Alexandreis : with gloss : in Latin

Item Information

Title:
Alexandreis : with gloss : in Latin
Description:
The Alexandreis, the life of Alexander the Great in verse, was composed by Walter of Châtillon around the year 1182 at the court of William, Archbishop of Rheims, to whom the poem is dedicated and whose name (GUILLERMUS) is spelled out in acronym by the first initial of each book (on fol. 19 of the present manuscript, Book 3, which should begin with the letter [I], is mistakenly given the initial [Q]). The Alexandreis was a widely-used school-text, a use evidenced in the present volume by the extensive marginal and interlinear glossing.
Author:
Walter, of Châtillon, active 1170-1180
Former owner:
Louis II, Count of Flanders, 1330-1384
Former owner:
Barrois, Joseph, approximately 1785-1855
Former owner:
Eustace, F. H.
Contributor:
Holmes, John, 1800-1854
Former owner:
Ashburnham, Bertram Ashburnham, Earl of, 1797-1878
Former owner:
Cockerell, Sydney Carlyle, Sir, 1867-1962
Auctioneer:
Sotheby's (Firm)
Date:
[ca. 1250]
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Epic poetry, Latin (Medieval and modern)
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--France
Manuscripts, Medieval--France
Gothic scripts
Sprinkled paper bindings
Inscriptions
Autographs
Embossed stamps
Insertions (Provenance)
Dates (Provenance)
Poetry
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Subjects:
Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C.--Romances
Alexander, the Great, 356 B.C.-323 B.C.
Places:
France
Extent:
100 leaves : parchment ; 275 x 185 (190 x 55) mm bound to 289 x 193 mm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/t722md22d
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[France]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
Moris est usitati cum in auribus.../...Gloria Guillermi nullam moritura per eum./ Laus tibi sit christe q[uonia]m liber explicit iste./Explicit iste liber sit scriptor termine liber.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Written in France in the middle of the 13th-century. Blank spaces left for glossing, especially in Book 4 (fol. 31-34, glossing IV:181-212); spaces left unfilled on fol. 34v-42; large section cut out of fol. 35, no text loss. Marginal and interlinear glossing throughout, in several hands dating from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: On fol. 1: "Anno 1558"; inscriptions by F. H. Eustace dated 1806, fol. 1 and 100v; fol. 100v: ex libris of Louis II de Male, Count of Flanders (1330-1384): "A Louis contes/ Omnibus omnia non mea sompnia dicere possum/ nous contes de flandres duc de brabant sire de malines sire de nevers et sire de rethers et sire de malines faisons savoir." Louis ascended to the seats of Flanders, Nevers and Rethel in 1346; claimed Brabant as of 1355 and became Lord of Malines in 1356, adding Artois in 1382. Because this inscription does not mention Artois, it might have been recorded between 1356 and 1382. Owned by Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Barrois (1784-1855), his 1849 sale (no. 96) to Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878). A letter dated 27 December 1852 from John Holmes of the British Museum to Lord Ashburnham is pasted inside the front cover.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Ashburnham sale, Sotheby's London, 10 June 1901, lot 250 (lot number written inside front cover) to Sydney Cockerell for the Boston Public Library (BPL bookplate inside front cover, embossed on fol. 1, Cockerell's notes inside front cover).
Notes (citation):
Ricci, S. de. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada I:921
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: Inspicit et patrias...
Collation: Parchment, fol. i +100 + i ; 1-8¹² 9⁴ ; catchwords in lower margin, final verso of each quire. Foliated in pencil with modern arabic numerals on the upper outer corner of each page (e.g. 1r, 1v, etc.).
Layout: One column, 32 lines. Bounding and writing lines in light plummet.
Script: Written in a gothic bookhand (textualis libraria) in brown ink.
Decoration: Red epigraphic capitals throughout, with 2- to 7-line initials beginning each book's capitula list and 2-line initials for each book incipit.
Binding: 19th-century brown sprinkled paper over paste-board, calf corners and spine, green edges, black leather spine label, gilt "GUALTERIUS/ DE/ INSULIS/ ALEXANDREIS," paper endleaves and pastedowns. Boss burns on fol. 1 and 2 indicate that an older binding was clasped.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: Zoltan Haraszti, "Medieval Manuscripts in The Library," More Books III (1928): 67.
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
06_01_018646
Call #:
RARE BKS MS f Med.23
MS G.31.68 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999090770965