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Vercelli and the Vercelli Book

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Maureen Halsall
Maureen Halsall*
Affiliation:
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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Abstract

Most theories designed to explain how and when the Vercelli Book came into the hands of the canons of San Eusebio di Vercelli are little more than guesswork; and those which endeavour to single out a particular agent of transmission ignore local data, such as the records of the commune, abbey, hospices, proto-university, and cathedral, which provide a wealth of documentation for the frequency of Vercelli's contacts with England and Englishmen both during and after the Middle Ages. The only solid evidence for the length of time that Codex cxvii has rested in the cathedral archives must be found in the manuscript itself and in the various book catalogues drawn up by the canons down through the centuries. Of special interest among these catalogues is a recently discovered one, dated 1426, which describes what is probably the Vercelli Book in terms suggesting that it is an old possession of the Eusebian chapter, thus lending support to the contention that the inscription on 24v of the manuscript is indeed north Italian of the eleventh century.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 84 , Issue 6 , October 1969 , pp. 1545 - 1550
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1969

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References

1 Iscrizioni cristiani antichi del Piemonte (Turin, 1849), pp. 127 ff.

2 77 codice vercellese con omelie e poésie in lingua anglosassone in Codices e Vaticanis selecti phototypice exspressi, series minor iii (Rome, 1913), pp. 39–40.

3 E. Pasteris, Altonedi Vercelli (Milan, 1925), p. 161.

4 H. F. Massmann, Auslegung des Evangelii Johannes (Munich, 1834), p. xvi; also F. Borgognone, II Problemma del Vercelli Book (Alessandria, 1951), passim.

5 Fôrster, Il codice vercellese, pp. 34 ff.

6 H. G. Knight, Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy (London, 1843); Quarterly Review, lxxv (March 1845), 398–399; R. Pauli, Geschichte von England (Hamburg, 1853), p. 512, and Göltinger Gelehrle Anzeigen (1886), p. 142; Albert Cook, “Cardinal Guala and the Vercelli Book,” Library Bulletin, No. 10 (Univ. of California, Sacramento, 1888) and “Supplementary Note to ‘Cardinal Guala and the Vercelli Book’,” Modern Language Notes, iv (1889), 212–213; G. P. Krapp, Andreas (Boston, 1906), pp. x-xiv; J. E. Foster, “The Connection of the Church of Chesterton with the Abbey of Vercelli,” Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, xiii (Cambridge, Eng., 1909), 187; R. Pasté, Archivio della Socield Vercellese di Storia e d'Arle, iii (1911), 429–437; E. A. Savage, Old English Libraries (London, 1911), p. 87.

7 For this relationship see Foster (cited in n. 6); R. Paste and E. Arborio-Mella, L'Abbazia di S. Andrea di Vercelli (Vercelli, 1907), pp. 1–41; J. S. Brewer, ed., Monumenta Franciscana, i (London, 1858), 206–207; F. A. Gasquet, Henry the Third and the Church (London, 1905), pp. 27–76; H. R. Luard, On the Relations between England and Rome during the Earlier Portion of the Reign of Henry III (Cambridge, Eng., 1887); Philadelfo Libico [pseud, of Abbot Giuseppe Frova], Gualœ BiMeri presbyt. el card., Vila et Gesta (Milan, 1767), especially pp. 100–101, notes s and r, which deal with the original documents of Henry's concession, still preserved in the abbey archives in the eighteenth century.

8 Codex Vercellensis (Leipzig, 1894), p. vi.

9 A. S. Cook, The Old English Elene, Phoenix, and Physio-logus (New Haven, 1919), p. viii.

10 “The Vercelli-book: A New Hypothesis,” Speculum, x (1935), 91–94. His derision was demonstrably baseless.

11 “7 eft se papa haîfde sinoS on Vercel. 7 Ulf b[iscop] co[m] basrto. 7 forneah man sceolde tobrecan his stef. gif he ne sealde be mare gersuman. Foran he ne cute don his gerihte swa wel swa he sceolde.” See Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, iv (Copenhagen, 1954), 105.

