Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae (or 'grammatical foundations'), in Latin and Greek, manuscript on vellum

provenance

(1) Written for use in a French monastery, whose partially erased early fourteenth-century library mark, beginning with a 30mm. high initial in red and black, reads Iste liber est h ... g … Si quid invenerat reddat pro amore dei.

(2) De Ricci notes this as from the library of Prince Dietrichstein, Schloss Nikolsburg, Moravia, although it is apparently not listed in the published catalogue (B. Dudik, "Handschriften der Fürstlich Dietrichstein’schen Bibliothek" Archiv für österreichische Geschichte 39, 1868).

(3) Charles E. Roseman Jr. of Cleveland Heights, Ohio; bought from Gilhoff & Ranschburg of Vienna (De Ricci, Census, ii, 1964, no. 28); and by descent to present owner.

text

Priscianus Caesariensis (more commonly known as Priscian) was a fifth or early-sixth century Greek, born and raised in Caesarea, capital of the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis (now mostly modern Algeria). Cassiodorus, at the age of 93, recorded that Priscian was a respected teacher of Latin at Constantinople (Keil, Grammatici latini. vii, p.207), and he became the most prolific and important of all the late Latin grammarians. The text here is that of his magnum opus, a comprehensive and systematic exposition of Latin grammar. On Priscian's death it appears that only his autograph copy existed, and so (as recorded in a subscription in the text) it was then copied by one Flavius Theodorus, a clerk in the imperial secretariat, and presumably disseminated. It is from this single copy that all others now survive.

The text became the standard Latin schoolbook of the middle ages, and was used extensively by Alcuin, Bede, Aldhelm, Hrabanus Maurus of Fulda and Servatus Lupus of Ferrières. M. Gibson lists 527 extant medieval manuscripts (Gibson, "Priscian 'Institutiones Grammaticae': a handlist of manuscripts", Scriptorium 27, 1972, pp. 105-24), some 283 of which were in existence by the end of the twelfth century. The present copy begins a few leaves into book I of the Institutiones grammaticae and ends in book XV, and shows signs of use by a number of medieval students of Latin grammar. There are numerous additions in a number of hands dating from the period of writing through to the fifteenth century, and an early scribe (perhaps even one of those who wrote the manuscript) has introduced an apparently otherwise unrecorded form of referencing-system, consisting of letters of the alphabet or numbers of dots, parallel to the text, down the outermost vertical edge of the leaves.

A number of the initials are also worth note. Their overall rustic and austere appearance suggests that the work was composed in a monastery influenced by the ideals of the Cistercian order. However, within this simplicity some initials stand out as remarkable examples of design and innovation. Some, such as the initial 'I' on fol.97r and the initial 'A' on 45v, show some similarities to a now-dispersed manuscript which was once owned by Otto Ege (a remnant of it is now University of Colorado, Norlin Library, John Feldman Collection MS. 2), which was certainly Cistercian and may have been southern French. Others, notably the larger initials, are far more complex in their geometric design (see for example, the initial 'Q' on fol.106v and 'P' on 99r), and while they share some features with a contemporary manuscript of Sidonius' poems which has been connected to Leon or the border of France and Spain (now Schøyen Collection, MS.246), they may well be unique.