LETTERS OF ST. BERNARD AND OTHER TEXTS

Sion L40.2/L13

LETTERS OF ST. BERNARD AND OTHER TEXTS

c.1250-c.1300

Letters of St Bernard (c.1090-1153), Abbot of Clairvaux, and other texts, written in England in a single hand. ff. 3r-5v. [St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Treatise on the errors of Peter Abelard]. 'Incipiunt capitula heresum petri Abaelardi horrenda similitude de sigillo ereo de specie et genere ad trinitatem. Primum capitulum. Petrus. Cum sapiencia dei quedam sit potencia ... ex se habet posse. Hec sunt capitula Teologie. immo stultilogie petri abaelardi' . Fourteen chapters. Printed in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina clxxxii, cols. 1049-54. ff. 5v-111v. [St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Letters]. 'Incipit liber epistolarum uenerabilis Bernardi abbatis de claraualle. Prima epistola ad [...] papam contra suprascriptas hereses Petri abaelardi missa. Amantissimo ... Explicit liber epistolarum beati bernardi abbatis'. Nearly the same collection and nearly in the same order as British Library, MS. Royal 14 C. iv, art. 6: ed. J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina clxxxii, Epp. 190, 77, 78, 254, 11 (but the scribe missed out most of his text in error or following his exemplar on f. 25v, col. 2), 115, 87, De precepto et dispensatione (ff. 30-47v: Migne, Patrologia Latina clxxxii. 859-94), 319, 42, 126, 124, Parabola I (Migne, Patrologia Latina clxxxiii. 757), 188, 338, 337, 189, 194, 12, 1, 174, 144, 145, 164, 168, 213, 179, 109, 110, 146, 48, 53, 198, 197, 207, 212, 108, 211, 205, 350, 206, 201, 208, 214, 209, 210, 217, 199, 228, 202, 203, 215, 187, 231, 219, 2l8, 195, 204, 230, 367, 232, 220, 401, 227, 221, 18, 64, 411, 200, 358, 316, 355, 216, 95, 96, 313, 94, 346, 347, 235, 238 (abridged), 239, 236, 353, 360, 320, 321, 363. The eighty-eight items are numbered 1-89 in a later medieval hand, the letter in front of De precepto et dispensatione being given a number of its own. f. 112r. A note that after the death of Pope Innocent II (1143) there were four popes within two years, followed by some lines on the virtue of silence: '... Set ego graculus cotidie uana et risui apta contra regulam loquendo; cur beatum augustinum audire nolo. Nolite inquit loqui plusquam oportet; uel eciam cum non decet. Cristo teste dei filio. Reddituri sumus racionem de omni uerbo ocioso. Miror valde et me fateor omnino nescire; qualiter quis potest racionem reddere de uerbo quod caret racione ... Etenim ut michi uidetur quid sit uerbum ociosum a paucis intelligitur ... Ergo frater G. tene silencium ...'. f. 112v blank. ff. 113r-128v. 'Salutaciones gloriose uirginis cum memoria dominice passionis. Aue maria gracia plena prophetis predicta. signis premonstrata. Annunciata angelo ... uoluptatis paradise collocauit. Dulcissimus dominus noster iesus cristus ... per omnia secula seculorum amen. Expliciunt hee meditaciones'. The first paragraph is followed by thirty-one salutations - the first beginning 'Aue piissima dei genitrix' - each followed by a meditation on the passion, the first headed 'Ad implecione(m) promissionis' and beginning 'Meditare quam fidelis dominus in omnibus'. ff. 129r-135v. 'Euigila miser homo exer(c)e spiritum tuum ... cuius laudis participes nos faciat, qui cum patre et filio...'. Printed as Meditatio 1 in the Liber meditationum et orationum of St. Anselm (J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina clviii, cols. 709-820), but N. R. Ker states that Anselm is not the author. Tables of contents are on ff. iv recto and 1v-2r, 14th century. The former is in the hand of John Grandison, Bishop of Exeter 1327-69, whose notes occur occasionally in the margins throughout. On f. 105r Grandison noted of Ep. 346, 'Istam epistolam scripsit contra sanctum Willelmum; postea Ebor' archiepiscopum. De qua postea penituit' and on f. 129r he wrote that ff. 129-135 is a meditation 'suauissima et deuotissima' of St. Anselm.

A digital copy is available via the online image management system: http://images.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/luna/servlet/s/ibutw2 Microfilm: Lambeth Palace Library Box 675

Latin

iv, 138 ff.

Open

Written in England. Belonged probably to John Grandison (see Description field): a title in his hand on f. 3r, 'Epistole Bernardi', is preceded by a thorough erasure. 'Iste liber constat dompno Willelmo de Elysford 'id est Rowe'. Si quis alienauerit malediccionem dei incurrat nisi de [...] concensu suo' (f. 2v, 14th century). A partly illegible memorandum naming William de Elysford is on f. 136r. 'Robertus de hauesleye est malus scolaris' (f. 137v). 'Ex dono Joh. Abbot' (f. iv, early 17th century), as in Sion L40.2/L14. According to the Sion College Benefactors' Register, John Bradshaw, Rector of St. George's, Botolph Lane, London, gave Sion L40.2/L13-15 in 1664 (Sion L40.2/E64, p. 85). 'Y. 18' (f. iii verso) is the pre-Great Fire shelf mark. Recorded by John Spencer with this shelfmark in Sion L40.2/E169. Recorded at Sion College in Edward Bernard, 'Catalogi Manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae' (Oxford, 1697), vol 2, no. 4075. Transferred from Sion College to Lambeth Palace Library, 1996.

Leather binding 248 x 172 mm., early 19th cent (as in Sion L40.2/L4, 14-15), with table of contents (f. i recto) in the hand of Robert Watts, Assistant Librarian at Sion College from 1785 and Librarian 1799-1842. Vellum leaves (except i-ii, 138, flyleaves added in the present binding). Foliated i-iv, 1-138. ff. iii, iv, 1,2, 137 are medieval end leaves. A medieval foliation begins with '1' at f. 3. 240 x 155 mm. Written space 170 x 110 mm. 2 cols. 34 lines. Collation of ff. 3-136: 1-13(8); 14(6); 15-17(8). Initials: (i) red and blue with ornament of both colours; (ii) 2-line, red or blue, plain or with ornament of the other colour. Capital letters in the ink of the text touched with red. Secundo folio 'caritas quod'.