12 F. Savio, Gli antichi vescovi d'Ttalia dalle origine al 1300 descritti per regione: Il Piemonte (Turin, 1898), pp. 403–494.

13 E. Arborio-Mella, “L'antica basilica Eusebiana, inda-gini e studi,” Archivio délia Socielà Vercellese di Storia e d'Arle, v (1913), 725–752; vi (1914), 1–16.

14 R. Pastè, “Dali' antica ‘Schola S. Eusebii’ all'erezione del nostro seminario,” Archivio délia Socielà Vercellese di Sioriaed'Arle, xiii (1921), 193–198.

15 Philip Levine, “Historical Evidence for Calligraphie Activity in Vercelli from St. Eusebius to Atto,” Speculum, xxx (1955), 561–581.

16 “Idïbus decembris, occiso totius cleri factus ab Hunnis et Arianis tempore glorissimi Liuduardi episcopi.” From a Eusebian calendar reported by Savio, p. 446, and in Pastè, “I necrologi eusebiani,” Bollettino Storico-Bibliographico Subalpine, xxv (Turin, 1913), 349. For a fuller account see F. Gabotto, Ricerche inlorno aile invasioni degli Ungheri in Vercelli ed al tempo délia morte de vescovo Liutwardo (Vercelli, 1899).

17 Witnessed by a document of Ludwig III, dated 901 A.D. See L. Schiaparelli, “I diplomi italiani di Lodovico III e di Rudolfo II,” Fonti per la Storia d'Italia (Rome, 1910), pp. 30–40.

18 And libraries, for it is no doubt to the town's geographical position that we should attribute the presence of half a dozen early foreign MSS in the Euscbian archives: Codices cxxxiv, “Liber quattuor Evangeliorum” (ninth-century Bavarian), cxlix, “Expositiones Psalmorum facte per S. Hieronimum” (ninth-century German), cliii, “Commen-tarium Rabani Mauri in Deutero Nomium” (ninth-century, from Rheims), cxiv, “Codex explanationum per S. Hierony-mum factarum in Hieremiam” (ninth-century, from Lyons), clviii, “Recognitiones Sancti dementis” (ninth-century Spanish), and clxxxi, “HomiliaeS. Gregorii” (ninth-century, from Fulda).

19 George Parks, The English Traveller to Italy, i (Stanford, 1954), 19–97, gives such details as are known about individual Englishmen who made the pilgrimage to Rome in Anglo-Saxon times; one of them was Archbishop Sigeric, whose itinerary for the year 990, recorded in MS. Cott. Tib. B 5, fol. 23v, includes Vercelli as the forty-third stop on his return journey to England. See Wm. Stubbs, Memorials of St. Dunslan, Rolls Series (London, 1874), pp. 392–395, for the full itinerary.

20 See V. Mandelli, Il Comune di Vercelli nel Medio Evo (Vercelli, 1857–58), iv, 28 ff., and R. Orsenigo, Vercelli Sacra (Como, 1909), pp. 60 f.

21 Paste cites documents ranging in date from 943 to 1177 attesting to this communal life in “I canonici di Vercelli,” Socielà délia vercellese lelteratura ed arte, x (1918), 623–626.

22 See nn. 6 and 7.

23 It was staffed by French monks, the first abbot being Thomas of Paris (died 1246), an Augustinian from Saint Victoire near Paris. See Mandeili, iv, 158–159.

24 Cardinal Guala continued to protect and endow the abbey, and at his death in 1227 he bequeathed the bulk of his property to it. See Frova's Vila (cited in n. 7), pp. 174–177, and G. Lampugnani, Sulla vita di Guala Bichieri (Vercelli, 1842), pp. 125–130.

25 The pope took the abbey under the special protection of the Holy See by a bull of 29 May 1227, quoted in Mandelli, iv, 65.

26 As reported by Marcus Aurelius Cusano (1672) in his MS history of Verceili, quoted by Orsenigo, p. 71: “Tale ospedale, eretto già l'anno 550, dicesi il primo in città.”

