## AN UNNOTICED TWELFTH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT OF ARATOR'S HISTORIA APOSTOLICA , WROC Ł AW *

## UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, AKC. 2018/1

By Michal Broda

Summary: This article concerns a hitherto unknown 12th-century manuscript containing the Historia Apostolica of Arator, a 6th-century Christian poet. The codex was donated in  2018  to  the  Wroc ł aw  University  Library,  where  it  was  given  the  shelf  mark  Akc. 2018/1. It came to the Library badly damaged and underwent conservation treatment in the Library's Special Collections Conservation Workshop. This paper describes the physical condition of the manuscript before and after conservation, as well as presenting its content. The manuscript has not yet been cited at all in the literature on Arator, it is not included in the list of all his manuscripts, and has not been described in any catalogue. Neither its provenance nor its fate until the 19th century, when it found its way to the book collection of professor Friedrich Haase from the University of Breslau, is known.

Popular in the Middle Ages and largely forgotten in modern times, the late antique Christian poet Arator has been the subject of intensive research over the past few decades. This includes a considerable number of separate studies 1 and chapters in monographs on biblical poetry, epic

* The digital copy of the manuscript is available in the Digital Library of the Wroc ł aw University Library at the following address: https://www.bibliotekacyfrowa.pl/dlibra/publication/114075/edition/129211/content. I would here like to thank my colleagues  from  the  Manuscript  Department  of  the  Wroc ł aw  University  Library:  Dr Adam Pozna ń ski  for  all  his  remarks  and  comments on the codex and Dr Antoine Haaker for his help with French studies on Arator.
- 1 Angelucci 1990a; Angelucci 1990b; Deproost 1990; Hillier 1993; Schlechter 1993; Bureau  1997;  Schwind  1990;  Schwind  1995;  Mori  2012  (see:  https://air.unimi.it/retrieve/handle/2434/219532/274157/phd\_unimi\_R08511.pdf (consulted on 22nd February 2022)).

poetry  and  paraphrases  of  the  Bible. 2 There  is  also  an  abundance  of smaller publications and articles on the subject. 3 The two critical editions of the Historia Apostolica which have appeared in this century show the advances of textual scholarship on Arator. 4 Recently several translations into modern languages such as English, 5 French, 6 Italian 7 and Portuguese 8 have appeared. The Historia Apostolica is a poetic paraphrase of the Acts of the Apostles written in hexameters. It consists of two books of 1076 and 1250 hexameters respectively. It is an extraordinary work due to its rich classical vocabulary and extensive exposés, especially regarding numerological symbolism. 9 The Historia Apostolica is  usually accompanied in manuscripts either by three letters, or by one or two of them, written in elegiac distichs: Epistola ad Vigilium , Epistola ad Florianum and Epistola ad Parthenium . Florianus, Vigilius and Parthenius, to whom these letters are addressed, are contemporaries of Arator. Vigilius was pope during the years 537-555 AD and is the most important addressee of Arator's work. 10 Parthenius was Arator's friend and fellow pupil in the school

- 2 Among others: Roberts 1985; Roberts 1989; Green 2006; Martorelli 2006; Mcbrine 2017.
- 3 Among a large number of articles, those by Bruno Bureau and Paul Augustin Deproost are the most significant: Bureau 1991; Bureau 1998; Bureau 1999; Bureau 2004; Deproost 1989a; Deproost 1989b; Deproost 1989c; Deproost 1990b; Deproost 1992; Deproost & Haelewyck 1993; Deproost 1997; Deproost 1998. Also worth mentioning are the following: Sotinel 1989 and Licht 2008.
- 4 Orbán 2006. This publication consists of two volumes. The edition of the Historia Apostolica and accompanying letters contained in the first volume reproduces most of the errors of McKinlay's 1951 edition (McKinlay 1951). Of far greater value, however, is the second volume, which contains an edition of glosses to the Historia Apostolica . See the review of the edition by P.A. Deproost, Latomus 68, 2009: 1067-69. Bureau & Deproost 2017. This is a completely new edition of the Historia Apostolica . Its authors have managed to reconstruct its stemma codicum for the first time in history. See the review by R. Hillier, Latomus 78, 2019: 815-18.
- 5 Schrader, Roberts & Makowski 1987; Hillier 2020.
- 6 Bureau & Deproost 2017.
- 7 An Italian translation of the first book of the Historia Apostolica is found in Mori 2012: 91-117.
- 8 The translation includes Epistola ad Florianum , Epistola ad Vigilium , Epistola ad Parthenium and the second book of Historia Apostolica ; see Manso 2010.
- 9 Kannengiesser 2006: 1307.
- 10  Green 2006: 263.

