København, Det Arnamagnæanske Institut AM 795 4to

Apocalypse with commentary. Spain, s. XI med. Latin

[This manuscript preserves the only extant copy of a commentary on the Apocalypse (1:1-5:7, 18:6-19:21 and 20:1-22:21) by Bishop Apringius of Pace (Beja, Portugal), who lived in the mid-6th century. The entire codex is a palimpsest, deriving from four separate manuscripts, two of which are from responsorialia from the 10th-11th century. There are also the remains of a 9th-century Catalonian Forum Iudicum written in early Visigothic minuscule.]

Contents

• 1 (1r-24r): Apocalypsis beati Ioannis Apostoli The Apocalypse of St. John

  incipit: Apocalipsis iesu Christi quam dedit illi deus palam facere seruis suis, que oportet fieri cito

• 2 (24v-97v): Apringius Pacensis Tractatus in Apocalypsin

  rubric: Incipit Tractatus in apokalipsin eruditissimi uiri Apringi episcopi Pacensis ecclesie

  Final rubric: EXPLICIT EXPOSITIO APOCALIPSIS QVAM EXPOSVIT DOMNVS APRINGIUS EPISCOPUS. DEO GRACIAS AGO. FINITO LABORE ISTO. EFPHSBDKBTBHPGKOVPMCBPSFKTVP

  Text Editions

  1. Apringius, ed. Férotin
  2. Apringii Pacensis episcopi Tractatus in Apocalypsin, ed. Vega

Physical Description

Form: Codex.

Support: Parchment.

No. of leaves: ii + 97 + ii. 201 x 129 x mm .

Collation: 1-3:8, 4:6, 5-13:8 There are quire signatures in red ink in the centre lower margin, ii-viiii, on ff. 39v, 47v, 55v, 64v, 71v, 79v, 87v and 95v.

Layout: Written in one column throughout; 24 lines per page.

Script: Written in one hand, a practised caroline minuscule.

Decoration: There are red initials and headings throughout. An initial, B, on f. 24v, beginning the second item.

Binding: Brown calfskin 209 x 137 x 60mm , previously with two clasps.

Foliation: The manuscript was foliated by Kålund.

Additions: At the bottom of f. 97v there are four lines, written apparently in the 17th century, which read: Barcinonæ descriptus est liber iste ex alio vetustiore manu exarato, ann. Mxxxxij et emptum anno M.Dc.xvj. Agit de auctore M. Maximus Episcopus Cesarang. et de Scripto Isidorus Hispanensis Archi-episcopus, ille in chron. ann. 529 iste de viris illustribus.

History

Origin: Written in Spain in the middle of the 11th century (1042 according to the marginal note on f. 97v).

Provenance: The Spanish scholar Benito Arias Montano (1527-1598) has written his name on f. 97r, and may be presumed to have owned the manuscript. It came somehow into the possession of etatsråd Holger Parsberg (1636-1692), who has written his name twice, once on the front pastedown and once on f. 1r, the former dated 1680 and the latter 1682. Following Parsberg's death the manuscript was bought by etatsråd Jens Rosenkrantz (1640-1695) when Parsberg's library was auctioned off (23.10.1693).

Acquisition: The manuscript was acquired by Árni Magnússon from the estate of Jens Rosenkrantz, presumably at auction (the auction lot number 468 is written in red chalk on the flyleaf), either in 1696 or 97.

Additional

Record history: Catalogued 1999-09-23 by MJD.

Availability: The manuscript is in poor condition, due to many of the leaves being brittle and fragile and the poor quality of a number of earlier repairs; it should therefore not be used or lent out until it has been conserved.

Custodial history:

Lent to Bonifatius Fischer OSB, of the Vetus Latina Institut in Beuron, Germany, in 1957. On exhibition at Moesgård in Århus and the Royal Library, Copenhagen, in 1999.

Surrogates:

• microfilm (master) G.neg. 160 n.d.
• microfilm (archive) G.pos. 186 n.d.
• b/w prints reg.nr. 75 25.01.99 [Photographs of the spine, outside covers, stitching etc.]
• colour prints reg.nr. 102 25.01.99 [Photographs of the spine, outside covers, stitching etc.]
• b/w prints AM 795 4to 27.01.99 [copy of G.pos. 186]

Accompanying material: There are four slips which have been bound into the manuscript at the back, all but the first in Árni Magnússon's hand.

• The first, a, which in all likelihood was written by one of Árni's amanuenses, contains information on Apringius based on Guilielmus Cave's Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia literaria. It reads: Aprigius Ecclesiæ Pacensis in Hispania Episcopus, et scientiâ eruditus claruit circa ann. 540. Scripsit inqvit Isidorus, de scriptia c. 17. Explicationem Apocalypseos B Johannis subtili sensu atque illustri sermone, melius pene qvam veteres Ecclesiastici viri exposuisse videntur.Interiit opus istud: Loaisa tamen in notis suis ad Isidori catalogum testatur se in Hispania vidisse opus ingens manuscriptum in Apocalypsin Gothicis literis exaratum, ex Victorini Isidori, ex Aprigii libris, uti præ se tulit præfatio consarcinatum. Scripsit Aprigius teste Isidoro, et alia qvædam, qvorum nec nomina supersunt.Guilh. Cave Hist: Lit: pag 289.Under this is written in another ink, but possibly the same hand: p: 409. edit: Londin:
• The second, b, contains a decipherment of the last line of the final rubric, which repeats the previous line, Deo gracias ago finito labore esto, using a simple displacement cipher (b is used for a, c for d etc.), and a transcription of the marginal note following it on f. 97v.
• The third, c, contains information on Apringius: Aprigius, Pacis Juliæ in Hisp. Eps. vixit an. 540. Vide Isidorum de Script C. 17. Non Extat. Cave. in charotphylace. Vide quorum Gesneri. Bibliothecam voce Aprigius., a reference to Conradus Gesner's Bibliotheca universalis.
• Finally, there is a small slip, d, on which Árni has calculated Arias Montanus's date of birth: 1598-71=1527.

Bibliography

1. Baden, Kiøbenhavns Universitets-Journal, 1797
2. Overgaard, Opuscula X