaissance Studies 241 (Tempe, AZ, 2001), no. 193 [s. x2 or x ex., origin St Augustine's Canterbury? provenance after 1100 St Augustine's Canterbury]

Gneuss, H. and Lapidge, M., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Biographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Toronto, 2014), no. 193

Hartzell, K. D., Catalogue of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1200 Containing Music (Woodbridge, 2006), p. 130.

Highet, G., The classical tradition: Greek and Roman influences on Western literature (Oxford, 1949)

James, M. R., The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge, 1903), p. 519.

Ker, N. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 3, 2nd edn (London, 1964)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), no. 95* (p. lxiii)

Keynes, S., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and Other Items of Related Interest in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, Old English Newsletter Subsidia 18 (Binghampton, NY, 1992), no. 11 + pl. XI.

Morgan, N. and Panayatova, S. (eds.) with the assistance of Rebecca Rushforth, Illuminated Manuscripts in Cambridge : A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges. Part 4, The British Isles, 2 vols. (London, 2013), vol 1. no. 15 and cited no. 11

Ohlgren, T. H., ed., Insular and Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Manuscripts: an Iconographic Catalogue c. A.D. 625 to 1100 (New York, 1986), p. 108.

Temple, E., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 2 (London, 1976), no. 20.

Ribeiro, A., Dress and Morality (Oxford, 2003)

Szarmach, P., 'Alfred's Boethius and the Four Cardinal Virtues', Alfred the Wise: studies in honour of Janet Bately on the occasion of her sixty-fifth birthday, ed. J. Roberts, et al. (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 223-35.

Troncarelli, R., 'Una nuova edizione della "Consolatio Philosophiae"di Boezio nel Corpus Christianorum', Scriptorium 41 (1987), 1pp. 33-50.

Wittig, J. S., 'King Alfred's Boethius and its Latin Sources: a Reconsideration', Anglo-Saxon England 11 (1983), pp. 157-98.

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