Oxford, Bodleian Libray, Bodley 865 (SC 2737)

Abstract

367. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 865 (SC 2737)

Richard FitzRalph, Writings; "Colloquium hespericum";

Theodulf of Orleans, "Capitula''

[Ker 318, Gneuss/Lapidge 608,608.1]

HISTORY: The present composite manuscript comprises three manuscripts of the 11c through the 15c (Sauer 1978: 38). Hans Sauer (1978: 38-45) dates Part 3, a bilingual version of the Capitula of Theodulf of Orleans (d. 821), to the first half of the llc and suggests a provenance at an unidentified center in the southwest (see also Scragg 2012: items 873-75). Stokes, noting the manuscript's later provenance in Exeter, suggests a possible connection of Part 3 to Crediton (2014: 142). Ker, who dates Part 2 to the first half of the 11c, speculates that Part 3, ff. 89-112, "may be the 'Regula clericorum que sit incipit Obsecro uos' in the Exeter catalogue of 1327" (Cat. 381). Part 3 was bound in the 15c with Part l, a 15c collection of writings by Richard FitzRalph (d. 1360), archbishop of Armagh (1347-1360), which once belonged to Richard Brounst, a 15c vicar choral at Exeter (Cat. 380-1 ). For a list of FitzRalph's writings see Greaney 1905: 242-43; see also Dunne 2013. Exeter was "a diocese with which FitzRalph had had strong personal links" (Walsh 1975: 226). Richard Brounst gave what is now Part 1 of the manuscript to Exeter Cathedral "exactly as [SC] no. 2015" (Summary Catalogue 2.1: 522 [=Bodley 162]). The notice for Bodley 162 identifies Brounst as vicar choral at Exeter in 1417 (Summary Catalogue 2.1: 164). The late 15c notice of the donation at the bottom of f. lr matches that printed in the Summary Catalogue entry for Bodley 162. The present manuscript was presented to the Bodleian Library by the dean and chapter of Exeter Cathedral in 1602.