Summary
The full title of the manuscript, as found at the top of the list of contents, is "Liber sancte Marie de Thosan, in quo continentur Epistole beati Jheronimi et beati Augustini". An 18th-century note on the first leaf identifies the volume as "pars prima". This is taken from the explicit (fol. 140v), which reads "Explicit prima pars epistolarum". The manuscript indeed forms a set with manuscript 149, bearing a close similarity with regard to content, date and style. This volume contains forty letters, the majority of which written by Saint Jerome to various persons. A little less than half were written by others - mostly Saint Augustine - to Jerome. The manuscript is produced in a typical Cistercian style: the text is organized in two columns per page, with no decoration other than initials in red and green ink. The initial of each letter is executed more elaborately, written in either red or green ink and filled with decorations in the other colour. The initial of the first letter, on fol. 2r, diverges from this trend, as it has a red-blue colour scheme. Throughout the text glosses, marginalia and other additions are found, many in the text hand. Greek words have their Latin transliteration written above (e.g. on fols. 47v-48v). According to Lieftinck, this manuscript might have been produced in the scriptoria of Ten Duinen or Ter Doest, roughly around the year 1200. In any case the book was intended from the outset to have been in the possession of Ter Doest, as is evident from the title and has been repeated in the anathema on the final leaf: "Liber sancte Marie de Thosan, qui folium abstulerit vel curtaverit, anathema sit. Amen." The volume was transferred to the library of Ten Duinen following the incorporation of Ter Doest: the cross-shaped stamp of Ten Duinen is found on the first and final leaves. The manuscript is bound in a seventeenth-century binding of the 'Campmans' type. [Summary by Dr. Mark Vermeer]
Note
Pars prima. Bevat: inhoudstafel (f. 1v); Adversus Jovinianum (ff. 2r-41v); 45 brieven (ff. 41v-140v): Apologetica ad Pammachium, Ad Pammachium, Ad Domnionem, Ad Heliodorum, Ad Nepotianum de uita clericorum, Ad Rusticum monachum, Ad Eustochium de uirginitate seruanda, Ad Paulam de morte Blesille, Ad Heliodorum, Ad Pammachium de subita peregrinatione Pauline, Ad Oceanum de morte Fabiole, Epistola Damasi ad Iheronymum de quinque questionibus in Genesi, Rescriptum Iher. ad Dam., Ad Damasum in cantico canticorum post Origenem translatus, Tranquillino quemadmodum Origenem legere debeat, Ad Damasum de seraphim, Iher. ad Dam. de calculo et Osanna, Dam. ad Iher. de Osanna, Rescriptum Iher. de Osanna, Iher. ad Dam. de fide, Ad Damasum de hypostasibus, Augustinus ad Iheronymum epistula prima, Aug. ad Iher. axpostulantis et excusantis, Iher. ad Aug. familiaris, Iher. ad Aug. commendatio amici, Aug. ad Praesidium, Aug. ad Iher. excusantis et calumniam propellentis, Iher. ad Aug. familiaris, Aug. ad Iher. de translatione ex Hebraica veritate, Aug. ad Iher. de mendacio, Iher. ad Aug. de expositione cuiusdam loci epistulae ad Galatas, Iher. ad Aug. apologetica, Aug. ad Iher. super capitulo ad Galatas etc., Ad Marcellinum et Anapsychiam, Aug. ad Iher. de origine anime, Aug. ad Iher. de sententia Iacobi apostoli, Iher. ad Aug. rescriptum, Iher. ad Aug. contra Pelagianos, Iher. ad Aug. de hereticis, Iher. ad Alypium et Augustinum, Pammachii et Oceani ad Iher., Iher. ad Pammachium et Oceanum, Epiphanii Cypri missa ad Iohannem episcopum, Iher. ad Pammachium de optimo genere interpretandi, Iher. ad Avitum, Iher. ad Demetriadem (Cfr. Bernard Lambert, Bibliotheca Hieronymiana Manuscripta (Instrumenta patristica 4), Steenbrugge, 1969)
Bibliographic references
De Poorter, A., Catalogue des manuscrits de la bibliothèque publique de la ville de Bruges (Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques de Belgique 2), Gembloux: Duculot, 1934
Bibliographic references
Isaac, M.T., Les livres manuscrits de l'Abbaye des Dunes d'après le catalogue du XVIIe siècle (Livre - Idées - Société 4), Verviers: Gason, 1984
Bibliographic references
Lieftinck, G.I., De librijen en scriptoria der Westvlaamse Cisterciënser-abdijen Ter Duinen en Ter Doest in de 12e en 13e eeuw en de betrekkingen tot het atelier van de kapittelschool van Sint Donatiaan te Brugge, Brussel: AWLSK, 1953
Bibliographic references
van Belleghem, Doenja (ed.), De Duinenhandschriften : over de manuscripten van de cisterciënzerabdij Ten Duinen in het Grootseminarie Brugge en de Openbare bibliotheek Brugge, Brugge: Openbare Bibliotheek, 2016
