Solothurn, Staatsarchiv, R 1.4.225
Manuscript title: The Urbarium of Salerno; a palimpset of the Etymologiae of
Place of origin: southern Italy (Salerno)
Dates of origin:
- 10th century (lower script)
- end of the 12th century (upper script)
Former shelfmark:
Sammlung der Handschriftenfragmenten, Nr. 136
Acquisition of the manuscript:
It is unclear when the urbarium reached Solothurn. Based on the additions datable to the 13th century, the urbarium was still in Salerno at the time. It was displaced from Salerno by the beginning of the 18th century since it is not recorded in the list of manuscripts present in Salerno produced at the time by a local scholar Matteo Pastore.
Bibliography:
- Evina Steinova, ‘Solothurn, Staatsarchiv, R 1.4.225’, Innovating Knowledge Database, at: https://db.innovatingknowledge.nl/#detail/M0363 [accessed 16 August 2023].
- Bibliografia dei manoscritti in scrittura beneventana [https://bmb.unicas.it/]
- Bernhard Bischoff, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts (mit Ausnahme der wisigotischen) III: Padua-Zwickau. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 2014, no. 6000.
- Alessandro Di Muro, Signori e contadini nel Mezzogiorno normanno. Il codice Solothurn (fine sec. XII). Bari: Mario Adda, 2013.
- Virginia Brown, ‘A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (V)’, Mediaeval Studies 70 (2008), 275-355.
- Virginia Brown, ‘Palimpsested texts in Beneventan Script: a handlist with some identifications’, in Early medieval palimpsests, Turnhout, 2007, p. 134.
- Virginia Brown and Francesco Mottola, ‘Per la storia della chiesa medievale di Salerno. Una nuova fonte in scrittura beneventana (sec. XII/XIII)’, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken 73 (1993), 658-663.
- Elias Avery Lowe, The Beneventan Script, 2nd ed. (edited and enlarged by Virginia Brown), vol. 2. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1980, p. 136.
- Virginia Brown, ‘A Second New List of Beneventan Manuscripts (I)’, Mediaeval Studies 40 (1978), 239-289, here p. 272.
Codicological unit:
Upper Script
Manuscript title: Urbarium
Place of origin: the archepiscopal scriptorium of Salerno (Brown/Mottola, Di Muro)
Date of origin: last decades of the 12th century (Brown/Mottola, Di Muro). The urbarium was presumably compiled in the last years of the incumbency of the Salernitan archbishop Romuald II. Guarna (d. 1181) or the first years of the incumbency of his successor, Nicholas of Ajello (1181 – 1221). The note on fol. 1r referencing the year 1232 (Anno Domini MOCCOXXXIJO mense aprili) is a later addition.
Support: Parchment (palimpsest, see below)
Extent:
31 folia corresponding to five quires of the original codex preserved. Given that the existence of at least ten quires can be substantiated based on the modern foliation, the codex must have once had at least 80 folia.
Format: 211 x 146 mm (155 x 105 mm).
Foliation: modern foliation by three hands, two using ink, the other pencil. The pencil foliation includes folia 1-8, 42-46, and 55-72. The older foliation runs to fol. 73 (72).
Collation:
The original codex consisted of regular 8-leaf quires. Based on the pencil foliation, the currently preserved folia represent quires 1 (fols. 1-8, preserved completely), 6 (fols. 42-44, preserved partially), 7 (fols. 45-46, preserved partially), 9 (fols. 55-62, preserved completely), and 10 (fols. 63-70, preserved completely). Based on their content, folia 71-72, currently singletons, belonged to quire 7.
Page layout:
The number of lines varies from 22 (6r) to 23 (45r). Pages are mostly laid out in long lines, but lists of names on fols. 45r-45v and 71r-72v appear in two columns.
Writing and hands: Copied by three principal scribes using Beneventan minuscule of the Cassino type datable to the 12th century. All three scribes use Caroline minuscule for tituli (e.g., fol. 68r).
- Scribe A: fols. 1r-8v;
- Scribe B: fols. 43r-45r, 64r-69r, and 70r-71v;
- Scribe C: fols. 46r-46v, 56r-63v, 72r-72v.
Additions: Two scribes using Gothic script added various notes about the status of various tenements on fols. 1r-6v. Since one of these hands added the dating clause referencing April 1232 on fol. 1r, it can be assumed that these additions reflect an updating of the Salernitan urbarium during the incumbency of the archbishop Caesarius of Alagno (1225 – 1263).
