MS. NOTES IN A COPY OF LIBER SENTENTIARUM.
As MS. notes in old books have been regarded as fit matter for this journal, I would contribute two or three from a copy of Peter Lombard's Book of Sentences, printed at Vienna in 1477. This has not only passed through divers hands before it came into mine, but several previous owners have left their names in it, and one of them very numerous marginal comments. Of these the earliest appears to have been Thomas Wallwell or T. Swallwell, a monk of Durham, who, from the handwriting, which is of the fifteenth century, I conclude was the marginal commentator. He has availed himself of the "Laus Deo" below the colophon to add "q' Ts. Wallwell monachus ecclesiæ cathedralis Dunelmensis." The words are abbreviated, but I have given them at length except the first, which, instead of being a q, with a comma, is a q with an oblique line through it, that I thought might baffle the printer. The comments are very scholastic, and such as would then have been considered much to the purpose. It is possible some reader of this journal may be able to supply information respecting this erudite monk.
The next owner, judging by the handwriting, which seems little, if at all, later than 1500, has thus recorded his ownership on the blank side of the last leaf:
"Istius libri verus est possessor dominus Stephanus Merleye."
He was probably a priest, but I have discovered no annotations by him; though, as there is scarcely a page without writing on it, there may be some.
However, the note to which I would more particularly invite attention is at the top of the first page, and in the handwriting, I think, of the above-mentioned monk. It is in abbreviated Latin, but read in extenso it runs thus:
"Sententiæ Petri Lumbardi fratris Graciani qui decretum compilavit, et etiam Petri Comestoris, qui scholasticam historiam edidit et alia. Iste Petrus Lumbardus fecit istud opus, edidit glossas psalterii et Epistolarum et plura alia. Fuit etiam episcopus Parisiensis. Isti tres fratres uterini erant, et floruerunt anno salutis 1154, qui fuit annus ab origine mundi 6353."
Over the word Graciani is interlined "monachi" in the same hand. In this statement two things are remarkable:—1. The allegation that these three well-known writers of the twelfth century were uterine brothers. 2. The mundane era. The former is hardly reconcileable with the generally received account of them, but it is not altogether new. Cave, writing of Gratian, adverts to a story of their having been brothers in the following words:
"Non desunt plurimi qui Gratianum, Petri Lombardi, Petrique Comestoris germanum fuisse volunt, matremque tergeminos hos fratres ex furtivo concubitu conceptos uno partu edidisse, quod quidem nullo satis gravis autoris testimonio fulcitur."—Scriptores Eccl., vol. ii. p. 216.
I am not going to advocate this story, for it is most likely false; and the monk's statement may not be correct; but as it is less improbable, it may be worth recording. Peter Lombard died in 1164. Gratian completed the Decretum about 1151, and probably survived some years, but I have not met with the date of his death. Peter Comestor died in 1198. They may therefore have all been contemporaries, though the last must have lived to a good old age, unless he were considerably younger than the others.
With regard to the mundane era by which the writer computed, it will be found to differ materially, not only from that now in common use among ourselves, but also from all that are mentioned by Sir H. Nicolas in his Chronology of History; for it assumes the Nativity to have occurred in the year of the world 5199. This, however, agrees with what appears to have been recognised as the era of the creation by the western churches from about the beginning of the fifth century (see De Vaine's Dictionnaire Raisonné de Diplomatique, voce Comput), though from some cause it seems to have been almost overlooked by modern writers in this country.
I have not attempted to explain the "q̵" before Ts. Wallwell. It may have meant "quoth," or "quæsit;" but I am not satisfied with anything that has occurred to me. It stands thus:
"Laus Deo. q̵, TsWallwell
Mocs ecc̄le cathedralis dunełm."
"Ts." for Thomas is not usual, but those are clearly the letters: I have tried to read the "s" (which may have been meant for a capital) with the surname, but Swallwell is a stranger cognomen than that I have attributed to the monk. Some correspondent conversant with Durham may possibly recognise the name in one of its forms.
W. S. W.
Temple.