Volume / Number: 10 / 1553

• Brussels Belgium Bibliothèque Royale II 2572

Written at the command of Charlemagne while still king ‘ex autentico Petri archidiaconi’, according to the stately inscription in the title on fol. 1 (which seems original here and not copied from an exemplar), and quite possibly in the Palace School, to judge by the beautiful script and the use of vellum. Belonged later to Stavelot: cf. the ex-libris on the inside of the front cover (saec. XV) and on fol. l (saec. XVIII). At the sale of the Stavelot manuscripts in 1847 our volume was acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps, in whose collection it was listed as nos. 12458 and 12362.

Script is a well-formed early Caroline minuscule by several hands: a, d, and n are the normal forms, but open a, ꝺ, and N are also used; r with the shaft going below the line is seen on foll. 78 ff.; y is sometimes dotted and standing on the line sometimes v-shaped with hair-line below; ligatures with r are frequent; a large half-uncial Ᵹ is seen at the beginning of a sentence on fol. 19. Corrections in contemporary and ninth-century minuscule. An anthem with neumes (saec. X) some verses (saec. IX) and sketches for initials (saec. XIII) are all entered on fol. 147.

☛Bischoff, Katalog 1 no. 755.

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