Section I
[Item 1 occupies quires 1-10]
1. (fols. 1r-77v) Isidore, Questiones in Vetus Testamentum: 'I.n.c.i.p.i.u.n.t. i.z.a.g.e. I.z.i.o.d.o.r.a. [Preface, fol. 1r-v:] Historia sacre legis non sum aliqa prenunciacione futurorum gesta atque conscripta est ... fulgencio ac nostri temporis insigniter eloquenti Gregorio. [Table, fols. 1v-2r:] Premissio operis ab exordio mundi usque expulsionem hominis de paradiso. | De operis sex dierum. | … | De benediccionibus patriarcharum. [Text, fol. 2r:] Creatura celi & terre quomodo historialiter et ab exordio principii condita sit legimus. ...'; Exodus starting on fol. 42v; Leviticus on fol. 56r; Numbers on fol. 61v; Deuteronomy on fol. 70r; Joshua on fol. 74v, ending imperfect in chapter 15 (at '… & possessio ob hoc dici uoluit deus ||') (pr. Migne, PL, LXXXIII, 207-378C; Clavis patrum latinorum, no. 1195); each book preceded by a chapter-list.
Section II
[Item 2 occupies quires 11-13]
2. (fols. 78r-100r) Continuation of the preceding (imperfect) text; (from '|| quia ministra altaris …') to the end, each chapter numbered and with a rubric (Migne, PL, LXXXIII, 378C-410); with Judges starting on fol. 78v; I Samuel on fol. 85v; II Samuel on fol. 95v; I Kings on fol. 97v; ending on line 6 of fol. 100r, the rest of the page, from line 8, is excised; the verso ruled, otherwise blank.
Section III
[Items 3-6 occupy quires 14-18]
3. (fols. 101r-127r) Rhabanus Maurus, Allegoriae in universam sacram scripturam, unfinished: '[Table of words beginning with A:] Angelus .i. | Anima .ii. | Abissus .iii. | ... [Text of words beginning with A:] 'Angelus est christus uel spiritus sanctus. ...'; ending with a list of 115 words beginning with S ('sabbatum' to 'strutio', fol. 126v), and the text for the first six words only, ending after 'scapula'. (Migne, PL, 112, cols. 851-1088, the present manuscript without the prologue, cols. 849-851, and ending at col. 1043B).
4. (fol. 127r) Brief form of confession: 'Gula Confiteor me tandem per gulam offendisse deum. Nam frequenter … Ante acceptam penitenciam vel post. & & & c. c.'.
5. (fol. 127r) Added notes, in French:
(i)
'Les articles de Ire. Si vous vu(lez) [curn??]sastes vostre proeme a
scient on ly deistes ... proeme on ly escharmstes(??)'
(ii) 'Les articles
de actide. Si vul' fuistes negligent de aprender vostre pater noster ou le
Credo ... a garder les dis commandemenz.'
(iii) 'Les articles de
couaitise Mi vul' fuistes coueituse de prechacer nul aver a trop …
fuistes enfans seruise per couaitise'.
6. (fol. 127v) Added medicinal recipes, including one mentioning '…lapidem pro pisce serpent' vel scorpiones …'; 'Medicine pur la feuere. Fernez Ambroyse. ysope. c(er)launge. lauend(r)e. camamille. endiue. ... & vn autre a vespre freyd'; 'pur la feuere char. In nomine patris &c. signa autem eos qui crediderint …'; 'Por la feure potage [...] fonte. Borage. lange de …'; and other recipes in French and Latin, by various hands; followed by 'Ces sunt les maners iours de may. Le sethine clarisima e le casserine(?) e le dessecthine(?)'.
7. (fol. 129r) Inscribed,15th century, with a list of contents, Genesis - Kings, and pen-trials including musical neumes.
Item 1: One eight-line parted initial in red and blue, with red and blue penwork (fol. 1r); one five-line parted initial in red and green (fol. 8v); one similar three-line intial in red and blue (fol. 1v); two-line initials (i) in red with blue and red penwork, (ii) in blue with red penwork, (iii) plain red or blue, (iv) green with red penwork (fols. 68r, 77v); one-line initials alternately green or red (fols. 1v-2r), or alternately blue or red in the chapter-lists.
Item 2: Four- and three-line initials in blue with red penwork at the starts of books (fols. 78v, 85v); similar two-line initials.
Parchment; c. 195 x 140 mm.; section I thick, stiff, and of mediocre quality; section II of better quality; section III thin but mediocre; the upper and gutter margins water-damaged.
ff. 129, foliated in modern pencil: 1-129, except for a few leaves foliated in 19th-century ink (fols. 78, 101, 127).
Quires mostly of eight leaves each: 16 (fols. 1-6), 28 (1st & 7th leaves, fols. 7 & 13, are singletons) (fols. 7-14), 38-1 (4th leaf, fol. 17, a singleton) (fols. 15-21), 48 (4th & 5th leaves, fols. 25 & 26, are singletons) (fols. 22-29), 58 (fols. 30-37), 66 (fols. 38-43), 78 (fols. 44-51), 88 (4th & 5th leaves, fols. 55 & 56, are singletons) (fols. 52-59), 98 (fols. 60-67), 1010 (fols. 68-77) | 11-128 (fols. 78-93), 138-1 (8th leaf cancelled) (fols. 94-100) | 148 (fols. 101-108), 158-1 (1st leaf missing) (fols. 109-115), 166 (fols. 116-121), 178-2 (7th & 8th leaves cancelled) (fols. 122-127) | 182 (fols. 128-129); two series of quire signatures survive in section I: both in upper-case roman numerals in the centre of the bottom margin of the first recto of each quire; catchwords and leaf signatures survive in section II.
Item 1 ruled in drypoint and leadpoint, with 26-28 horizontal lines, the ruled space c. 160 x 100 mm., written in a gothic script; item 2 ruled in brown ink, for 30 lines of text per page, the ruled space c. 150 x 100 mm.; item 3 ruled in brown 'crayon' for approx. 65-80 lines per page, the ruled space c. 165 x 115 mm.; written in a tiny informal bookhand; main initials touched in red.
Secundo folio: 'De membroth' (fol. 2r); 'in .i. regum' (fol. 102r).
15th-century English binding. Sewn on four slit thongs, and bound in wood boards with rounded edges, covered with pink skin (now faded except for the turn-ins), with the remains of a white chemise; remains of two straps at the fore-edge and one of two corresponding pins in the the back board; the front board split vertically (with modern repair); the spine with a paper label inscribed 'P.' above the printed number '25'.
1. Written originally in France; parts I and III differ in layout, script, etc., but are perhaps contemporary; the volume must have lost approximately 3 quires by the 15th century, when the lacuna was supplied in England, and the book rebound.
2. Biblical cross-references supplied frequently as far as fol. 85 by two main 16th/17th-century hands.
3. Queen's College: aquired probably after the compilation of Langbaine's mid-17th-century catalogue (from which it is absent) and before the early 18th-century catalogue in MS. 557 (in which it is present); the turn-in of the front board inscribed with the former shelfmark 'P. 25', crossed through in pencil; the College bookplate inscribed in successively later hands: 'P. 25.', 'CCXXV', and in pencil '225'.
Coxe, Catalogus, pp. 52-3.
