Albi, BM, 2
| Library | Albi, BM |
|---|---|
| Shelfmark | 2 |
| Olim shelfmark | 147 |
| Century | saec. IX2/2 |
| Provenance | Albi, St. Cécile |
| Script | Caroline Minuscule |
| Place of origin | Albi |
| European region of origin | Southern France |
| Biblissima QID | Q227532 |
| Collection | Collectio Albigensis |
| Digital Images | cecilia.mediatheques.grand-albigeois.fr |
| Description at | cecilia.mediatheques.grand-albigeois.fr |
| Description at 2 | arca.irht.cnrs.fr |
| Description at 3 | mirabileweb.it |
| Description at Biblissima | portail.biblissima.fr |
| Bischoff number | 16 on p. 10 |
| Author | Bruno Schalekamp |
| Author | Lotte Kéry |
Albi, Médiathèque Pierre-Amalric, 2 is a large ninth-century manuscript of 184 folios, made of parchment with paper flyleaves on the front side. It was compiled in one col. for most of its conciliar material and two cols. for its lists of provinces and sees. Its dimensions read: 352 x 243 mm. It contains 24 quires, with the following quire structure:
(III - 1)7 + 12 x IV102 + III108 + 9 x IV180 + II184
Quire signatures start at QUATERNIO .I.7 until QUATERNIO .XXIII.180. Modern foliation in Arabic numerals in lead pencil.
The manuscript was written by three hands in Caroline minuscule, probably in saec. IX2/2 according to Kéry, Turner, and Wurm. Its origins are Southern France, most probably a scriptorium in Albi, according to Mordek, possibly in relation to the Sainte-Cecile Cathedral of Albi. The archive in Albi specifies a date of 880-890.
Contents
The manuscript mostly contains canonical material, dominated by the Collectio Albigensis. According to Maassen, it begins with a capitulatio, a papal catalogue up to Gregory the Great, the preface to the Dionysiana II, the Canones Apostolorum in the version of the Dionysio-Hadriana. Apart from the collection, the managerial document called Notitia Galliarum and an excerpt from Polemius Silvius were included. Interestingly, however, this is the only witness of the Collectio Albigensis that includes additions from other Merovingian councils in a separate codicological unit at the very end, including the sixth-century council of Epaone and two seventh-century councils held at Modogarnomense and Losne.
Maassen and Turner held that the Albi manuscript (in large parts) was a faithful copy of an exemplar written in the seventh century at the behest of an otherwise unknown bishop Dido of Albi. This may very well have been Toulouse, BM, 364 (olim I. 73), of which a part was removed by Guillermo Libri and now constitutes the document known as Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 8901.
| folios | content |
|---|---|
| Front cover | |
| Two paper flyleafs with two French modern hands discussing the contents and origins of the manuscript | |
| 1r | Multiple probationes pennae, as well as modern hands, writing in Latin and French, explaining the origins of the manuscript based on Dido, bishop of Albi, and the reign of Childeric II. |
| 1v-2v | List of contents from the Collectio Albigensis |
| 3r-4r | Notitia Galliarum |
| 4r-5r | Polemius Silvius, Laterculus |
| 5r-6r | Papal catalogue up to Gregory the Great |
| 6r-177v | Collectio Albigensis, including: |
| 6r-v. Preface from Dionysius Exiguus's collection | |
| 10r-16r. Gennadius Massiliensis, Liber sive definitio ecclesiasticorum dogmatum | |
| 120v. Blank page, except for an unknown signature or scribble in the lower margin, which says bfnfdkctxs but actually deciphers to benedictus | |
| 157r. Mostly blank page, probably due to the loss of an exemplar of the canons of Laodicaea, based on its continuation on fol. 158r | |
| 177v-184r. | Additions of three Merovingian councils, including: |
| 177v-181r. Council of Epaone (517) (Synodus Epaonensis) | |
| 181r-182r. Concilium Modogarnomense (673x675) (or Burdigalensis) | |
| 182v-184r. Council of Losne (673x675) (Concilium Latunensis) | |
| 184r. | Explicit of manuscript: EXPLICIT UOLUMEN HUIUS LIBRI AMEN. Also a French early modern hand commenting on the authenticity of the manuscript |
| Back cover |
Links
Digital images of the manuscript are online, but as of early 2025 biblissima seems not to have an entry on Albi, BM, 2 while ARCA has an entry but does not link to the digital images.
Literature
Aguilar (ed.), Polemii Silvii Laterculus (2018), p. 32 and 87-90; Bischoff, Festländische Handschriften 1 (1998), p. 10 n. 16; Catalogue général des manuscrits 1 (1849), p. 481-482; Desachy, Le Scriptorium d’Albi (2007), p. 32-34; Galabert, ‘Notice sur deux manuscrits’ (1933), p. 353-362; Keefe, Catalogue (2012), p. 201; Kéry, Canonical Collections (1999), p. 47; Lauranson-Rosaz, Juillet, ‘L’Aquitaine carolingienne’ (2002), p. 167-177; Le Bras, ‘Notes pour servir à l’histoire des collections canoniques’ (1929), p. 768; Maassen, Bibliotheca I, p. 158-167; Maassen, Geschichte (1870), p. 592-603; Ourliac, ‘Manuscrit toulousain’ (1978), p. 15 and 54; Turner, 'A Group of MSS of Canons at Toulouse, Albi and Paris' JTS 2 (1900-1901), p. 266-267; Wurm, Studien und Texte (1939), 94-95 n. 15 and 279-283.