of the grammarian Deuterius in Milan and Epistola ad Parthenium was presumably added to a copy of the Historia Apostolica sent to him. 11 Similarly, Epistola ad Florianum should probably be connected with a manuscript of the Historia Apostolica handed over to a certain Florianus whose identification with a specific individual is unclear. 12 The letters are important because they reveal the poetic intentions that led the author to choose such a theme for the work. 13 The text of the Historia Apostolica or parts of it are preserved in around 150 manuscripts, now in libraries all over Europe. 14

The figure of Arator himself is not well known. It is believed that he came from Liguria, was born after 480 AD, and was educated in Milan under the tutelage of the local bishop Lorenzo and the well-known poet Ennodius. He then stayed at the Ostrogothic court in Ravenna. Later still, he went to Rome, where he became a subdeacon during the pontificate of Pope Vigilius. 15 The only firmly documented date in his biography is 544 AD. On 6 April of that year, he recited the Historia Apostolica before Pope Vigilius, to whom he dedicated it. Subsequently, its public reading before a wider audience took place on 13 and 17 April and 8 and 30 May in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome and was enthusiastically

11  Hillier 2020: 7, 15, 18, 72; Green 2006: 264.

12  Green 2006: 263-64.

13  Constanza 2014: 210.

- 14  A.P. McKinlay lists and describes 103 manuscripts from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries and quotes about 40 manuscripts mainly from the later period. See McKinlay 1942: 3-65; McKinlay 1943: 93-96. Now the number of known manuscripts containing the Historia Apostolica is higher. Two fragments from the seventh century are known in particular: Oxford, Bodleian Library, e Musaeo 66 and Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, Aug. perg. 253; cf. Ker, Lowe & McKinlay 1944; Eizenhöfer 1953; Bureau & Deproost 2017: CXIII-CXIV, CXCI. For example, in Poland, apart from the manuscript discussed in this article (Akc. 2018/1), there is a fifteenth-century manuscript of Arator, which was not cited by A.P. McKinlay: Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiello ń ska, cod. 2251 (see Wis ł ocki 1881: 539).
- 15  Kannengiesser 2006: 1307-8; Orbán 2006: vol. 1, 1-3; Mori 2012: 7-8; Bureau & Deproost 2017: VII-XIII.

received. Arator's life after this date is not known. 16 He may have died during an epidemic that raged in Rome between 546 AD and 549 AD. 17

In 2018 the Wroc ł aw University Library received a hitherto unknown manuscript of Arator's Historia Apostolica as a gift from the family of the classical  philologist  and  archaeologist  Otto  Rossbach.  The  manuscript was given the shelf mark Akc. 2018/1. Otto Rossbach (1858-1931), who obtained his habilitation at the University of Breslau (now the University of Wroc ł aw) and was a professor at the University of Königsberg from 1895 until 1926, bought it in 1899 from the book collection of the late Rudolf Peiper. He was its third known owner. This is indicated by one of the two ownership notes made in pencil, probably by Rossbach himself, on  the  paper  folio  II  recto: m.  Febr.  1899  ex  Rudolfi  Peiperi  libris  emi  O. Rossbach Regimontanus . The second note in pencil on this folio reads: ex libris Friderici Haasii professoris Wratislauiensis emi Rudolf Peiper m. Januario 1870 ,  and  was  presumably  written  by  Rudolf  Peiper.  Accordingly,  the manuscript first belonged to Friedrich Haase (1808-1867), professor of philology and rhetoric at the University of Breslau, and from 1870 it was in the hands of Rudolf Peiper (1834-1898), a well-known Wroc ł aw philologist and gymnasium teacher, who bought it from the book collection of his predecessor. After Haase's death, his book collection was listed and published in the auction catalogue of the Schletter'sche Buchhandlung and was auctioned off at a sale held in January 1870. 18 Among the objects auctioned was Arator's manuscript, which has an inscription in pencil on the inside of the front cover: Ex bibliotheca Haaseanea (p. 216, n. 7334) , 19 re-

