Manuscripts
Sermons : [manuscript]/ by Geoffroy Babion and others
1 of 4
- Description
- f. ii; f. ii verso blank. [Gregory I]. [Letter from Gregory I to Empress Constantina Augusta of Byzamntium concerning apostolic relics]. Incipit: Serenitas vestre pietatis religionis studio et sanctitatis amore perspicua. Explicit: multa miracula in populo demonstrantur partem//. Rubric: Gregorius Constantine Auguste. Latin. Other creator(s): Constantina Augusta, Empress of Byzantium, addressee. S. Gregorii Magni: Registrum epistularum libri I-VII, edited by Dag Norberg, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, 140a (Turnhout, 1982), IV.30 at pp. 248-250, the manuscript ending 8 lines from the end in the printed edition. Status of text: Ending unfinished. ff. 1v-2v. Latin. Table of contents, not including the Hildebert items, with a list of 76 sermons numbered in roman numerals, each with an interlinear superscript rubric ("ad populum","ad monachas","ad eos qui sub regula vivunt","in dedicatione basilice", etc.); these rubrics sometimes appear as part of the rubrics in the main text. ff. 3-210. [Geoffroy Babion]. [Sermons]. Latin. Other creator(s): Ivo of Chartres, attributed to; Augustine, attributed to. ff. 210-220v. [Hildebert of Lavardin]. [Sermons]. Latin. After two sermons by Hildebert, a letter: on f. 218, Epistola episcopi cenomannorum .i. ad quandam reclusam. Humilis cenomannorum episcopus .I. A.[delae] sue domine atque dilecte ... ending imperfectly near the end, at"... Eius astutia factum est; ut de prima muliere //" (PL 171:149-153).
- Date
- [between 1125 and 1150]
- Call number
- mssHM 58202
- Provenance
- Purchased in part by the Library Collectors' Council from Maggs Bros. Ltd., January 1999. Written in England, perhaps East Anglia, possibly at or for the Augustinian Priory of St. Osyth, about 5 miles southeast of Colchester, Essex, as suggested by Sotheby's (1989) and accepted by Jeremy Griffiths, "Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection Copied or Owned in the British Isles before 1700," English Manuscript Studies, 5 (London, 1995), 42, although there is no firm evidence for this origin, and it is not accepted by Ker and Watson, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, and Supplement; other Helmingham manuscripts came from as far afield as Worcester. Inscribed, s. XVI, with a title, "St Aust Sermons"; price "1l 7s" (f. i verso; possibly by the same hand that wrote "1l 8s" in HM 28174, f. i verso); and with a name(?) "Batho" (f. 1v, cf. iii verso; the "Johannes Bathon'" whose name appears in Hereford Cathedral, MS P.v.5, from Dore (MLGB, 251), was apparently its s. XIII scribe). The Tollemache family, of Helmingham Hall, Suffolk (about 25 miles north of St. Osyth), certainly by 1762, when included in an inventory (A. S. G. Edwards and Jeremy Griffiths, "The Tollemache Collection of Medieval Manuscripts", The Book Collector, 49 (2000), 349-64, at 364), probably collected by Sir Lionel Tollemache (d. 1612), 1st baronet (see Nicolas Barker, Two East Anglian Picture Books (Roxburghe Club, London, 1988), 54), along with numerous other manuscripts from nearby religious foundations, including some from St. Osyth; not described in First Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (London, 1870), 61, which mentions in passing that "six or seven volumes of the Fathers are of the 11th and 12th centuries"); with the usual Helmingham Hall oblong octagonal paper book-label inscribed "L.J.I.5." the last two characters effaced and "VI" added in pencil (cf. HM 28174; the two volumes were probably re-shelved next to one another); the inner face of the front board inscribed in pencil "5" encircled (cf. spine label); sold at the Tollemache sale at Sotheby's, 14 June 1965, lot 1; bought by Maggs for £1,300 for Abbey. Major John Roland Abbey (1894-1969), brewer and book-collector (on whom see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), with his printed book-label "J R Abbey" and accession-note in blue ink "J.A. 7341 / 14.6.1965" (f. 221); sold at Sotheby's, 19 June 1989, lot 3008; bought by Quaritch for £22,000 (including buyer's premium), for Schøyen (kindly confirmed by Richard Linenthal). Martin Schøyen (b. 1940), businessman and manuscript-collector, with the printed book-label (f. i) of "THE SCHØYEN COLLECTION", Oslo and London, inscribed "MS 257" (cf. spine label); sold at Sotheby's, 1 December, 1998, lot 82; bought by Maggs for £38,000 (hammer price), on behalf of the Huntington.
- Restrictions
- RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time.
- Dimensions
- 165 x 285 mm
- Associated people
- Hildebert, (1056?-1133.)
- Gregory (approximately 540-604.)
- Constantina, (approximately 560 - approximately 605.)
- Associated organization
- Henry E. Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
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