St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 194
Lowe Elias Avery, Codices Latini Antiquiores. A palaeographical guide to latin manuscripts prior to the ninth century. Part VII: Switzerland, Oxford 1956 (Osnabrück 1982), p. 24.
Manuscript title: Sammelhandschrift; Palimpsest
Extent:
II + 233 + 4 pp.
Format: ca. 180 x 120 mm; 240 x ca. 180 mm; ca. 177 x 120 mm
Codicological unit:
917. upper script
Manuscript title:
- , Homiliae
- , Soliloquia; etc.
Place of origin: Written presumably in some Swiss centre, most likely St. Gall.
Date of origin: Saec. VIII med.
Support: Parchment
Extent:
Foll. 116
Format: ca. 180 x 120 mm.
Foliation: Paginated 1-29, 31-233;
Collation: Gatherings of eight, with hair-side outside, signed with Roman numerals between two dots in the lower inside corner on the first and/or last page of the quire.
Page layout:
(145-150 x 100-105 mm.) in 18-25 long lines. Ruling before folding, normally on hair-side, 4 bifolia at a time, with the direct impression on the centre bifolium. Single bounding lines enclose the text. Prickings in the outer margin guided the ruling.
Writing and hands:
- Punctuation: the main pause is marked by the semicolon or an angular virgula, lesser pauses by the medial point; other points added. Omissions are marked by signes de renvoi.
- Abbreviations include b:‧ and b; = bus; ꝙ (and q:) = que; a̅u̅ = autem; ē = est; fr̄s (and f̅f̅) = fratres; m, mʼ (also ꝳ) = men, mus; n = non; n̅i̅ = nostri; o̅ = omnes (and omnis); ꝑ, p, ꝓ = per, prae, pro; q:, qiđ, qđ (and qođ), qnm = quae, quid, quod, quoniam; ꞇ̄, ꞇ̑ = ter, tur; the m-stroke is a vertical flourish.
- Spelling shows confusion of b and u, d for t, g for c, o and u, ci for ti, and wrong use of h. Crude initials, using red and green, show the rope or wreath motif; hollow capitals at the beginning of sentences, some coloured red, green, or blue. Ink dark brown or black.
- Script, mostly by one hand, is an irregular, somewhat cursive pre-Caroline minuscule, with strokes often failing to join, especially in a and c: e is tall; the lower bow of g is open and ends in a downward curve; the shaft of h leans to the left and is slightly curved; i-longa occurs initially; the ligature Ɛȷ is normally used for hard ti.
Decoration: Colophons in script of the text in black. Headings in clumsy black hollow capitals partly filled with red, yellow, and green, or in uncial daubed with blue, or in the script of the text.
Contents:
Palimpsest, upper script (pp. 1-221 of the lower script seem to belong to a single manuscript containing Libri Salomonis and, presumably as a contemporary addition, a Laterculus notarum in half-uncial saec. VII-VIII, see No. 918; for the lower script of pp. 222-233 containing parts of a Sacramentary in uncial saec. viii1 see below, No. 919).
Manuscript title:
- Libri Salomonis
- Laterculus Notarum (fragm.)
Place of origin: Written probably in Spain or Southern France.
Date of origin: Saec. VII-VIII
Support: Parchment is coarse.
Extent:
Foll. 55, each now folded in two and forming four pages, the present pages being numbered 1-29, 31-221;
Format: the original leaves are cut down to ca. 240 x ca. 180 mm.
Page layout:
(ca. 225 x ca. 160 mm.) in 28-31 long lines, the Laterculus notarum on pp. 132-135 , 140-143 in two columns of more than 30 lines. Ruling seems directly on flesh-side. Prickings run through the centre of the written space.
Writing and hands:
- Hardly any abbreviations decipherable except qˢ = que (p. 140), and srħel = israel (p. 148). Spelling: dehosculabitur.
- Script is a not very calligraphic half-uncial of a late type with tall ascenders now club-shaped, now ending in wedges, and recalling Vatic. MS. Regin. Lat. 1024 (C.L.A., 1. III): uncial G seems the rule; Ꝺ and S occur only here and there; i-longa used initially; the foot of r often curves to the right; the top of ꞇ bends down to the left; the oꝛ ligature occurs. The Laterculus notarum (pp. 143 /132, 134 /141, 135 /140 with pp. 142 /133 apparently blank) may be by the same hand.
Decoration: Colophons in the script of text in red. A title on p. 143 apparently in red capitals. First words of a section are written in red (p. 119).
Contents:
Origin of the manuscript:
Written probably in Spain or Southern France, to judge by the Visigothic form of the abbreviation of israel and the striking resemblance in script to and practical agreement in size with Vatic. MS. Regin. Lat. 1024. The leaves were re-used for writing homilies presumably in some Swiss centre, most likely St. Gall.
Manuscript title: Sacramentarium (fragm.)
Date of origin: Saec. VIII/1
Support: Parchment coarse and thick.
Extent:
Six folios or 3 bifolia.
Format: cut down to ca. 177 x 120 mm.
Foliation: Paginated 222-233;
Page layout:
(145-160 x at least 105 mm.) in at least 18 or 19 lines. The method of ruling cannot be determined.
Writing and hands:
- Punctuation: the medial point marks various pauses. Abbreviations apparently confined to recurrent terms (OოPS, SЄოPT, etc. = omnipotens, sempiternus, etc.) and the normal forms of Nomina Sacra.
- Script is irregular and debased uncial: the bow of A rises above the base-line; Ɋ is open at the top; the last stroke of R here and there resembles a bent knee, as in the Bobbio Missal (C.L.A., V. 653).
Decoration: Rubrics in red uncial.
Contents:
Origin of the manuscript:
Origin uncertain. The parchment was re-used in the eighth century for writing sermons, apparently, to judge by the script, in some Swiss centre, most likely St. Gall.