27 See the twelfth-century documents regarding hospital tithes and the living conditions of the administrator printed in Mandelli, ii, 3, v, n. 3 to par. 304, and in D. Arnoldi & F. Gabotto, Le carte dell' Archhio Capilolare di Vercelli, in Biblioteca della Societd Slorica Subalpina, lxxi (Pinerolo, 1914), 16–17.

28 Mandelli, in, 306. For an account of the local divisions and strife, see Domenico Cappellina, / Tizzoni e gli Avogadri (Vercelli, 1842).

29 See Orsenigo, p. 142, and Paste, L'Abbazia, pp. 111–114.

30 Mandelli, iii, 389.

31 Printed in E. Baggiolini, Lo Studio Générale di Vercelli nel Medio Evo (Vercelli, 1888), pp. 77–85.

32 The teachers had earlier quit Bologna for Padua in 1222, and had been ill-received there. See Mandelli, iii, 390–396.

33 Mandelli cites various local documents that mention the stadium, its students or professors up to 1405 (pp. 388–418).

34 See Mandelli, Introduction, p. viii.

35 R. Paste, “Un catalogo di ‘Libri thesauri Scî Eusebî‘,” A rchivio della Societd Vercellese della Sloria e d'A rte, ix (1917), 449–460.

36 C. De Gregory, Istoria della Vercellese Lelteratura ed Arli (Turin, 1824), iii, iv, 567–569.

37 Ibid., iii, iv, 562–566. Also of interest are two letters from Bianchini to Cardinal Delle Lancie, reporting on the disorganized state of the library and on the methods he used to determine the contents of the Vercelli Book, pp. 554–560.

38 Bianchini's inventory and letters; an epistle from the abbot Giovanni Andres to the abbot Giacomo Morelli (published in Parma, 1802); Gazzera's Iscrizioni; a study made by Ferdinand Neigebaur in 1857, “Die Bibliothek des Erzbischoflichen Dom-Kapitels zu Vercelli” (Serapeum, xii, 177–192); private communications from a Dr. Cossa of Milan; and A. Reifferscheid, Bibliotheca Patrum Latinorum Italica IV: Die Bibliothek des Domkapitels in Vercelli in Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissen-schaflen, philos.-hist. kl., lxviii (Vienna, 1871), 509–586.

39 Inventari dei Manoscrilti delle Biblioteche d'Italia, xxxi (Florence, 1924).

40 I owe the knowledge of these catalogues to the courtesy of Monsignor Dott. Giuseppe Ferraris, the cathedral archivist, whose kindly interest and cooperation made my work in the library possible.

41 My gratitude is due to Dr. Gorini for placing this, as well as the rest of his large collection of Vercelliana, at my disposal.

42 In almost every case the cathedral copy quotes correctly from the manuscript, whereas often the Gorini copy makes slight alterations; this is particularly true with regard to capital letters.

43 By Joseph Panialis of Vercelli.

44 See Carlo Dionisotti, Notizie Biographiche dei Vercellesi Illustri (Biella, 1862), pp. 35 ff.

45 See the unpublished, unsigned “Beschreibung der Handschrift des Domkapitels zu Vercelli no. cxvii” in the handwriting of C. Maier, the copyist hired by Charles Purton Cooper in 1834 to make the transcript on which was based the edition of the Vercelli poems in Appendix B to Cooper's abortive “Report” on Rymer's Foedera. Maier's description of the manuscript was discovered by the author of this paper in the miscellaneous volume entitled Foreign Papers and Letters in the Cooper Collection of the library at Lincoln's Inn.

46 The date is given and the three compilers named on the first page of the catalogue. Only the treasurer, Giovanni Vialardi, is clearly referred to in contemporary records; see R. Paste's “I necrologi eusebiani,” Bolletino Storico-Biblio-graphico Subalpino, xxv (Turin, 1923), 332–355, entries 865 and 866. Vialardi was sole author of the crabbed contracted Latin silently expanded in the following quotations.

