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Walters Ms. W.12, On Christian rulersBrowse images (Browse images in a new window) | TEI in XML format
Manuscript
On Christian rulers
Text title
Liber de rectoribus Christianis
Author
Authority name: Sedulius, Scotus, fl. 848-860
Known as: Sedulius Scottus
Abstract
Created in the mid twelfth century in Germany, this manuscript contains the much earlier writings of the Irish scholar Sedulius Scotus. Writing in the mid ninth century at St. Lambert in Liège, Scotus famously penned this treatise on the duties and ideals of the Christian king or prince. It is the earliest version of a genre that would become popular in the later medieval and Renaissance periods, often known as "mirrors for princes." This manuscript is the second oldest copy of Scotus' treatise known, the earliest being from the ninth century (Bremen, Stadtbibliothek Ms. C. 36). The text is virtually complete, missing only its first and last folios, and is written in a clear Romanesque Caroline minuscule script. The nine inhabited initials, which include dragons and cranes, as well as the seven decorated initials, have been left unfinished. In its script and decoration the manuscript is similar to a benedictional made in Constance (Folter, et al. Cimelia, p. 144, no. 33).
Origin
Westphalia(?), Germany
Genre
Theological
Philosophical
Language:
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.
Support material
Parchment
Cream-colored, velvety parchment
Extent
Foliation: ii+117+ii
Modern pencil foliation in upper right corners; fol. 117 originally a pastedown; missing text leaves before fols. 1, 47, 95, and 117
Collation
Formula: ii, 1(8,-1), 2-5(8), 6(8,-8), 7-12(8), 13(8,-1), 14-15(6), 16(6,-2,5), ii
Catchwords: None
Signatures: Small letters in bottom margins on versos
Comments: Quires begin on fols. 1(1), 8(2), 16(3), 24(4), 32(5), 40(6), 47(7), 55(8), 63(9), 71(10), 79(11), 87(12), 95(13), 102(14), 108(15), 114(16); fifth leaf of the final quire (now missing) formerly a singleton; text complete from fols. 114-115
Dimensions
10.8 cm wide by 17.1 cm high
Written surface
6.4 cm wide by 10.1 cm high
Layout
Contents:
fols. 1r - 116v:Decoration:
fol. 2r:
fol. 4v:
fol. 9v:
fol. 13v:
fol. 18r:
fol. 23r:
fol. 30r:
fol. 35r:
fol. 36v:
fol. 42v:
fol. 47v:
fol. 54r:
fol. 62r:
fol. 67v:
Binding
The binding is not original.
Modern white leather over boards, Walters Art Museum, 1998; earlier binding preserved and housed separately (images included here) in red and yellow brocade by Gruel after 1906, to replace a leather binding with clasp and a pastedown from a thirteenth-century Gospel (binding no longer extant)
Provenance
Created in Germany, possibly Westphalia, in the mid twelfth century
Gustav Ritter von Emmich sale, Vienna, March 15, 1906, no. I, pl. VIII
Gruel and Engelmann collection no. 609, Paris
Henry Walters, Baltimore, purchased from Gruel before 1931
Acquisition
Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters bequest
Bibliography
Olschki, L. S. "Vendite Pubbliche: Vendita della biblioteca Gustavo R. v. Emich." La Bibliofilia 8 (1906-1907): 229 (fol. 54r).
De Ricci, Seymour. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935, p. 820, no. 384.
Austin, Gerard. "Bibliographie: Liturgical Manuscripts in the United States and Canada." Scriptorium 28 (1974): 99.
Doyle, Edward. The De Rectoribus Christianis and Poems of Sedulius Scottus. Binghamton, N.Y.: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, 1982.
Folter, Roland, et al. Cimelia: A Catalogue of Important Illuminated and Textual Manuscripts Published in Commemoration of the Sale of the Ludwig Collection. New York: H. P. Kraus, 1983, p. 144, no. 33.
Contributors
Principal cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Cataloger: Walters Art Museum curatorial staff and researchers since 1934
Editors: Herbert, Lynley; Noel, William
Copy editor: Bockrath, Diane
Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail
Contributors: Bockrath, Diane; Davis, Lisa Fagin; Dutschke, Consuelo; Emery, Doug; Hamburger, Jeffrey; Noel, William; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.
Publisher
The Walters Art Museum
License
Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.
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