- 16  Orbán 2006: vol. 1, 5-6; Green 2006: 251-52; Mcbrine 2017: 173-74; Bureau & Deproost 2017: XXI-XXII.

17  Hillier 2020: 33.

- 18  Bibliotheca Haaseana, 1869. According to this auction catalogue, his book collection consisted of more than 7,000 items, including about 30 manuscripts. These went to various book collections. For example, the Wroc ł aw University Library preserves his Greek  liturgical  manuscript,  now  located  at  shelf-mark  R  502,  cf.  Bibliotheca Haaseana, 1869: no. 7322, 216. See also note 20.
- 19  This entry was under the front paper cover, which was glued on at a later date (after 1870). It was uncovered as a result of conservation work carried out in the University Library's Special Collections Conservation Workshop. See below in the main text of this article.

ferring to a particular page and item in the said catalogue, which contains a brief description of it. It was at this sale that Rudolf Peiper acquired it. 20 It is not known how Haase acquired the codex or who its previous owners were.

It came to the University Library in poor condition. 21 We can see that its last conservation took place after 1870, because the pastedown which was glued then covered the entry which was made in that year. 22 The codex has not preserved its medieval binding but has been rebound several times. The chamfered boards were covered with brown leather, which survived mainly on the front cover and only fragmentally on the back cover. The fittings survived, four each on the front and back covers, as well as a clasp and two deformed lower bosses on the back cover. The spine was damaged and detached from the text block. The leather was badly dried and cracked. In places where the leather was missing, there was brown, heavily soiled fabric (about 2 cm wide in the inner margin of the  front  cover,  the  spine  and  over  three  quarters  of  the  back  cover) worn through at the cords and torn at the top and bottom of the spine near the boards. The leather of the binding had faint blind stamps tooled with lines and rolls. There were also traces of wormholes visible on the leather.

The text block was in a rather bad condition. As mentioned above, it was detached from the spine. The quires - tied together by three double

- 20  The Arator manuscript was not the only manuscript from Haase's book collection that Peiper bought at the time. Another manuscript he probably acquired at the time was a codex containing Expositio super septem psalmos poenitentiales by Petrus de Alliaco  (Pierre  d'Ailly).  See:  http://pecia.blog.tudchentil.org/category/vente-auction/page/5/ and https://www.textmanuscripts.com/medieval/alliaco-illuminated-liturgy-60449 (consulted on 28th February 2022). According to the description contained therein, there is a pencil entry on the front pastedown of this manuscript: Ex bibliotheca Haaseanea (p. 216, n. 7330) , and on the front free endpaper (front flyleaf) a stamp: Dr R. Peiper .
- 21  I would here like to thank Ms. Katarzyna Ł abuz, Head of University Library's Special Collections Conservation Workshop for all the information concerning the condition of the manuscript when it arrived at the Wroc ł aw University Library and the methods of its restoration.
- 22  See text above and note 19.

cords of linen threads - were cracked in the gutter from the upper margin to the cord. The parchment leaves were heavily soiled with brown stains, shabby, corrugated. Some had holes caused by mechanical wear (fols. 33, 39, 46). A paper pastedown was glued to the front board. To the back of the block two handmade paper quires (6 folios and 4 folios) were sewn along with manuscript parchment reinforcing strips. A few of these folios  were  stained  and  some  small  pieces  of  their  lower  margins  are missing. The back of the text block was joined to the board by a paper pastedown.