47 I (3 sheets) pp. A-F [letters mine], ii (8 sheets) pp. 1–16, iii (2 sheets) pp. 17–20, iv (8 sheets) pp. 21–36, v (2 sheets) pp. 37–40, vi (8 sheets) pp. 41–56, vii (2 sheets) pp. 57–60, viii (8 sheets) pp. 61–76, ix (2 sheets) pp. 77–80, x (8 sheets) pp. 81–96, xi (2 sheets) pp. 97–100, xii (9 sheets) pp. 101–118, xiii (2 sheets) pp. 119–122, xiv (8 sheets) pp. 123–137 [Note: 2 pages 132], xv (3 sheets) pp. 138–143, xvi (8 sheets) pp. 144–158 [Note: 2 pages 154], xvi (2 sheets) pp. 159–162, xviii (4 sheets) pp. 163–169/170 [Note: numbers are doubled at the end of this quire].

48 They are: the letter G, a yoke, an eight-petalled flower, a knot, a six-petalled flower. Their resemblance to numbers 8198 and 8200, 7876, 6392–6402, 11984–997, and 6541 in C. M. Briquet's Les Filigranes, dictionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600 (Leipzig, 1923) is very striking.

49 Mentioned in n. 18 and studied or noted by Reiffer-scheid, pp. 547–554; Neigebaur, p. 185; L. Bruzza, Iscrizioni antichi vercellesi (Rome, 1874), p. xcv; Bianchini, 2nd letter, p. 556; A. M. Brizzio, Catalogo dette cose d'arte e di anlichità d'ltalia, viii: Vercelli (Rome, 1935), pp. 99–100; G. Muzzioli, Moslra storica nazionale delle miniature. Catalogo (Florence, 1953), pp. 35–36; N. Gabrieli “Le miniature delle Omelie di S. Gregorio,” in Atti del Comiegno di Pavia per lo Studio dell' Arte dell Alto Medioevo (Pavia, 1950), p. 304.

50 Codex A, believed to be the oldest Latin version of the Gospels. See F. A. Gasquet, Codex Vercellensis, in Collectanea Biblica Lalina, m (Rome, 1914), 4; also F. Ehrle & P. Liebaert, Specimina Codicum Latinorum Vaticanorum (Bonn, 1912), fig. 5c. E. A. Lowe held the script to be the earliest trustworthy guide to uncial; see Codices Latini Anliquiores (Oxford, 1934), iv, xv.

51 As was done in the mid-eighteenth century by a reader equally as ignorant of Anglo-Saxon as this careful cataloguist. See n. 37.

52 For the fifteenth-century cataloguist “principium” and “finem” obviously imply the distinctively lettered incipits and explicits, which he so conscientiously copies down in his descriptions of other MSS. The Vercelli Book, whether or not the text on its first page had already been obliterated by the fifteenth century, could never boast more than an opening initial H and the ambiguous “Amen fiat” on p. 135v.

53 As they must have been at some time to account for the pages lost after 42v, 55v, 63v, 75v, 83v, 85v, 97v, 100v, 103v, and 111“.

54 Probably because the clasps were lost: none were noted by the cataloguist in 1768–78 or by Dr. Maier; and since these two described the MS, all trace of any pre-existing clasps has been removed by a new binding.

55 Cf. n. 2.

56 See the inventory of his books in Frova, Vita, pp. 174–177, and Lampugnani, pp. 125–130.

57 See A. Hessel & W. Bulst, “Kardinal Guala Bichieri und seine Bibliothek,” in Historische Vierteljahrshrift, xxvii (1932), 772–794.

58 In his stimulating discussion of “Marginalia in the Vercelli Book,” in Studies in the History of Old English Literature (Oxford, 1953), pp. 109–118, Kenneth Sisam identifies this inscription as north Italian of the eleventh century. He cites as his authorities: Edmund Bishop, H. M. Bannister, H. G. Palmer, and Cardinal Mercati of the Vatican Library. The dating is largely based on the omission of the phrase “neque despicias me,” a peculiarity common only to the Vercelli Book and an eleventh-century Milanese manuscript, printed in M. Magistretti's Manuale Ambrosianum (Milan, 1905), p. 451.