Beinecke MS 336               Belgium, s. XII^^med
Augustine, De trinitate, etc.

1.  f. 1r Ex libro retractationum sancti augustini secundo.  capitulum
primum.  Libros de trinitate que deus est quindecim scripsi per aliquot
annos...Lecturos hec que de trinitate disserimus.  Explicit retractatio
sancti augustini.

     Augustine, Retract. 2.15; printed in the Prolegomena of W. J.
Mountain, ed., CC ser. lat. 50 (1968) p. vii.

2.  f. 1r-v Versus rustici defensoris sancti augustini.  Ter quinos
animo suadente per ardua libros/ Augustine trahens nobile condis opus/...
descripsitque tua se deus ipse manu.

     Rusticus [?], Poem on Augustine (8-line); CPL, no. 1508;
Anthologia latina 785^^c.

3.  ff. 1v-2v Incipit oratio catholice fidei et bonorum operum
subsequentium librorum sancti augustini.  Da nobis domine in uia hac qua te
duce ingredimur intellectum...sicut es trinus et unus deus et ignorantie
tenebras remoue a me.

     Pseudo-Augustine, Oratio in libros de trinitate;  Mountain, op.
cit., v. 50A (1968) Appendix B, pp. 551-55.

4.  ff. 2v-3r Domino beatissimo et sincerissima caritate uenerando fratri et
consacerdoti pape aurelio augustinus in domino eternam salutem.  [text:]  De
trinitate que deus summus et uerus est libros iuuenis inchoauj...quidem sed
tamen ad caput eorundem librorum jubeas anteponi.  Ora pro me.

     Dedicatory letter; Mountain, op. cit., v. 50, pp. 25-26.

5.  ff. 3r-136v Incipiunt capitula libri .i.  De triplici causa erroris
falsa de deo opinantium....xii.  De unitate persone filij dei et filij
hominis siue in gloria siue in humilitate.  Expliciunt capitula.  Hic sunt
libri beati augustini episcopi numero .xv. de indiuidua trinitate.  De
triplici causa erroris falsa de deo opinantium. i.  [text:]  Lecturos
hec que de trinitate disserimus prius oportet ut nouerint stilum
nostrum...siqua de meo et tu ignosce et tuj.  Amen.  Explicit liber sancti
augustini episcopi de trinitate.  [at bottom of column:]  Liber sancte Marie de
balerna.

     Augustine, De trinitate; Mountain, op. cit., pp. 27-535.  The
chapter headings, set out at the beginning of each book and repeated within the
text, correspond for the most part with those printed by Mountain, op. cit.,
pp. 3-23.

     Parchment, ff. ii (parchment) + 136 + ii (parchment), 345 x 245 (260 x
178) mm.  2 columns, 37 lines.  Ruled in hard point on hair side before
folding; single outer vertical bounding lines and three vertical rulings for
inner bounding lines, all full length; horizontal rulings sometimes extend
through gutter.  Prickings in upper, lower, and outer margins.
     I-XVII^^8.  Remains of quire signatures in center along lower edge,
verso:  Roman numerals surrounded by decorative patterns of dots.  Binder's
marks, s. xv, added under lower right corner of written space, recto (e.g.,
p1, p2, p3, etc.).
     Written by a single scribe in French minuscule.
     Extremely fine monochrome initials, red or green for ff. 1-2, red
thereafter (cf. Paecht and Alexander, v. 1, no. 119).  Headings, chapter
numbers, running titles, in red.
     Upper portion of many folios damaged and/or repaired, with loss of
text.
     Binding:  s. xix.  Original slit straps laced into oak boards, s. xix,
the upper one detached.  Braided leather or tawed skin endbands.  Quarter
bound in brown pigskin.

Written in Belgium in the middle of the 12th century presumably at the
Cistercian abbey of Balerne, diocese of Besancon, to which it belonged
(contemporary inscription on f. 136v; L. Cottineau, Repertoire
topo-bibliographique des abbayes et prieures [Macon, 1935-70] v. 1,
col. 248).  Beinecke MS 336 is recorded as "Augustini Eiusdem Liber de
Trinitate.  Folio" in the inventory of manuscripts compiled by Antonius
Sanderus, Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta (Lille, 1641-43/44), reprinted
in Archives et Bibliotheques de Belgique, n^^o special 7 (Brussels,
1972) v. 2, p. 134.  Acquired, ca. 1830, in France by Sir Thomas Phillipps (no.
14917; inscription in lower margin of f. 1r); his sale to Quaritch, Cat. 168
(March 1897, no. 360); Cat. 211 (January 1902, no. 14); Cat. 321 (Dec. 1912,
no. 248).  The Quaritch catalogue entries include a brief description of
original binding and flyleaves.  From the collection of the bibliophile and
rare bookdealer Wilfred M. Voynich (d. 1930).  Presented to the Beinecke
Library in 1964 by Thomas E. Marston.

secundo folio:  nescientibus

Bibliography:  De Ricci, v. 2, p. 1845, no. 3 (while in the Voynich
estate).

Barbara A. Shailor