• Brittany (probably)

Cornwall?

• Biography
• Philosophy
• List of saints

• Pseudo-Seneca, De moribus (acephalous) (Vv-r, IIIv-r, 104r-v, 105r-v, IVv-r, IIv-r)
• Jerome, De viris illustribus, chapter on Seneca only (IIv)
• List of Brittonic (especially Cornish) saints, added probably in the 10th century (IIv-r).

• Probably written in Brittany

This fragment contains Pseudo-Seneca's De moribus and Jerome's chapter from De viris illustribus concerning Seneca. Bischoff (Kat. §6631) had no hesitation in ascribing it to Brittany, and this attribution seems plausible, not only in view of the fragment's script (a recognisably Breton Caroline minuscule), but also due to the fact that it contains a list of forty-eight Brittonic and especially Cornish saints, added in insular minuscule at fols IIv-r. The existence of close contacts between Brittany and Cornwall in the Early Middle Ages is well known: thus, as has been proposed by Olson and Padel (1986: 37), the list of saints, which was penned shortly after the writing of the main text, may have been written in Brittany 'by an émigré Cornish, English, or Welsh scribe'. Alternatively, if this MS reached Cornwall from Brittany, the list may have been added in Cornwall (it is also noteworthy that the scribe who wrote the list may have also made a small correction to the text of Pseudo-Seneca's De moribus on fol. 105r (seventh line from the bottom; cf. Olson 1996). The list, whose contents reflects the incipient development of a parochial system in Cornwall (cf. Olson and Padel 1986: 63–9), includes the names of several 'pan-Brittonic' saints, as well as of saints more specifically associated with Cornwall; moreover, a few names are not known from any other source. It is unclear how these folios subsequently reached Rheims, where they were used as flyleaves of Reg.lat.191.

DGBV 7; Godu and Le Roux 1938; Olson 1996; Olson and Padel 1986; Pellegrin 1988: 465; Schrijver 2011: 8; Vendryes 1938.

• https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Reg.lat.191