Présentation du contenu

Source des données : Mmmonk

• This early manuscript, dated to the third quarter of the twelfth century, is one of the first traces of scribal activity in the Ten Duinen abbey. The volume is a compilation of three texts: (ff. 1v-60r) De archa Noe; (ff. 60r-78v) De formatione arche; and (f. 79r-139r) De duodecim patriarchis sive Beniamin minor. The first two works were written by Hugh of Saint-Victor (d. 1141), an important pre-Thomist scholastic theologian and a prolific writer. Both deal with the subject of Noah's ark. In the De archa Noe, the ark is presented from three different perspectives: historically as a vessel; typologically as a precursor to the 'ark' that Christ built: the Church; and finally tropologically as an ark of wisdom, held in each person's heart. In the second text, De formatione arche but also known as De archa Noe mystica, a detailed description of the ark is provided. As is commonly found, in this manuscript the two texts were copied as a single work; thus reaching the total of four arks mentioned in the title. The third work was written by Richard of Saint-Victor (d. 1173), a fellow member of Hugh's monastery and one of his pupils. Just as his teacher, Richard uses a Biblical narrative (here the story of patriarch Jacob) to introduce his aim to the reader, in this case contemplation. This manuscript presents the text in a single column per page, with little decoration other than initials in red, green, and occasionally blue ink, and red accents in most majuscules. The edges of the pages have been cropped, as parts of a contemporary title are visible in the upper margin of fol. 1v. This volume has remained in the Ten Duinen abbey since its production. On the first leaf, we find an mark of ownership and a book curse: "Iste liber est ecclesie beate Marie de Dunis. Si quis eum abstulerit anathema sit." The first and last leaves carry the abbey's cross-shaped stamp. The binding is early Cistercian (12th- or 13th-century) and consists of brown leather over wooden boards, with traces of five metal mounts on each cover and one clasp. [Summary by Dr. Mark Vermeer]