The codex has undergone the following conservation treatments. 23 The  binding  has  been  separated  from  the  block.  The  front  and  back pastedowns have been peeled off while damp, and then the boards and pastedowns have been cleaned of glue. The old fabric has been removed from the binding. The leather and boards have been wet-cleaned of glue residues. From the front board the fittings have been removed on the spine side and the leather was lifted up, and from the back board the fittings,  bosses  and  remains  of  leather  have  been  removed.  The  fittings have been cleaned with prosthetic instruments. Remnants of cords and pegs have been removed from the boards. The quires have been separated and cleaned of glue, and then sewn onto double string cords according to their original position. The spine has been cold sealed with a mixture of paste and hide glue. The gaps between the cords have been sealed with leather straps. The boards have been attached to the text block and the original pegs have been restored. New leather has been stretched over the spine, the back board and part of the front board, which is where the fabric used to be and where the original leather was added. The fittings have been returned to their original place. The strap of the clasp has been reinforced with new leather. The binding has been treated with balsam and petroleum jelly. The leaves have been cleaned with  a  latex  sponge,  rubbers  of  various  hardness,  brushes  and  cotton buds while damp. Cracks in the parchment and paper leaves have been reinforced with paper pulp, long-fibre paper and tissue paper.

- 23  The conservation of the codex has been carried out by Ma ł gorzata Kruk from the University Library's Special Collections Conservation Workshop. The photographic documentation has been made by Ma ł gorzata Kruk and Dorota Chmielarz.

The twelfth-century manuscript of Arator currently consists of 60 folios numbered in pencil (ff. I, 1- 41, 43-48, II-XII). To these may be added two paper pastedowns detached from the front and back boards during conservation, which together with f. I and f. XII form the front and rear endpapers of the manuscript volume. 24 The nineteenth-century pencil foliation was made before the loss of f. 42, of which only a very narrow parchment strip remained. The main part of the manuscript (ff. 1-41, 4348)  consists  of  parchment  leaves.  The  additional  ff.  II-XI  are  made  of handmade paper (on f. VII and f. IX fragments of two different watermarks are visible). Ff. I, 48v, Iiv-XIIv are blank. On the inside of the front board there are three entries: at the top in pencil: Insunt folia 48 membranacea ; in the middle, in dark blue crayon: Foll. 49 ; and at the bottom, the aforementioned pencil entry: Ex Bibliotheca Haaseanea (p. 216, n. 7334) with an illegible entry (also in pencil) in parenthesis. On f. IIr there is an entry in pencil at the upper margin: saeculi duodecimi , below in another hand and also in pencil: 6 quaterniones = 48 folia membranacea , and further down two the previously mentioned ownership inscriptions in pencil.

The codex consists of 8 quires. Its parchment part (ff. 1-48) comprises 6 quaternions, with the last, sixth quaternion being incomplete due to the loss of f.  42.  The  arrangement of the folios within the parchment quires is thus as follows: 1 4+4 + 2 4+4 + 3 4+4 + 4 4+4 + 5 4+4 + 6 3+4 . Quire signatures in Roman numerals are written in the middle of a lower margin of the leaf beginning each quire (f. 1r, 9r, 17r, 25r, 33r, 41r). The paper quires (ff. II-XI) are ternion and binion: 7 3+3 ; 8 2+2 . Both these quires (the seventh and eighth) are reinforced with parchment strips written in a medieval script.

The main text of the codex was copied in one column on folios measuring 15 cm x 9.5 cm. Horizontal and vertical lines of the ruling made with dry point are mainly visible on a few early pages of the manuscript. On f. 1r attempts of the ruling with pen are noticeable, but these were abandoned on subsequent folios.  The  writing  pattern  was  given  little consideration by the scribe. The written space of the main text (ff. 1r46v) measures approximately 11.5 cm x 6.5 cm. There are approximately

25 lines of text on each page. The unfinished Accessus on ff. 47r-48r occupies a space of 12 cm x 7.5 cm with 33 lines per page. Some of the leaves show traces of pricking.

