F-1szi: Pseudo-Haymo, Liverani homiliary, homily on Matthew 6:24-33 (Barré no. 67, Liverani no. LIII)
The leaf is identified with high confidence as part of a homily, not of a biblical commentary: the homily on "No man can serve two masters" from an anonymous Carolingian homiliary that circulated as homilies of "Haymo", a reworking of the homiliary of Haymo of Auxerre known as the Liverani homiliary. The recto has the exposition of the birds and the ravens, the verso that of the lilies of the field, in the order of the Gospel. The second half is shorter and partly reworded against both witnesses compared.
The Fragmentarium record describes a parchment leaf, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, NAL 2317, f. 6, 305 x 248 mm, dated 951-1000, catalogued as an unidentified biblical commentary on Matthew 6:25-31. The verses are as catalogued; the text is a homily for a Sunday after Pentecost, which expounds the Gospel reading phrase by phrase and so resembles a commentary. The catalogue names no author or work.
- Identification: identified, high. The leaf agrees in sequence and in distinctive wording with homily no. 67 of Barré's inventory of the Liverani homiliary (Liverani no. LIII, pp. 463-467, the part on pp. 465-466): the raven lore with "tale est ac si diceret Si deus tam uilia uolatilia ...", "Hoc non adfirmando sed abnegando dixit", and Solomon set against Christ who "habet lilium in uirginibus rosam in martiribus uiolam in confessoribus". Haymo of Auxerre's own homily for the Sunday (Patrologia Latina 118, printed as Haymo of Halberstadt) has the same exegesis in different words and is the source of the reworking, not the text on the leaf. Heiric of Auxerre's homilies (Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis 116B), searched by phrase, have none of the wording tested. Haymo's own homily (PL 118, cols. 682-684) ends that phrase "violam in continentibus". Qualification on the recension (that is, the distinct version of the text): in the lilies section the leaf is shorter than Liverani's print and Latin 3806 and words several comments differently, and its glosses on "minime fidei" and on "duo ... tria" were not found in either. Which version of the collection it represents is not determined.
- Transcription: source-assisted selected reading of fol. 6r column b lines 9-22 and fol. 6v column b lines 1-13; the image-only first reading covers all four columns. A research reader reread those two passages on enlarged crops; everything else rests on the first reading. Fol. 6r column a has lost the beginning of every line and is not read continuously; fol. 6r is rubbed and overwritten with 16th-century notes. Accuracy has not been measured.
- Verification: a research reader compared the ravens passage (fol. 6r) with page images of Paris, BnF, Latin 3806, fols. 163v-164r, and with Liverani's printed text as returned by Google Books search-within snippets, and the lilies passage (fol. 6v) with page images of Latin 3806, fols. 164v-165r. The coordinator read "lilium in uirginibus ... uiolam in confessoribus ... Si autem fenum agri" on the image of fol. 6v. Liverani's edition was not seen as page images. No human review.
Textual evidence
Manuscript: fol. 6r, column b, native-pixel box 2250,2100,4527,4300; fol. 6v, column b, box 2060,1000,4389,2900. Square brackets mark text lost or not read; abbreviations are resolved silently; the manuscript's spelling is kept.
