Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XII/Leo the Great/Introduction/Manuscripts

by Philip Schaff et al.

Manuscripts.

I.  At the Vatican.  (α) Of the Sermons.  (1)  Codd. 3835 and 6 are two volumes in Roman Character of a Lectionary of about the 8th century; the second volume contains the “Tome” (which in the 8th and 9th centuries used to be read in the Church offices before Christmas):  (2)  3828, a parchment (10th century), also a lectionary:  (3)  1195, a parchment folio (11th century), a lectionary containing inter alia some of Leo’s homilies:  (4)  1267, 8 and 9 of the same character (11th century):  (5)  1270 contains the Sermon de Festo Petri cathedræ, (now xiv. in Migne’s Appendix), from which Cacciari restored Quesnel’s imperfect edition of it to its present state:  (6)  1271 and 2 are also lectionaries:  (7)  4222 in Lombardic characters (9th century), a lectionary:  (8)  5451 in Roman characters (12th century), a lectionary:  (9)  6450 parchment (12th century):  a lectionary containing the sermon de Festo Petri cathedræ in the form found and printed by Quesnel; (10)  6451 similar:  it contains sermons de Quadragesima  and others:  (11)  6454 similar.

(β) Of the Letters:  these are mostly rather later (i.e. about 12th or 13th century):  but (1)  1322 is of an older date, and contains besides the epistles, all the acts of the Council of Chalcedon:  (2)  5759 is earlier than the 9th century; it used to belong to the monastery of S. Columban at Bobbio, and contains 31 letters:  (3)  5845 is very ancient, and according to Cacciari, Lombardic:  it contains 24 letters.

(γ) Letters and Sermons together:  of these there are nine collections in the Vatican, of which 548 and 9 contain the sermon de Absalom  which is condemned by Cacciari.  The Regio-Vaticanus codex 139 is a fine collection of Leo’s works (12th century).

II.  At other places:  (1)  The codex Urbinas 65 is thought to be a copy of the Regio-Vaticanus 139 made in the 14th century.

(2)  Codex Grimanicus^[1]is a ms. on which Quesnel lays great stress:  Quesnel assigns it to the ninth century; it contains 107 letters, of which 28 had never been printed before Quesnel.

(3)  The Thuanei; (α) 129 contains 123 letters:  (β) 780 contains the Tome:  (γ) 729 contains the spurious de vocatione gentium and some epistles.

(4)  The Corbeienses are old.

(5)  The Taurinensis 29 D. iv. is a fine 13th-century ms. containing 52 letters.

(6)  The Florentinus codex belongs to the 13th century also.

(7)  Ratisbonensis 113 DD. AA., in the monastery of S. Emeramus, contains 72 letters:  it is said to date from about 750 a.d.

(8)  The two Bergonenses are of 12th century, and contain 12 sermons.

(9)  Two Chigiani also of 12th century contain 4 sermons.

(10)  The Padilironenses contain 9 sermons and the Tome.

(11)  There are three Patavini, of which two contain the Tome.

(12)  Vallicellani:  these are a number of 11th or 12th-century codices.

There are also the Veneti, the Vercellenses, the Veronenses, &c.

N.B.  The foregoing account is taken from Schönemann’s Notitia Historico-Literaria  (1794), and the translator has no means of knowing whether it is still correct (1890).

Footnotes

1. Grimanus, from whom this Codex is named, was Cardinal of S. Mark, &c., in the 16th century.