• Loire Valley
• Fleury

Fleury

• Patristica
• Hymns

• Hymnus qui Sabbato sancto ad lavandos pedes cantatur, inc. Congregauit nos in unum Christi amor (fol. 1r)
• Ambrose, De officiis ministrorum (fols 1v-96v).

• Certainly not written in Brittany
• Possibly written and/or donated at the behest of a Breton ecclesiastic

The date indicated here is taken from Bischoff, Kat. §567, while Hagen (1875: 304) and Mostert (LF BF144) place the MS in the tenth century. Indeed, at fols 1v-2r the following inscription occurs: Hunc codicem Mabbo episcopus dedit sancto Benedicto, inprecans ut siquis eum abstulerit anathema sit. Amen ('Mabbo the bishop gave this codex to [the monastery of] Saint Benedict, invoking a curse upon anyone who may take it away. Amen'); this individual may well be Mabbo, bishop of Saint-Pol of Léon in Brittany, who, in the middle of the tenth century (c. AD 952–962), 'came to Fleury bearing the relics of Saint Paul Aurelian, an early bishop who had become the patron of his diocese. He arrived bearing not only the relics, but some ornate gospel books and even liturgical vestments' (Head 1990: 56, summarising details found in the Miracula Sancti Benedicti; cf. also Vidier 1965: 101–2, n. 186; Riché 2004: 18–21). However, pace Deuffic 2008: 113, there is no indication whatsoever that Bern 277 should be considered as one of the MSS that Mabbo brought from Brittany to Fleury, and it is therefore unclear what the above-mentioned inscription might mean. If the MS was written in the tenth century, then Mabbo could have paid for its production while he resided at Fleury; however, if Bischoff is correct in dating it to the ninth century, then how could Mabbo offer or dedicate this MS, written at a much earlier date at Fleury, to the abbey of Fleury? As an aside, it is worth mentioning that a beautiful dry-point drawing of a man (an ecclesiastic?) can be seen at fol. 55r in the inferior margin.

Deuffic 2008: 113; Ganz 2020: 242; Gougaud 1923: 5–6; Guillotel 1982: 280; Hagen 1875: 304; LF BF144; PMSB 295 (§14); Riché 1994: 18–21; Smith 1992: 164 (n. 66), 170 (n. 92); Vidier 1965: 40, 101–2 (n. 186).

• Not on-line (last checked 10/03/2020). An image of fol. 1v only (containing Mabbo's inscription) can be seen at http://katalog.burgerbib.ch/detail.aspx?ID=129353