Contents:
- The urbarium documents the land holdings of the church of Salerno and the tenement agreements relevant to these holdings. The preserved folia correspond to the areas in Campania between Salerno and Eboli. The following locations are mentioned:
-
(fols. 1r-8v)
: Licinianum (between today’s Monticelli and Eboli)
He sunt possessiones et tenimenta hominum Licinianum de quibus homines reddere debent Ecclesie tam de demanio suo quam de aliis que tenent nomine Ecclesie (1r) - (fols. 42r-44v) : castrum Olibani (Olevano sul Tusciano)
- (fols. 45r-46v) and (71r-72v): Salerno, Salsanicum (Casale Salsanico, a suburb of Salerno), and Eboli
-
(fols. 55r-62v)
: castrum Olibani and Arianum (Ariano)
De cetero isti homines Olibani qui faciunt angaram et reddunt salutes herbaticum, escaticum quando bestias habent. De plebe Sancti Leonis Ariani (62r) -
(fols. 63r-70v)
: Licinianum and Eboli
- Isti sunt homines Liciniani qui sunt de servicium (63r)
- Isti sunt homines Liciniani qui debent metere ordeum frumentum duabus septimanis cum tempus advenerit (67r)
- Isti sunt homines Liciniani qui debent metere frumentum per unam epdomadam. Similiter debent ire ad molam. Similiter etiam debent ire ad aptandum arcaturam (68r)
- Isti sunt homines Eboli quos tenent salernitane ecclesie (69r)
- Isti sunt homines extranei de ecclesie Sancti Mathei et manent aput Ebolum (70r)
-
(fols. 1r-8v)
: Licinianum (between today’s Monticelli and Eboli)
Codicological unit:
Lower Script
Manuscript title: , Etymologiae
Place of origin: southern Italy
Date of origin: 10th century (Brown/Mottola)
Support: Parchment
Extent:
28 of the 31 surviving leaves of the urbarium bear palimpsested text (fols. 63, 70, and 71 do not appear to be palimpsests). The twelfth-century urbarium was produced by rotating and folding the larger leaves of the larger palimpsested codex so that one leaf of this codex served as a bifolium of the urbarium. In this manner, 13 complete leaves (fols. 1-8, 43-44, 45-46, 55-62, and 64-69) and 2 half-leaves (fols. 42 and 72) of the tenth-century codex are preserved.
Format: The current size of a bifolium of the urbarium is 290 x 210 mm. The original page size can be reconstructed as 310 x 230-235 mm.
Foliation: modern foliation by three hands, two using ink, the other pencil. The pencil foliation includes folia 1-8, 42-46, and 55-72. The older foliation runs to fol. 73 (72).
Condition: The script was erased vigorously before reuse.
Page layout:
The writing window of the palimpsested codex can be reconstructed to have measured approximately 245 x 190 mm and amounted to 32 long lines.
Writing and hands: Beneventan minuscule by two scribes (Brown/Mottola).
Decoration: Large initials mark the beginnings of books II (R, 8r) and XVIII (P, 57r). Smaller initials appear at the beginning of some of the chapters (46v, 59v).
Contents:
-
(1r-8v)
Etymologiae, books I-II
- (4r) Item inter historiam …–… perfecta (Etym. I 44.5 – II 2.2)
- (6r) mortale risibile …–… substantia (Etym. II 25.8 – 26.11)
- (7v) primo genere …–… homo est (Etym. II 25.2 – 25.8)
-
(42r-42v)
Etymologiae, book VII
- (42v) Dei nomen efficiunt (Etym. VII 1.16)
- (43-46v) : unidentified
- (55r-55v, 62r-62v) Etymologiae, book XI Fabio Gasti, Etimologie. Libro XI, L’Uomo e i portenti. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2010.
-
(56r-56v,
61r-61v)
Etymologiae, book IX
- (56v) unxiores …–… coniugalia iura (Etym. IX 7.11-16)
- (61r) Sponsus …–… adhuc (Etym. IX 7.3-11)
- (61v) Fratris uxor …–… inutilia (Etym. IX 7.17-26)
-
(57r-57v,
60r-60v)
Etymologiae, book XVII-XVIII
- (57r) lium. Ruta … (Etym. XVII 11.8 – XVIII 1.1)
- (60r) caulis diceretur …–… Lactuca (Etym. XVII 10.3-11)
- (60v) Capparis …–… traditum est. Abrotanum (Etym. XVII 10.20 – 11.7)
- (58r-59v) Etymologiae, book XVIII J. Cantó Llorca, Etimologías. Libro XVIII, De bello et ludis. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2007.
-
(64r-65v,
68r-69v)
Etymologiae, book XI
- (64v) Gignivae …–… cervices (Etym. XI 1.54-61)
- (65r) movere …–… illi namque has (Etym. XI 1.65-72)
- (68v) corporis …–… commutator (Etym. XI 1.72-77)
- (69r) Prius Ort … (Etym. XI 1.61-64)
- (66r-67v) : unidentified
- (72r-72v) : unidentified
-
(1r-8v)
Etymologiae, books I-II