Guide To Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library
PETER THE CHANTER, VERBUM ABBREVIATUMff. 1-98v: Verbum abbreviatum fecit dominus super terram. Si enim verbum de sinu patris nobis missum, immo si filius dei incircumscriptibilis…[chapter 2:] Gregorius autem brevitatem lectionis commendans…[chapter 3:] De brevitate et commoditate questionum, Post hec de brevitate questionum vel disputationis agendum est…[chapter 153, De proprietate monachorum,…:] quia non nisi coacti per obedientiam ad eas claustrales accedebant. Modo autem sunt vendicie et empticie. [f. 98:] Incipiunt tytuli capitulorum, [first entry added in a cursive hand:] de brevitate lectionis; De brevitate et commoditate, ii; De temeritate questionum questionum et temerariis disputationibus, iii…[with incorrect chapter numbers up to 46]…De pena eterna semper habenda in memoria, cli; De gaudio et premiis beatitudinis eterne, clii; Contra proprietatem monachorum, cliii.
Northern France, s. XIIIin
Peter the Chanter, Verbum abbreviatum; PL 205:23-370, the short version with marginalia. See J. W. Baldwin, Masters, Princes and Merchants: The Social Views of Peter the Chanter & His Circle (Princeton 1970) 2:246-65 for a discussion of the versions of the text and of the surviving manuscripts. HM 41537 is the manuscript from Cambron (termed C) used by the editor of the Verbum abbreviatum, the Belgian Benedictine Georges Galopin, for his edition published at Mons in 16391 and reprinted by Migne. Chapter numbers in the outer margin, but not entered in the text by the rubricator. The text has been corrected throughout. Carefully made marginal finding notes in the hand of the scribe: references to the psalms, names of authors cited, virtues and vices treated and major topic headings. Frequent additions in the margins in the hand of the scribe. Occasional distinctiones in schematic form; on f. 1, lower margin, a distinctio of 14 parts in schematic form, headed “Insolubilia cantoris. De reconciliando cum fratre quem offendisti…De omissione mandatorum dei generaliter.” On f. 98v, lower margin, in a contemporary hand, “Summa magistri petri cantoris parisiensis de questionibus matutina lib. 5o incipit: Tota celestis philosophia in bonis moribus et fide consistit, distincta per c. <erasure> 1113 capitula, primum quid sit penitencia et quid penitere. Ultimum vero utrum ligna et lapides ecclesie consecrate possint adsumi ad officinas fratrum,” referring to the Summa of Robert of Courson2; see Baldwin 1:23-25 and 2:14. Parchment, ff. iii (modern parchment) + 98 + iii (modern parchment); 259 × 190 (178 × 115) mm. 1-118 1210. 2 columns of 42 lines, ruled with lead point; double bounding lines, the top, middle and bottom three horizontal lines full across; pricking in outer margins. Written in a well-formed early gothic book hand, with the top line in chancery style. Opening initial, 6-line, parted red and blue with red and brown floral filigree; chapter initials alternating in red and blue, occasionally with conservative pen scroll work; initials in green ink, ff. 41v, 43v, 45v (Salum corrected to Malum), 46v. Notes to the rubricator occasionally found in the margins. Bound in brown morocco with blind stamps of the Evangelists and of “Salvator” by Zaehnsdorf; gilt edges; in a cloth case. Written in the opening decades of the thirteenth century (with letter unions, but still written above the top line), possibly at the Cistercian abbey of St. Mary at Cambron. The volume belonged to St. Mary’s and bears the thirteenth century ex libris of the abbey: “Liber beate Marie de Camberone” on f. 1; “de Camberone” is entered in the lower recto margin every few leaves throughout the volume; on f. 98v, s. XV, “de camberone beate marie, Ihesus Maria” in red. This manuscript is possibly to be identified with item 61 in the 1782 catalogue of the Cambron library, “Liber magnus Petri Cantoris qui dicitur Verbum abbreviatum, item Casus penitentiales editi a fratre Remondo,” ed. R. Plancke, Les catalogues des manuscrits de l’ancienne abbaye de Cambron, Société des Bibliophiles Belges, Mons, 40 (1938) 41, 44. It has been suggested that Chicago, Art Institute MS 20.214, a Raymond manuscript, was the second part mentioned in the 1782 catalogue; however, Plancke does not accept it as a Cambron manuscript, and its size as given by De Ricci, 18 × 13 cm., and its binding, “original wooden boards,” would imply that it was not part of HM 41537. The Huntington manuscript itself shows no evidence of ever having been joined to another text. In ink, on the front pastedown, “M 73.” Sold at Sotheby’s, 16 July 1928, lot 213, “Property of a Nobleman.” N. 44 in the library of C. H. St. John Hornby (1867-1946), whose bookplate (Shelley House, Chelsea) is on the front pastedown. Acquired from him by Major J. R. Abbey, whose initials, “J.A.,” manuscript number “3215,” and date of acquisition “15-9-1946” are carefully entered in ink on a back flyleaf; his sale, Sotheby’s, 25 March 1975, lot 2952 to the Huntington Library.
Secundo folio: (pam-)pinosa sedBibliography: Chronica, 8.
1 We thank Prof. John Benton for this identification, which was kindly confirmed by Prof. John Baldwin.
2 We are indebted to Prof. John Baldwin for this identification.
C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Copyright 1989.
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California.
Electronic version encoded by Sharon K, Goetz, 2003.
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