Rouen, Bibliotheque Municipale I.49 (olim 524) Isidore, "De ecclesiasticis Officiis;' etc., OE Orosius (added extract), Bede, "De temporum ratione;' "Chronicon''
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443. Rouen, Bibliotheque Municipale 1.49 (olim 524)
Isidore, "De ecclesiasticis Officiis;' etc.,
OE Orosius (added extract), Bede,
"De temporum ratione;' "Chronicon''
[Ker 375; Gneuss B]
HISTORY: A consistently prepared and regular manuscript written in a continental caroline minuscule of the second half of the 9c. The scribe was almost certainly Hardwinus of St-Wandrille (Nortier 1971: 7), whose obit is recorded on f. 76r (item 6c below). There is no evidence that this manuscript was ever in England. As indicated by the inscriptions added in the top margin of f. 1r 'De l'abbaye de fécamp. N°. 36: and 'Monasteri Foscanensis', it belonged to the abbey of Fécamp, and its presence in Normandy from early times is confirmed by the early addition '<N<ATALE> TAURINI EP<ISCOP>I' (bishop of Evreux, 412) to the calendar at 11 August (f. 79v/12). Probably it went to Fécamp soon after it was re-founded under the Benedictines at the beginning of the 11c. Annotations more or less contemporary with the writing of the manuscript appear on ff. 29v-30r. Bede's De Temporum Ratione (ff. 96r-17lr) is glossed above the line sporadically, with commentary in the margins sometimes, as on f. 120r. Some doodles (?12c) appear on f. 95v, as well as a brief 12c extract from the OE Orosius (item 11 below). Some 19c annotations in French occur on f. 47v.
At the time of the French Revolution the collection of books in the region (including Fécamp) was organized and taken to St-Ouen in Rouen, which became the Bibliotheque Municipale in 1809. The manuscript is in poor condition, having almost certainly been exposed to damp over a longish period, probably in the 18c. Many leaves are brittle or are stiff with creases that do not press flat under light finger pressure, and some leaves, such as ff. 139v-141 r, are only partially readable. Damage at the bottom hinge area of many leaves results in loss of text, and especially at the end of the manuscript similar damage affects the outer corners. Binding of brown calf on thick cardboard of 19c. Previous description by Henri Omont in Catalogue 1849-1918: n.s. 1 (1886): 116-17.