Volume / Number: 9 / 1429

• Würzburg Germany Universitätsbibliothek M.P. Th. Q. 1a

Written apparently in France, and probably in the North, to judge from the early marginal insertions. By the late eighth century it was in a scriptorium where Anglo-Saxon scribes were active. Belonged to the Würzburg Cathedral certainly towards the end of the eleventh century, when it received its present ivory cover with the representation of St Kilian’s martyrdom; was at that time apparently believed to be the very book which according to the legendary Passion of the saint was found with his relics in 752.

Script is a rather small, neat, not very expert uncial: the eye of E is mostly closed and the tongue rises to the right; the first stroke of M is mostly unattached; open a occurs in mid-word (p. 23); Z has the tall form. Liturgical lection-notes in uncial, cursive, Merovingian minuscule and Notae Tironianae (saec. VIII). Anglo-Saxon minuscule saec. VIII is used here and there to restore the original text. An Anglo-Saxon alphabet is seen scratched in in the upper margin of p. 219.

☛McGurk, Gospel books no. 78. ☛Index Tironianorum.

• http://vb.uni-wuerzburg.de/ub/mpthq1a/index.html

• Origin: Merovingian MSS, a provisional handlist (Wood 2017)
• Text: MSS containing biblical text (including Gospels)
• Text: MSS containing Gospel text