St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 225
Lowe Elias Avery, Codices Latini Antiquiores. A palaeographical guide to latin manuscripts prior to the ninth century. Part VII: Switzerland, Oxford 1956 (Osnabrück 1982), p. 27.
Manuscript title:
- , Differentiae, Allegoriae; Computus;
- , Instructiones; etc.
Place of origin: St. Gall
Date of origin: saec. VIII ex. (A.D. 760-797)
Extent:
241
Format: ca. 250 x 153-160 mm.
Foliation: Paginated 1-209, 209a, 210-479, with the last folio pasted to the back cover and left unnumbered.
Collation: Gatherings of eight, signed, after two unnumbered quires, in the centre of the lower margin of the last page with Roman numerals (XXIIII ff.) under angular brackets.
Condition: Parchment often defective.
Page layout:
(197-205 x 105-120 mm.)
in 20-30 long lines. Ruling before folding, mostly on the hair-side, 4 bifolia at a time, with the direct impression on the outer bifolium. Double bounding lines in both margins. Prickings in the outer margin guided the ruling.
Writing and hands:
- Multiple hands
- Punctuation sparingly used, the main pause is marked by the medial point or comma or colon or semicolon, lesser pauses by the medial point. Run-overs are set off by a curved line or by an angular bracket.
- Abbreviations include the insular symbols lr, ÷ = autem, est; and the ordinary forms b;, q; = bus, que (and quae); aū and auꞇ̄ = autem; = ber (and bis) ; dr̄ = dicitur ; ee, ē = esse, est; , ꝳ, ꝴ (or with the cross-stroke looped) = men, mus, nus ; = non; i and nr̄i = nostri ; o = omnes; ꝑ (changed from ꝓ on p. 259), , ꝓ, ppꞇ = per, prae, pro, propter; ꝙ, q, quom = qui, quod, quomodo; ꞅɫ, r̄ = rum, runt; seca = secula (cf. assca = assecla); ꞇ̄, ꞇ̓ = ter, tur ; u = uel.
- Spelling shows frequent confusion of e and i, o and u, ci and ti.
- Script is a roundish minuscule of the Alemannic type, by several scribes: the nt ligature occurs often in mid-word.
- The Catechism on pp. 461-473 is by a somewhat later hand; likewise the Passio SS. Felicis et Regulae on pp. 473-478.
Decoration:
- Colophons in uncial often touched up with red. Headings in uncial surrounded by red dots or daubed with red, yellow, blue, or violet, or in lines alternately red and green; some in red mixed uncial and capitals or in black hollow capitals filled with red or yellow.
- Initials are rather simple, some bizarre, using the plait and fish motifs, occasionally the human face (p. 51); in the chronological tables on pp. 117 ff. the columns are flanked by coloured stripes ending in heads of birds, dogs, and snakes, or leaf motif; blank spaces are here and there filled by little drawings, of hands on pp. 129, 132, 134, of a dog on p. 118; colours used are red, green, yellow, blue, and violet. Ink brown or black.
Additions: Numerous corrections by contemporary hands; in large parts of the manuscript chapters were numbered by the St. Gall scribe Winithar who also added some headings (See plate and our No. 893a.) See PDF.