Produced: England 

Language: Latin

Author: Hrabanus Maurus
Illustrator: 
Scribe: 

Binding: 
Media: Vellum
Script: 

Folios: 102  Height: 33.2 cm   Width: 23.7 cm

Manuscript type: Single-author

Location: Bodleian Library (University of Oxford), Oxford, England, United Kingdom

Family: n/a

The encyclopedia De rerum natura by Hrabanus Maurus.

"[This] manuscript, formerly in the library of the Oxford Franciscans, ... once belonged to Robert Grosseteste, about the time he was Bishop of Lincoln. The margins of this volume abound with notes of various kinds, and in various hands. Some of these are comments on the condition of the text; others indicate variant readings or corrections; yet others are comments on the contents of the manuscript. ... [It] is small, written on thin parchment (102 folios compared with Royal's 283, though it too contains the entire text); ... the Laud copy was ... clearly intended for personal use. Textually this copy differs dramatically from the usual form of the text. Most copies begin with two prefatory letters, one to the Emperor Ludwig the German, the other to Rabanus's friend, Haymo, Bishop of Halberstadt; only the illustrated copies lack these. Book I usually begins with the words `Primum apud Ebreos Dei nomen Eli dicitur.' The Laud copy, however, begins with the words `Adonai est septimum nomen deum', a kind of paraphrase of something that occurs a little later in Book i, chapter i. ... Though the manuscript is not a grand one like the Royal [British Library Royal MS 12 G. xiv] copy, it does have margins the width of an entire column. This feature, and the script, are similar to copies of other texts prepared for Robert Grosseteste's personal use, and the Laud Rabanus clearly fits into this category. The wide margins, moreover, are ruled vertically into columns two narrow ones at the edge of the page and next to the text, and two broad ones, and the book is filled with annotations in several hands. Together these reveal that this copy of the encyclopedia was studied intensely, corrected, annotated, and commented on." -  Schipper

None known