• Brittany (probably)

• Fleury (s. XI)?
• Saint-Denis
• Collection of Paul Petau (1568-1614).

• Historiography
• Patristica

Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos.

• Probably written in Brittany
• Some contents probably derive from a Breton exemplar / archetype

The scribe of this MS (or of its exemplar?) was Liosmonocus (about whom see the entry for Rome (Città del Vaticano), BAV, MS Reg.lat.81 in the present Handlist), as revealed by the colophon at fols 107vb–108ra. Note that the same colophon was copied in the later MSS Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Voss. Lat. F. 13, and Paris, BnF, Lat. 4877 (cf. Lambert 1988: 215–16; Lemoine 1988): Expliciunt septeni libri sancti Orosii, quos Liosmonocus iussit pingi diaconus. Idcirco, fratres karissimi, qui istos scrutemini, orate, rogo, pro illo, ut deus ei longaeuam felicemque tribuat uitam et post in die ultimo eius animae in caelo requiem concedat cum sanctis et sedem regni perennis. Amen. In all likelihood, this MS was written in a Breton scriptorium, although it may have reached the library of Fleury at an early stage, perhaps already in the eleventh century (LF BF1373; Arnaud-Lindet 1990: lxxiv).

The vernacular and Latin glosses on Orosius's Historiae occurring in this MS are related to the other Breton codices containing glosses on the same text: in particular, Reg.lat.296 is closely related to Paris, BnF, Lat. 4877 and Venice, Bibl. Marciana, MS Zanetti Lat. 349 (cf. Lambert 1988: 220; Bauer 2019). It is also important to highlight the presence of a possible corrupt Old Irish gloss (sainis, probably for Old Irish sanas, 'secret information'), as well as a gloss (shared with Lat. 4877) of obvious Anglo-Saxon character (buric and burg as translations of Lat. oppidum; note also the collocation pane principis, a calque on Old English hlāfweard, 'lord'; cf. Lambert 1988: 216; Lambert 2018: 27). Moreover, there are links between the whole tradition of Breton glossing on Orosius's Historiae and the Anglo-Saxon 'Corpus Glossary' (cf. Lambert 1988: 214–15). Finally, Szerwiniack (1992–3: 20–22; 2007: 171–2) has identified a number of glosses shared by Reg.lat.296 and the Orosian glossae collectae in Rome (Città del Vaticano), BAV, Reg.lat.1650 (s. IX 2/2, from the area of Soissons): these parallel glosses may derive from an Irish model.

Complex phenomena of linguistic interaction characterise the Breton manuscript transmission of Orosius's Historiae (known in Brittany mostly under the Celtic-Latin title De Ormesta Mundi, about which see Arnaud-Lindet 1990: xiii–xiv, Lambert 2018: 26, and the entry for Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 160 in the present Handlist; this title occurs also in Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS D 23 sup., written at Bobbio in the second half of the seventh century, and in Rome (Città del Vaticano), BAV, Pal.lat.829, written at Lorsch in Anglo-Saxon minuscule). These phenomena speak of a wide circulation and shared glossing practices throughout the insular world—a world which included Brittany (in relation to this aspect, see the concluding remarks in Lambert 1988: 220, and Coz 2007: 299).

Arnaud-Lindet 1990: xiii–xiv, lxix, lxxiv, lxxxi–lxxxii; Bauer 2008: 183–6; Bauer 2019 (passim, siglum Q); Coz 2007: 289, 299; Deuffic 2008: 125; DGVB 6; Grosjean 1956: 39–40; Guillotel 1985: 26; Lambert 1988: 213 (and passim); Lambert 1989: 81; Lambert 1994: 103; Lambert 2018: 26–7; Lemoine 1985: 33–7, 288; Lemoine 1988; Lemoine 1994a: 82–3, 108; Lemoine 2001: 263–4; Lemoine 2008: 139 (n. 12); Lemoine 2010: 219; LF BF1373; PMSB 318 (§110); Schrijver 2011: 10; Smith 1992: 171 (n. 100); Szerwiniack 1992–3: 20–22; Szerwiniack 2007: 171–2, 196; Vidier 1965: 67 (n. 281.8); Wilmart 1937–45: II, 130–2.

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