St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 214
Lowe Elias Avery, Codices Latini Antiquiores. A palaeographical guide to latin manuscripts prior to the ninth century. Part VII: Switzerland, Oxford 1956 (Osnabrück 1982), p. 26.
Titre du manuscrit: , Dialogi [Cod. Sang. 214 + fragments in MSS. 9, 12, 762, 942 [+ St. Paul in Carinthia] + Zürich, Zentralbibliothek C 184, Nos. XVII, XVIII.]
Période: Saec. VIII.
Support: Parchment thickish.
Volume:
Fifty folios and a number of smaller fragments survive: 42 in St. Gall MS. 214 (reunited from various St. Gall bindings) + 4 allegedly in St. Paul in Carinthia (teste Lindsay) + 4 in the miscellany Zürich, Zentralbibl. MS. C 184 (formerly Fly-leaves of Zürich MS. C 64 where an offset is still visible on the front cover) + small fragments pasted or sewn to St. Gall MS. 9 at pp. 101/102,103/104, and 313, to MS. 12 at pp. 147/148, and 161/162, to MS. 762 at pp. 185, and 202, and to MS. 942 in the middle of many quires.
Format: 205 x 140 mm
Composition des cahiers: Gatherings of eight, with fleshside outside, signed with red Roman numerals in the middle of the lower margin of the last page.
Mise en page:
(150-165 x 105 mm.) in 24-25 long lines. Ruling before folding, on the flesh-side, 4 bifolia at a time, with the direct impression on the central bifolium. Single bounding lines. Prickings inside the written space guided the ruling.
Type d'écritures et copistes:
- Pre-caroline minuscule
- Punctuation: the main pause is marked by colon or medial point or flourish or point and flourish, lesser pauses by the medial point; in parts there is no punctuation whatever. Omission is marked by ⁒ in the text (p. 28); the insertion is cut off. Abbreviations include the normal forms of Nomina Sacra and b, b,., b,: (the comma being a prolongation of the small tag of b) = bus; q: (or q;) = que and quae; ep̅s = episcopus; ff = fratres; N̄ = non; p̲ = per; prb̅ꞇ, prb̅o = presbyter, -o; qn̅m = quoniam; the abbreviation-stroke is a vertical flourish. Spelling shows confusion of e and i, o and u, ci for ti.
- Ink brown or olive-green. Script is an inexpert and ungainly attempt at a minuscule based on Merovingian charters and obviously of the same family as the Corbie [special characters please see PDF] type: b is mostly accompanied by the tag characteristic of the [special characters please see PDF] type, except on pp. 41 and 57 which are by another less expert hand; the shafts of b and l bend near the foot; m and n are cramped; majuscule N is not infrequent; u is often a suprascript flourish, the sickle-shaped form on the line is used by a corrector on p. 10; ligatures are numerous. Requisitum est in Notae Tironianae is entered in the lower right-hand corner of the last page of quires, as in several early Tours manuscripts (see C.L.A., V. 682).
Décoration:
- Colophons in red, in heavy angular capitals mixed with uncial. Headings in mixed capitals and uncial with lines alternately red and black, or in mixed half-uncial and uncial in red. Gregorius and Petrus preceding their words in the dialogue are in red uncial or half-uncial.
- Initial F at the beginning of Book II (see plate) is in the best Merovingian style: it uses the fish, leaf, and stair motifs, is coloured with red, blue, yellow, green, and violet, and strongly recalls the Psalterium Duplex, Missale Francorum, and Paris N. A. Lat. 1740 (C.L.A., I. 101, 103; V. 691); it is followed by two lines of hollow fancy capitals filled with the same tints.
- Smaller capitals at the beginning of sentences are red or black.
Origine du manuscrit:
Written presumably in France, probably in the North-east.
Acquisition du manuscrit: Belonged to St. Gall where it was dismembered to strengthen bindings. The Zürich leaves were taken from the binding of Zürich MS. C 64; they have probably been in Zürich since 1712 when the St. Gall manuscripts were transferred there.