Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 191(277)

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. 12.

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Manuscript title: Collectio Canonum Quesnelliana

Date of origin: Saec. VIII-IX.

Support: Parchment of fair quality; a few leaves have small holes.

Extent: Foll. 237

Format: 317 x 225-230 mm

Foliation: Numbered I-VI, 1-165, 165bis-233, with foll. 81, 203, and 240 cut out.

Collation: Gatherings of eight, with hair-side normally outside; no quire-marks survive.

Page layout: (240 x 150-155 mm) in 28 long lines. Ruling before folding, mostly on the hair-side, a quire at a time, with the direct impression on the inner bifolium. Double bounding lines in both margins. Prickings in the outer margin guided the ruling.

Writing and hands:

Punctuation varies: the semicolon or :· or ,:· marks the main pause, the point surmounted by an oblique marks lesser pauses.
Omissions are indicated by signes de renvoi (fol. 34).
Run-overs carried to the line above are set off by a sinuous line.
Abbreviations, apart from technical terms, include b;., q: = bus, que; ɔ (in a correction) = con; dix̅r̅ = dixerunt; ꜿ = eius; ep̅s, ep̅i, epīsm = episcopus, -i, -um; e̅ = est; f ki = fratres karissimi; n̅ = non; nꞇ̅i, no̅m (fol. 91) = nostri, -um; ꝴ = nus; ꝑ (ꝓ corrected to ꝑ on fol. 101) = per; qꝛ, qd̅ = quia, quod; qn̅m = quoniam; sꞇ̅ = sunt.
Ink brown. Script is mainly an excellent Caroline minuscule: a is the rule,  rare; noteworthy is the form of z with its stem barred horizontally and descending below the line; the Ɛ ligature is used for hard and soft ti.

Decoration:

Colophons in red uncial. Titles on foll. VI and 3 are in stately, somewhat ornate capitals in lines alternately black and red; the title on fol. 3 is preceded by a cross. Chapter-headings in red uncial occasionally interspersed with capitals.
Ornamentation obviously unfinished: horseshoe arches are seen on foll. Vv and 2v, coloured blue, red, violet, green and yellow; the outline of the arch on fol. 2v is filled with interlacing and inside the arch is a stylus-sketch of a priest and over him a figure with outstretched arm; the arch on fol. Vv is adorned with coloured circles.
Initials are mostly bold black capitals; some are neatly drawn and show the fish or bird motif and have a touch of red (foll. 94v, 220v).

Additions: An entry and correction by an Irish hand is seen on fol. 8v; another by a seemingly Anglo-Saxon hand occurs on fol. 37v (see plate) with other slight corrections by this same hand on foll. 10v, 33, and 38. Various hands saec. IX are seen on foll. I-V and 229v ff. Marginal notes saec. XI-XII passim. The list of popes at the beginning of the manuscript cannot be used for dating.

Origin of the manuscript: Written presumably in Northern France in the centre which produced Arras 644 (C.L.A., VI. 713) containing the same collection of canons: the two manuscripts agree in size, colour of decoration and other palaeographical features including the peculiar form of z.

Acquisition of the manuscript: The volume belonged to the Cathedral of Constance by the eleventh century, as is proved by the marginal entries of that time, among them being several in the hand of the well-known writer Bernold of Constance. Belonged to Jacob Johann Mirgel, suffragan bishop of Constance († 1629). Earlier the volume probably belonged to Joannes Fabri, vicar general of Constance and later bishop of Vienna († 1541), many of whose books were acquired by Bishop Mirgel.

Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek

The following descriptions are available for this manuscript