| Description | At the head of f.1 is an inscription in a small, probably 15th-cent. hand, damaged by water: Liber sancte Marie Linc. The same is written, in the usual large, early 13th-cent. textura on a ruled line, on f.1v. In the top outer corner of f.2 is 'A. 16in Garveys hand. Gregory, Registrant I-XIV. Ff.2-216v. Registrum beati Gregorii pape urbis Rome. [Cre]do in unum Deum omnipotentem patrem . . .(PL 77. 1327). Then follow the Letters, in the order of Hartmanns edition, but with the following omissions: II. 1-2, 6-7, 9-10, 29, 32-6, 38; IV. 39; V. 6, 21-2, 29-32, 43; VI. 8; 16 is present but ends irracionabiliter negligentes dum in eius se nituntur (ed. I, p.396 line 2); 18; VII. 16; VIII. 5, 36; IX. 2-10, 13-17, 19-22, 28-40, 43, 46-8, 50-1, 54-7, 59, 61-78, 80-1, 83-5, 88-92, 94-100, 105-6, 111, 113-128, 130-134, 136-7, 140, 143-6, 150-1, 157-163, 165, 168-172, 174, 179, 182, 184-5, 187-194, 198-201, 208-212, 217, 221, 225, 229-231, 233, 236-240; XI. 2 (1, 3-14 are included as part of bk. X), 15, 43; XII. 7; XIII. 1-2, 13, 16-18, 20-1, 49-50. At the conclusion of bk. XIV (f. 206a) ‘Epistolae quae pretermisse sunt de superioribus indictionibus’: V. 6; XI. 2; II. 6, 32, 29, 35; IX. 122, 144, 157, 169, 171. 3-5, 20, 194, 200, 61, 66, 68-9, 83, 85, 89, 91, 98; V. 29-30, 32; ‘Epistola Felicis episcopi Siciliae ad beatum papam Gregorium directa. Domino beatissimo et honorabili . . . ’, running without a break into Gregory’s reply: ‘De dedicationum uero aecclesiarum dubitatione. . . ’(PL 77. 1320-28, two spurious, pseudo-Isidorean pieces); ‘Sententia beati Gregorii pape de lapsu sacerdotum excerpta de decretis canonum. Dilectissimo filio Secundino Tua sanctitas a nobis requisiuit . . . sanguine suo redimere uenit. De ymaginibus. lmagines quas a nobis tibi dirigendas . . . est dignatus redimere Iesus Christus Dominus qui est in secula. Amen’ (spurious, pseudo-Isidorean version of IX. 147; ed. II, pp. 147 line 37 - 149 line 14). Ed. L.Hartmann in MGH Epistolae I-II, not using this MS, which belongs to his class ‘Registrum Hadrianum cum Epistulis Praetermissis’, represented by French (especially Norman) and English MSS from c.1100 onwards. Features not shared by all MSS of this class are: Gregory’s Creed at the beginning; the omission of many letters not supplied in the supplement at the end; the inclusion in the supplement of IX. 194 instead of IX. 39, and the addition of the spurious version of IX. 147. Some of these features are found in other English MSS, e.g. Oxford, All Souls Coll. 18 (s. xii) and London, BL Roy. 6 C. ii (Bury St. Edmunds, s. xii in.). |
| Physical Description | Binding: Standard Lincoln early 20th-cent., reusing old flush, unbevelled wooden boards reversed, the sides covered with white leather. Marks of chain-staple at the top of the back board (corresponding to a mark at the foot of f.1) and remains of central strap. Two marks of strap-pins on the front board. Two paper leaves at each end. Woolley records On inside cover: price xv s.. This has since been covered or replaced by the paper pastedown. Lincoln Cathedral bookplate inside the front cover. Paper labels on the spine: M.S. GREGORII REGISTRUM / 4 / A 1. 16.
Construction: 216 parchment leaves, 380 X 255 (260 x 160) mm., plummet-ruled in 2 cols of 39 lines. Pricked in both margins.
Hands: Written throughout, including rubrics, in the same expert English hand as MS 201, copying col.-for-col. Descriptive titles and arabic numbers for each letter supplied in the margin in the hand of Peter Partrich (for whom see MS 72). ¶
Decoration: (1) F.2 large opening initial and display script excised. (2) Books open with handsome, large arabesque initials in 3 colours of red, blue and green, with frog-spawn, chequer and barber’s pole motifs. (3) Letters open with initials in 1-3 of the same colours. Some have elegant pen-work fans, animals etc. The Q on f.36vb has an excellent pen-work griphon. The decoration strongly resembles contemporary St. Albans work; e. g. Thomson, St Albans I, pp.30-31, II, pls 96-99. |