Contents

Data Source: Mmmonk

• Manuscript 129 is a collection of sixteen texts of a various nature. The first three texts, Expositio salutationis angelicae (ff. 3r-10v), Expositio orationis dominice (ff. 11r-26r), and Expositio cantici beati Virginis (ff. 26r-42r) are anonymous commentaries on the Ave Maria, the Pater Noster and the Magnificat anima mea Domine respectively, built upon the writings of the Church Fathers. The following two texts have been attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153): (ff. 42r-58v) the Meditationes beati Bernardi and (ff. 58v-61v) the Auctoritates beati Bernardi abbatis de libro eiusdem Flores paradysi. Both texts are florilegia; the first also contains excerpts from other authors than just Bernard, although the latter is presented as the sole author. The sixth text (ff. 61v-69v), De modo confitendi peccata a magistro Roberto de Sorbona, is a text on the sacrament of confession, written by the French theologian and scholar Robert de Sorbon (1201-1274). These are followed by a number of apparently unrelated texts: (ff. 69v-76) a Breuiloquium attributed to a certain 'frater Johannes Bona Fortuna'; (ff. 76v-78v) a part from the Speculum monachorum by Arnulfus de Boeriis (d. 1149); (ff. 78v-81r) a story from the Dialogus miraculorum of Caesarius of Heisterbach; and an anonymous commentary on Psalm 53 (Dixit insipiens in corde suo). The latter text has been added some time later and diverges from the external characteristics of the rest of the codex. The following four texts are all related to Hildegard of Bingen. Ff. 83r-91r contain a commentary by Hildegard on the Benedictine Rule, followed (ff. 91r-91v) by a letter from Bernard to Hildegard, a letter from the latter to the former (ff. 91v-92v), and a fragment of her masterpiece Liber divinorum operum (ff. 92v-94v). The next text is the largest part of the manuscript (ff. 95r-165v): a commentary on the Song of Songs. The final leaves (ff. 166r-208v) contain sermons for a number of important feasts: Christmas, Purification of Mary, the feast of Saint Benedict, Annunciation, Easter, Ascension, the feast of the Holy Spirit, Trinity, the feast of Saint John the Baptist and the feast of Peter and Paul. The text is written in two columns per page in a neat textualis script. The exception is the commentary on the Psalm, which has been added in a cursive script. Rubrics and paragraph marks in red ink, each text begins with a decorated initial, with additional penwork and extensive decorations in the margin. The manuscript is bound in a late medieval leather binding, with blindstamped covers. To fit this binding, the manuscript was trimmed, with loss to some marginal notes. The first and last leaves bear the cross-shaped stamp of Ten Duinen. [Summary by Dr Mark Vermeer]