Marston MS 112     Southern Italy, s. XII 1
Honorius Augustodunensis, Elucidarium, etc.

1. ff. 1r-68v [Upper margin damaged; prologue begins in third line of text
space:]  Sepius rogatus a condispulis [sic] quosdam [?] questiunculas
enodare...[text, f. 1v:]  Gloriose magister rogo ut ad inquisita mihi [?] ne 
pigriteris respondere...et uideas bona hierusalem omnibus diebus.  uite tue.  
M.  Amen.

Honorius Augustodunensis, Elucidarium; Y. Lefevre, ed.,
L'Elucidarium et les Lucidaires, Bibliotheque des Ecoles Francaises
d'Athenes et de Rome 180 (Paris, 1954) pp. 361-477.  Chapter lists added
in the margin, f. 1v, by the same hand who retraced the faded text and
wrote marginal notes throughout.  The first two lines of text on f. 1r
appear to be the conclusion of a poem:  "//vax rex arabum legit**/ Qui
post augustinum regn***."  This manuscript listed by H. Duewell, "Noch
nicht untersuchte Handschriften des Elucidarium von Honorius
Augustodunensis,"  Scriptorium 26 (1962) p. 341, no. 78, cited
incorrectly as Yale University Library, 112 (Marston 7).

2. ff. 68v-71v Fratres in domo domini cum consensu ambulantes...quo modo
malum elegisse affirmetur//

Honorius Augustodunensis, Inevitabile, beginning of the first version
(see Lefevre, op. cit., passim).

3. ff. 71v-72v Quattuor sunt que adiuuant homines post
mortem...[conclusion on f. 72v damaged]//

Moral sentences similar to those appearing in Paris, Bibliotheque
Nationale lat. 2878 (see Lefevre, op.cit., p. 26 and passim).

Parchment (thick, end pieces; ff. 7v-8v palimpsest), ff. i (paper) + 72
+ i (paper), 160 x 105 (132 x 79) mm.  Text space for ff. 1r-7r ca. 125 x
75 mm.  23 long lines.  Inconsistent pattern of rulings.  Ruled in hard
point.  Prickings prominent in upper, lower and outer margins.
I-IX 8.  Catchwords (some trimmed) right of center near inner bounding
line, verso.
Folios 1r-7r written in late caroline minuscule (portions of text
retraced); the underscript of the palimpsest on ff. 7v-8v was also written
in caroline minuscule.  Folios 7v-72v written in inelegant Beneventan
script.
Plain red initials, f. 1r-v; modest black initials filled with red, ff.
24v, 48r, 68v, 71v.  Majuscules touched with red throughout.
Upper edge of book block damaged, with some loss of text.  
Binding:  Italy, s. xviii-xix.  Rigid vellum case with traces of title 
(upside down) on spine.  Edges daubed red and green.

Written in Southern Italy in the first half of the 12th century; early
provenance unknown.  It is likely that the codex contained at least one
other work at the beginning, given the 2 lines of verse that precede art.
1 on f. 1r.  "46" and "19" written in ink upside down at head of spine;
"297/4" in ink on small round paper label on spine.  Belonged to Sir Thomas 
Phillipps (no. 24783; bookstamp).  In pencil on front pastedown:  "a54. 594."  
Purchased from W. H. Robinson Ltd. of London in 1956 by L. C. Witten (inv. no.
1170), who sold it the same year to Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 77, no. 112.  
E. A. Lowe, rev. ed. by V. Brown, The Beneventan Script:  A History of the 
South Italian Minuscule in Sussidi Eruditi 34 (1980) p. 107.
F. Newton, "One Scriptorium, Two Scripts:  Beneventan, Caroline, and
the Problem of Marston 112," ed. R. Babcock, Gazette, supplement to v. 66
entitled Beinecke Studies in Early Manuscripts (forthcoming 1991).

Barbara A. Shailor