At the beginning of the main text (f. 1r) there is the Praefatio (inc. Romani obsessi erant a gothis in quodam castello tusci ę inter quos erat Arator ... x ... expl . romanos quorum unus fuit arator diu fluctiuagos pristin ę libertati restituerunt ) . 25 Not written by Arator, the preface takes various forms in Arator's manuscripts. 26 It is then followed by Epistola ad Florianum (ff. 1r-1v), Epistola ad Vigilium (ff. 1v-2r) and Historia Apostolica itself (ff. 2v- 46v). The final  leaves  of  the  codex  (ff.  47r-48r  contain  the  unfinished  text  (inc. [Int] encio est aratoris in hoc libro breuiter recolligere actus apostolorum ... x ... et conuerso paula [with o added above a at the end] proconsule apud paphum deinde ...). It is actually a completely unique text of Accessus ad Aratorem , found only in this codex. It is structured in a number of sentences, each beginning with the words: Intencio a [ratoris] est in ... It differs from the Accessus  Aratoris ,  which  is  present  in  some  Arator  manuscripts 27 and which, from the twelfth century onwards, can be found in anthologies now referred to as Accessus ad auctores. 28 This Accessus consists of three sections of which the first treats the life of Arator, the second analyses the work, and the third section interprets the two epistles which are at the beginning of the work. 29 The accessus in the codex in question focuses primarily on the presentation of authorial intention and is longer than

- 25  In the quoted parts of the manuscript, an attempt has been made to preserve its spelling as much as possible. Only brachygraphic abbreviations have been expanded. Proper names have been left written in lower case if that is how they were written in the manuscript. Missing or reconstructed and any additional words were placed in square brackets.
- 26  In his edition of Historia Apostolica 's praefatio and glosses A.P. Orbán takes into account five manuscripts that contain the praefatio (also called prologus ): Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana C 74 sup.; London, British Library, Royal MS. 15 A. V.; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (further cited: BNF), fonds latin 2773; Paris, BNF, fonds latin 17905; Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (further cited: BAV), Palat. Lat. 1716. See Orbán 2006: vol. 1, 1-2, 41, 43, 54, 61, 90; 2, 1-2.
- 27  See for example: München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 19451, p. 218-19; Paris, BNF, fonds latin 8095, f. 1v.
- 28  The latest edition: Wheeler 2015: 44-46.
- 29  Wheeler 2015: 156.

the one mentioned above. It also contains elements of the summary of the Historia Apostolica .

The manuscript does not include the Epistola ad Parthenium. 30 It  also lacks the anonymous relatio , which appears sometimes at the beginning, sometimes at the end in most of Arator's oldest manuscripts. 31 It is a type of official account of the Historia Apostolica 's presentation to Pope Vigilius and its subsequent public readings. It was probably written shortly after the poem itself. 32 Epistola ad Florianum and Epistola ad Vigilium do not include dedications written in prose. The Historia Apostolica itself  (ff.  2v46v)  also  lacks  a  prose  dedication.  It  does  not  contain  non-Aratorian prose capitulationes - the one-sentence 'chapter titles' usually placed in their entirety before the poem or half before its first book and half before its second, and the tituli several-sentence prose summaries that were usually included in the text before the relevant 'chapter' of the poem. 33

It seems that this manuscript was transcribed for use in schools and was stripped of all the additional parts in prose i.e.: the editorial paratext ( capitulationes , tituli and relatio )  and  the  dedications  mentioned  above

- 30  It appears in only two of Arator's manuscripts: Paris, BNF, fonds lat. 2773 and fonds lat. 9347 in the edition of A.P. Orbán identified as P1 and P5 (cf. Orbán 2006: 1, 52-60, 66-71, 205), and in the edition of Bureau & Deproost as Θ and R (cf. Bureau & Deproost 2017: CXVIII-CXX, CXVI-CXVII, CXCI).
- 31  It occurs in most of the ninth- and tenth-century manuscripts that form the basis of the latest Historia Apostolica edition. See Bureau & Deproost 2017: 185-86. Cf. also Sotinel 1989: 805-8.
- 32  Sotinel 1989: 805-8.
- 33  The terms capitulationes and tituli are used by Bureau and Deproost in their latest edition of Historia Apostolica . The previous editors A.P. McKinlay (McKinlay 1951) and A.P. Orbán (Orbán 2006) referred to capitulationes as tituli and to tituli as capitula . Capitulationes and tituli occur  in  most  manuscripts  collated  by  A.P.  McKinlay,  A.P. Orbán, and B. Bureau & P.-A. Deproost. Because they were written and included later in the text, B. Bureau & P.-A. Deproost do not put them in their HA edition (cf. Bureau & Deproost 2017: CVIII-CIX). Instead, they are part of the text in the editions of both McKinlay and Orbán, although both editors were aware that they are not written by Arator (McKinlay 1951: IX; Orbán 2006: 1, 100). See also Hillier 2020: 75. Capitulationes and tituli cease to appear in manuscripts of the twelfth century and later. This is  not  a  rule.  For  example,  two  twelfth-century  codices  of  Arator  do  not  include them: BAV, Palat. Lat. 1717 and Paris, BNF, fonds latin 16699, but they appear in one thirteenth-century manuscript: Paris, BNF, fonds latin 14758.

