Beinecke MS 516
Northumbria, s. VIII1
Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob (fragm.)

f. 1r 	// omni virtute sit vacuus; frustra conflavit conflator, malitiae enim eorum non sunt  ... alii 
quippe prava de Deo sentiunt, alii recta de auctore tenent; sed unitatem cum //

f. 1v	// constat quia proximum non amat, quem habere socium recusat. Quisquis ergo ab hac 
unitate ...  locum quaerunt, hunc quaerentes inveniunt, hunc invenientes tenent //

Gregory the Great, Moralia in Iob, XVIII.41-42; M. Adriaen, ed., CC 143A (1979), ch. 26, 49-
59 (pp. 911-912) and 67-78 (p. 912).


The upper half of a parchment leaf, now measuring 175 x 235 mm. but originally at least 330 x 
235 mm. The parchment is thin with greasy transparent patches and a hole (before writing) close 
to its lower edge. One column; 14 lines preserved on each side (of the original 26, as may be 
calculated on the basis of the amount of text missing on f. 1r). 

Copied by one hand in a splendid large uncial with very few abbreviations. On f. 1v the two final 
letters of the last word on the top line ("habere") have been supplied in Anglo-Saxon minuscule; 
on line 6 the two final letters of the last word ("praemisimus") are supplied in smaller uncial 
script.

Later the fragment was used as a flyleaf ; an early owner wrote alongside the right-hand edge of 
f. 1v the ownership inscription "Liber iste est fratris Reyneri de Capella. Orate pro eo". This friar 
has been identified with a member of the Dominican convent at Soest in Nordrhein-Westfalen in 
the second half of the fourteenth century. The manuscripts owned by Reynerus de Capella and 
showing the same or a similar ownership inscription are listed and discussed by P. Lehmann in 
"Skandinavische Reisefruechte", Nordisk Tidskrift foer Bok- och Biblioteksvaesen, 22 (1935), pp. 
116-126.  Purchased from Martin Breslauer 19 July 1972 on the E.J. Beinecke Fund.

Bibliography:
Cora E. Lutz, "A Manuscript Fragment from Bede's Monastery", Gazette, 48 (1973), pp.135-8 
(repr. in Lutz, Essays, pp. 19-23).
Exhibition Catalogue: W. Cahn and J. Marrow, eds., 
"Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Yale: A Selection," 
Yale University Library Gazette 52 (1978), 1.
B. Bischoff and V. Brown, "...", Mediaeval Studies, 47 (1985), pp. 340-341, no. 1849.
Shailor, The Medieval Book, 70.

Albert Derolez

Updated 28.11.2007