Oxford, Oriel College Library, 42

From Clavis Canonum

Oxford, Oriel College Library, 42 (written by William of Malmesbury ca. 1135) is a copy of the Collectio Quesnelliana "updated" from the False Decretals. For the letters of Leo I, Hoskin, Letters p. 369 and passim treats the letters found in the Oxford manuscript as a separate collection (his "Collection of William of Malmesbury"), as it not only contains more letters but rearranges the material too, and displays variant readings. As Thomson, William of Malmesbury pp. 123-124 stressed, William had access to various texts and acutal manuscripts from Reims, including perhaps a copy of the False Decretals also containing the relatively rare JK 512.

Quesnel used Oriel College Library 42 alongside Paris, BnF, lat. 3842A for his edition of the Quesnelliana. Brett called the Oriel manuscript "the latest and worst surviving copy" (cited in Vanspauwen p. 492 n. 15; pace Kéry, p. 27 who seemed to assert that it was the "latest and most reliable manuscript of the collection").

Links

Literature