which are usually scattered in Arator's manuscripts. It can be assumed with a high degree of certainty that the codex from which the manuscript in question was copied had tituli , as the division into chapters introduced by them is noticeable. The copyist left space for initials at the beginning of each chapter 34 and usually kept a wider spacing between successive 'chapters.'

The initially copied text of Historia Apostolica was sometimes supplemented in the main column or in the margins with one or more lines, the lack of which was most often due to the copyist's omissions. Such lines later added to the main column include 1.194-197: ( festinas proferre reos ... x ... uoce parentum ) [f. 5v]. In the margins the text was filled in with the following lines: 1.836-837 ( cetera membra ... x ... si iure movemus ) [f. 18r], 2.100 ( uenerit ipse salus stimulis agitata furoris ) [f. 24v] and 2.736 ( quod iacet interius menti non dura metalli )  [f.  36v].  The  last  two  lines  are  currently very worn out and therefore partially illegible.

The following lines are completely missing in the manuscript: 1.487 ( Omnibus ergo salus uno poscente uenibat ), 35 2.73 ( Virgineos intrare sinus. Euoluite, quicquid ) and the last line of Historia Apostolica 2.1250 ( et tenet aeternam socialis gratia palmam ). After line 2.1249 there is a five-line, partially illegible subscription, half of which reads: .... ET TIBI / SALVATORI LAUS SIT QUIA / FINIT ARATOR (f. 46v). 36 Due to the lack of f. 42, the text does not contain the lines: 2.1010-1060 ( ut memoras, quot tela moues ... x ... pro uita meliore mori. Sed muneris auctor ).

- 34  See below on the codex's script.
- 35  This line is only transmitted by late manuscripts containing Historia Apostolica or by marginalia. Bureau & Deproost think that it is probably a gloss which was given a metrical  form  (Bureau  &  Deproost  2017:  XCV,  36,  241).  A.P.  Orbán  in  his  edition (Orbán 2006: 1, 95, 260) quotes four manuscripts that contain this line: Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana C 74 sup.; Paris, BNF, fons latin 9347; Chartres, Bibliothèque municipale 70 (45); Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 3862 (formerly 589). However, this information  is  incorrect.  It  is  not  confirmed  by  other  editions,  and  an  available online microfilm of the manuscript Paris, BNF, fonds latin 9347 does not include the lines: 1.342-2.95. See: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9066678v/f9.item (consulted on 17.02.2022).
- 36  Cf. other subscriptions in Arator's manuscripts: McKinlay 1951: 148-49; Orbán 2006: 1, 402.

The manuscript was copied by several hands, which all bear some features of the littera Praegothica (also called Protogothic) characteristic of the twelfth century. It is hardly a script type in itself. It is, in fact, Carolingian script that shows to a greater or lesser extent one or more of the new features which would only be present all together in the fully developed Gothic textualis. 37 The praefatio , placed before the main text on f. 1r, was written in brownish ink by a hand identical to that of some of the interlinear and marginal glosses in the codex (ff. 1v, 2v, 4r, 5r). The letter r of this hand always has the same form. The straight Carolingian s is used in almost every position. The 'uncial' s is observed only at the beginning of the sentence. The vertical Carolingian d is the most frequent, but sometimes the 'uncial' d with sloping ascender appears. The lower bow of g is closed. This hand uses the tironian sign for 'et' and e caudata at the end of a word.

