* * * * *
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Ulm Manuscript_ (Vol. iii., p. 60.).--The late Bishop Butler's collection
of manuscripts is in the British Museum. I send you a copy of the bishop's
own description of the MS. (which should be called the _St. Gall MS._),
from the printed Catalogue, which was prepared for a sale by auction,
previous to the negociation with the trustees for the purchase of the
collection for the nation.
"Acta Apostolorum. Epistolae Pauli et Catholicae cum Apocalypsi. Latine.
Saeculi IX. Upon Vellum. 4to.
The date of this most valuable and important manuscript is preserved by
these verses:
'Iste liber Pauli retinet documenta sereni
Hartmodus Gallo quem contulit Abba Beato,
Si quis et hunc Sancti sumit de culmine Galli
Hunc Gallus Paulusque simul dent pestibus amplis.'
Which I thus have tried to imitate:
Thys boke conteynes the doctrynes of Seynct Paull,
Hartmodus thabbat yeve yt to Seynct Gall;
Gyf any tak thys boke from hygh Seynct Gall,
Seynct Gall appall hym and Seynct Paull hym gall.
Hartmodus was Abbot of St. Gall in the Grisons from A.D. 872 to 874. The
MS. therefore may be earlier than the former, but cannot be later than the
latter date. {192}
This MS. is of the very highest importance. It contains the celebrated
passage of St. John thus: 'Quia tres sunt, qui testimonium dant, Spliritus,
aqua, et sanguis, et tres unum sunt. Sicut in coelo tres sunt, Pater,
Verbum, et Spiritus, et tres unum sunt.' This most important word _Sicut_
clearly shows how the disputed passage, from having been a Gloss crept into
the text. And on the first page prior to the Seven Catholic Epistles is the
Prologue of St. Jerome, bearing his name in uncials, which Porson and other
learned men think spurious. See Porson's _Letters to Travis_, p. 290."--Bp.
Butler's Manuscript Catalogue.
H. Foss.
Rotherhithe, Jan. 29. 1851.
_Harrison's Chronology_ (Vol. iii., p. 105.).--To the querist on William
Harrison all lovers of bibliography are under obligations. At Oxford, amid
the Bodleian treasures, he could not have had many questions to ask: at
Thurles the case may be much otherwise, and he is entitled to a prompt
reply.
After examining the _Typographical Antiquities_ of Ames and Herbert, and
various bibliographical works, relying also on my own memory as a collector
of books for more than thirty years, I may venture to assert that the
_Chronology_ of W. Harrison has never been printed. I can further assert
that no copy of the work is recorded in the _Catalogi librorum
manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae_, Oxoniae, 1697.
The best account of Harrison is given by bishop Tanner, in his _Bibliotheca
Britannico-Hibernica_. Wood, however, should be consulted. With reference
to the events of his life, it is important to observe that the date of his
letter to sir William Brooke, which may be called an autobiography in
miniature, is 1577.
Assuming that this question could not escape the notice of other
contributors, I had made no researches with a view to answer it, and shall
be happy to remedy the defects of this scrap at a future time.