- Theological miscellany (British Library, MS Additional 43460)
British Library, Add. MS 43460 is a theological
miscellany and was produced inItaly in the late8th century . It contains works by St. Augustine, St. Jerome, andCommodianus .Contents
The works by Augustine included in this manuscript are "De vera religione" (folios 1r - 63r), "De utilitate credendi" (folios 63v - 95r), "Soliloquia" (folios 96r - 135v), "De divinatione demonum" (folios 135v - 147v) and "Epistle ad Alypium episcopum Tagastensium" (folios 175v -182r). The first three of these have sections of Augustine's "Retractationes" as prologues. Also included in the manuscript are three letters addressed to St Boniface and attributed to Augustine; "Domino sublimi semperque magnifico" (folio 95r), "Domino merito honorabili" (folio 95v) and "Ego quos diligo" (folio 95v).
Migne labeled these letters spurious in thePatrologia Latina . The works by Jerome included in thismanuscript are a portion of "Liber contra Joannem Hierosolymitanum" (folios 147v - 170r) and "Epistle ad Evangelum Presbyterum deMelchisedech " (folios 170v - 175v). The manuscript also includes the "Carmen Apologeticum" of Commodianus (182r- 197r). This is the only surviving manuscript to contain this work.Codicology
The manuscript has 202
vellum folios (numbered I-V and 1-197) that measure 275 mm. by 180 mm. The folios generally are in gatherings of 8 leaves each. The binding is a modern binding of white pigskin. The script is a pre-Carolingian minuscule from NorthernItaly . There are a few decorated initials. Titles were added in the9th century in a hand from the Abbey of St Silvester atNonantola . Folios I-III arepalimpsests and originally contained the Latin translation made byMutianus Scholasticus of John Chrysostom's homilies on theEpistle to the Hebrews written in a late7th century uncial script.Provenance
By the 9th century, at the latest, this manuscript was at Nonantola. It may have been produced there. It was included in inventories of the manuscripts at Nonantola made in 1331, 1464 and 1490. It was taken from Nonantola, along with 53 other manuscripts, to the Church of
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome by AbbotHilarion Rancati . Sometime between 1798 and 1818 it, along with 34 other manuscripts, disappeared from Santa Croce. It was bought bySir Thomas Phillipps in 1848 from a London bookseller. It was bought from the Phillipps library byAlfred Chester Beatty in 1924. It was sold to Wilfred Merton in 1933, from whom it was acquired by theBritish Library .References
* [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/manuscripts/HITS0001.ASP?VPath=c!/inetpub/wwwroot/mss/data/msscat/html/30940.htm&Search=43460&Highlight=F British Library catalogue entry]
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