The main text of Historia Apostolica was written with dark ink by two hands. The first one copied text on f. 1r-23v (first 8 lines). The letters f and straight s are upright and very similar. 'Uncial' s is used only at the beginning of the sentence. The shaft of a is almost in a vertical position. The normal Carolingian shape of r is usually used but in a few instances the  capital  R  appears  at  the  end  of  the  word  (e.g.  uilior,  f.  13r).  The straight d may be found everywhere. The lower bow of g is open. The second hand copied the text on ff. 23v-46v. It is probably responsible for Accessus (ff. 47r-48r) and for a large part of glosses on all folios as well. The main characteristic of this handwriting is that particular letters and the strokes of some letters are often unconnected to one another. For that reason, for example such letter as m, n, i and u are difficult for readers to distinguish, because forming them particular/single minims are simply  separated.  This  problem  has  sometimes  been  partly  solved  by adding strokes above i. The letter r sometimes extends a little below the baseline. Straight s is the most frequent but sometimes round s may be found at the beginning and at the end of a word. d is straight everywhere. The letter g has an open lower bow. The ampersand is used for et.

The  five-line,  partially  illegible  subscription  on  f.  46v  is  written mostly in capital letters. 38 Uppercase letters are also used to at the beginning of each verse, at the beginning of names, and sometimes at first words of individual chapters (e.g. Primus , f. 4v, Agmine , f. 7v). The manuscript is not illuminated. Space has been left for the initials of words beginning both Epistolae and each of the 'chapters' of Historia Apostolica . Some of these initials were produced with a pen (ff. 1r, 4v, 8v, 9r, 14v, 16v, 17r, 22v, 24v, 27r, 38v).

The marginal and interlinear glosses which are very numerous on ff. 1-41 and were partly trimmed, probably during past conservation treatments of the codex, belong to the first of the two groups into which the tradition of glosses to Historia Apostolica was divided by their editor A.P. Orbán. 39 This is evidenced, for example, by the following glosses characteristic of this group: Ad Flor. 2: ORE] in principio (f.  1r); Ad Flor. 5: CONCURRE] festina (f. 1r); Hist. Apos. 1.4: IMA] profunditatem (f. 2r); Hist. Apos. 1.4: ARDUA] altitudinem (f. 2r); Hist. Apos. 1.13: CINERESQUE PIORUM] corpora sanctorum (f.  2v); Hist. Apos. 1.25:  DOCUMENTA] indicia (f.  2v); Hist. Apos. 2.1008: FAMEN] tuam (f. 41v). 40 Ff. 43r-46v were not annotated at all. Ff. 1r, 8r, 43v, 45v carry numerous pen trials.

Due to its age, the manuscript in question is not among the codices important for establishing the text of the Historia Apostolica , as the manuscripts containing the Historia dated later than the eleventh century are believed to be of no value for the textual history of Arator's work. 41 This is because they systematically reproduced errors that crept into the text of the Historia Apostolica during the Carolingian period . Nevertheless, the manuscript of Arator discussed here is interesting and its existence is worth pointing out. Often manuscripts in private hands are poorly identified and described by researchers. Such is the case with this twelfth century manuscript, which is not mentioned in the literature on Arator, is not included in the list of all his manuscripts and has never been described in any catalogue. It may also have potential value for the study of the tradition of glosses. Its fate can only be traced from the nineteenth century, when it found its way to the book collection of the aforementioned Professor Friedrich Haase.

38  See above.

39  Orbán 2006: 1, 102-3. Dividing the tradition into two groups, the editor analysed 27 codices. In addition to these, he also took into account the mixed tradition, which included manuscripts with glosses from both the first and second groups.

40  A.P. Orbán assigned the following manuscripts to this group: Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek 302 (450), München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek clm 19451 (Tegernsee 1451), Paris, BNF, fonds latin 8318, Trier, Stadtbibliothek 1093/1694, BAV, Palat. Lat., 1716 (see Orbán 2006: 1, 103).

41  Bureau & Deproost 2017: CXII.

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