Présentation du contenu

Source des données : Mmmonk

• Despite having only 99 leaves, this composite manuscript contains no less than twenty different texts. In general, they can be distinguished in four categories: texts on Greek and Hebrew names and interpretations on books of the Bible; Commentaries on books of the Bible; classical philosophers; and fragments, excerpts and collection from Bible passages. To the first category we can assign the first four texts: (ff. 1r-3v) Capitula totius uoluminis. Interpretationes hebraicorum nominum, the table of contents for the full codex; (ff. 4r-13v) Saint Jerome's Liber interpretationes hebraicorum nominum; (ff. 13v-15v) Aliae interpretationes in prefationibus quorundam librorum catholicorum; and (ff. 15v-51v) Interpretationes vocum graecarum per alphabetum. These are followed by two commentaries: (ff. 52r-68v) Lamentationes Iheremie prophetae; and (ff. 68v-73r) Epithalamium canticum amoris. Of the first commentary, the majority is ascribed to Gilbert of Auxerre. The first page might very likely be the only copy of a further unknown commentary. The second category contains several texts by or (incorrectly) attributed to the Roman philosophers Seneca (d. 65) and Cicero (d. 43 BC): (ff. 73r-73v, f. 97r) De clementia ad Neronem; (ff. 73v-74v) De remediis Fortuitorum; (f. 74v and ff. 89r-97r) fragments from the Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, the De beneficiis, and other parts of De clementia ad Neronem; (ff. 97r-98r) De quattuor virtutibus (ff. 74v-75r) Sententiae Publilii Syri; (ff. 75r-75v) De nugis philosophorum, erroneously ascribed to (the possibly fictitious) Caecilius Balbus; (ff. 75v-76r) De moribus; and (ff. 76r-81v) De proprietatibus terminorum. The final category includes fragments and excerpts from Christian theologians: (ff. 81v-84r) short fragments of sermons, erroneously attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux; (ff. 84r-89r) Annotationes in Psalmos by Hugh of Saint-Victor (d. 1141), possibly an apocryphal work; (ff. 98r-98v) Synonyma sive Liber lamentationum by Isidore of Sevilla (d. 636); (ff. 98v-99v) De conflictu viciorum atque virtutum, ascribed to Isidore but currently considered a work by Ambrosius Autpertus (d. 784); and finally (ff. 99v) fragments of texts by Heiric of Auxerre (d. 876) and William de Montibus (d. 1213). The manuscript has been written as a single unit, with corresponding layout and decoration. The text is copied in two columns, initials have been added in red, blue and green ink. Those at the beginning of a new text have been executed more elaborately, as is the case with ff. 4r, 13v, 43v, 52r, 68v, 73r and 76r. The capitula on the first leaves have alternate initials in the same three colours, with Roman chapter numbering added in red. This manuscript is unique in its background: it is the sole manuscript kept at the Public Library Bruges whose ownership can be traced to a member of medieval nobility. It had been in the possession of Theobald II of Bar (d. 1291). How the codex found its way to Ter Doest is unknown; it is known that Theobald was involved in Flemish politics as brother-in-law to counts William and Guy of Dampierre. [Summary by Dr. Mark Vermeer]