Avranches, BM, 146

Library	Avranches, BM
Shelfmark	MS 146
Century	s. XI²-XII¹
General region of origin	Northern France
Collection	Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii)
Collection 2	[[Pseudoisidore, False Decretals, Capitula Angilramni]]
Main author	Bruno Schalekamp

Avranches, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 146 is a late eleventh to early twelfth-century manuscript of 166 folios in 2 cols. and 40 lines (365 x 275 mm, flyleaf 315 x 245 mm). Its codicological composition reads as follows: 21 quires, 20 x IV¹⁶⁰ + (IV – 1)¹⁶⁶; quire signatures start at I⁸ (primus) until VII⁵⁶ (VII), next thirteen quires labelled A⁶⁴ through N¹⁵⁹, the last quire was not signed; modern foliation in Arabic numerals in lead pencil. The manuscript was written in one hand, possibly the scribe was called Osborne according to Samaran/Marichal, in late Caroline minuscule with illuminated script. It can be dated to saec. XI^²-XII^¹ according to Taranne. Its provenance is definitely from Northern France, either from the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel according to Alexander, the Abbey of Saint-Omer-Saint-Bertin or Thérouanne according to Kéry.

Contents

The manuscript is a medium-sized codex and contains almost exclusively canonical material (Pseudoisidore and De ratione matrimonii), as well as some excerpts of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae, a later added list of popes, and the Notitia Galliarum. The codex is very well-preserved, with only minor water damage in the margins. The ruling and text was planned out extensively, as it contains few additions or corrections. Fols. 1v-2r, for example, contains some remarkable and fairly unnecessary additions in between the lines by an especially untrained hand. The main text may (and has been argued to) have been written by one scribe according to Samaran/Marichal, which implicates this was a large project and must have taken a substantial amount of time to produce.

Fol. 5v of the manuscript, which includes a large and beautifully decorated I-capital

The most striking visual aspect of this manuscript is, arguably, its illuminated capitals. Many works are introduced with colourful and lively capital letters, making the manuscript easier to study and work with. Especially the beginning of Pseudoisidore's canonical collection on fol. 2v - here introduced as Isidorus mercator seruus christi lectori conseruo suo - includes an immense I-capital that takes up the whole verso side of the folio. The various 'Celtic' aspects and the animals added, as well as its grand size, give the impression this codex was a prized work of art.

See the digitized version: https://bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr/resultRecherche/resultRecherche.php?COMPOSITION_ID=17085.

folios	texts
	Front cover and flyleaf
1r	Short description of contents in a modern hand (saec. XVIII)
1va-2va	Notitia provinciarum et civitatum Galliae
2va-160vb	Pseudoisidore, False Decretals
156ra-159rb	Pseudoisidore, Capitula Angilramni
159rb-160vb	Epistles of Pseudoisidore, titled: Epistola ad Leudefredum and Epistola ad Massonam
160vb-161rb	Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii), chapters I-VIII
161rb-164ra	Excerpts of Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae, book 8, chapters 5-6
164rb-165rb	List of popes since St. Peter and until Honorius II, including years, months and days of their pontificate. Added by a later hand in darker ink
165va-166vb	He sunt proprie auctoritates apostolice sedis
	Flyleaf and back cover

Literature

Alexander, Norman illumination at Mont Saint-Michel (1970), p. 224; Hinschius, Decretales, p. XII n. 14, XVIII n. 15, XXXIII n. II, CLXIV n. 12, and CLXV; Kéry, Canonical Collections (1999), p. 74, 81, 100, and 114; Mordek, 'Dictatus papae e Proprie auctoritates apostolice sedis' (1974), p. 6-7; Nortier, Les bibliothèques médiévales (1966), p. 67 n. 39, 87, and 90; Samaran, Marichal, Catalogue des manuscrits Vol. 7 (1984), p. 449; Somerville, ‘The Council of Beauvais, 1114’ (1968), p. 497 n. 29; Taranne, Catalogue général des manuscrits Vol. 4 (1872), p. 501; idem, Vol. 10 (1889), p. 67-68.

An edition of the Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii) is currently being prepared by Sven Meeder, Gideon de Jong, and Bruno Schalekamp.