| NAL 2317, f. 6 | Source |
|---|---|
| fol. 6r col. b (first reading, lines 2-8): "ad dominum clamant uagantes eo quod non habeant cibos [...] psalmista. Qui dat [...] escam ipsorum etc. Sed postquam nig[...] plumis similitudinem pa[...] ipsam habuerint tanto [...] ab eis aluntur quanto antea neglecti fuerant" | Latin 3806, fol. 164r: "clamant ad dominum uagantes eo quod non habeant cibos. Et psalmista. Qui dat iumentis escam ipsorum et pullis coruorum inuocantibus eum. At uero postquam nigrescentibus plumis similitudinem parentum in se expressam habuerint tanto sollicicius ab eis aluntur quanto antea neglecti fuerint" |
| fol. 6r col. b, lines 9-13: "Respicite coruos. tale est hac si diceret. Si deus [tam] uilia uolatilia procurat. Multo magis hominem quem ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui formauit fame perire non permittet" | Latin 3806, fol. 164r: "Dicens uero respicite coruos tale est hac si diceret. Si enim deus tam uilia uolatilia sic pascit multo magis hominem quem ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui formauit fame non patietur perire". Liverani p. 465: "tale est ac si diceret: si Deus tam vilia volatilia sic pascit, multo magis hominem, quem ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui formavit, fame sitique perire non permittet" |
| fol. 6r col. b, lines 19-28: "pluris in oc loco non pro numero sed pro dignitate ponitur [...] nonne uos meliores estis. Quis autem uestrum cogitans potest adicere ad staturam suam cubitum unum. hoc non adfirmando sed abnegando dixit non solum enim ad staturam suam cubitum unum quis cogitando adicere potest sed nec paruum aliquid [...] Neque unum capillum album aut nigrum quis facere ualet quia [cre]ator et formator omnium" | Latin 3806, fol. 164r: "pluris in hoc locco non pro numero sed pro dignitate posuit. Ac si diceret. Nonne uos meliores estis illis. Quis autem uestrum cogitans potest adicere ad staturam suam cubitum unum. Hoc non adfirmando sed abnegando dixit. Non solum enim ad staturam suam cubitum unum quis cogitando potest adicere sed nec paruum aliquid. Nam sic alibi dominus ait. Nec unum capillum album nec alterum nigrum quis facere ualet quia creator et formator" |
| fol. 6v col. b, lines 1-8: "[ru]beum ut rosa sic pu[rpureum ut] uiola. sed quod terrenus salomon h[abere non] potuit. noster salomon uidel[icet paci]ficus dominus noster ihesus christus habet ipse enim habet lilium in uirginibus rosam in martiribus uiolam in confessoribus. Si autem fenum agri quod hodie est et cras in clibanum mittitur deus sic uestit" | Latin 3806, fol. 165r: "tale uestimentum excogitare non potuit sic candidum quomodo lilium tam rubeum ut rosa sic purpureum ut uiola [...] Quod terrenus salomon habere non potuit noster autem salomon pacificus uidelicet dominus ihesus christus habet qui habet lilium in uirginibus rosam in martiribus uiolam in confessoribus. Si autem fenum agri quod hodie est et cras in clibanum mittitur deus sic uestit" |
| fol. 6v col. b, lines 8-13: "hic datur intellegi quia superius lilia agri pro omnibus herbis terre posuit. Ac si diceret si deus erbas terre que [su]bito crescunt et subito exares[cunt ...] et siccantur sic uestit" | Latin 3806, fol. 165r, has a different and longer comment here: "Ex hoc namque loco cognoscimus quod lilium non pro solis liliis sed pro omne genus erbarum ponitur [...] Fenum agri omne genus erbarum nominat" |
Differences: on fol. 6r the leaf reads "procurat" for "sic pascit", "ponitur" for "posuit" and "aut nigrum" for "nec alterum nigrum", and puts the psalm verse before "Sed postquam" as Latin 3806 does. On fol. 6v the leaf lacks the discussion, present in Latin 3806 and in Liverani (p. 466), of why Solomon is named before other kings and of "hodie" and "cras"; it comments on "lilia agri" and "fenum agri" in short sentences of its own, then glosses "minime fidei" ("qui ex parte credit et perfecte non credit") and notes that the Gospel first named two cares and now three. For those last two comments no counterpart was found in the Liverani snippets or on the pages of Latin 3806 that were read; Haymo's own homily has a looser parallel for the first (PL 118, col. 683). They may belong to this copy's version of the homily or be additions.
The collection is the one H. Barré calls the Liverani homiliary (Les homéliaires carolingiens de l'école d'Auxerre, Studi e Testi 225, 1962, pp. 113-122, inventory pp. 195-208): an anonymous homiliary on the Gospels transmitted as Homelie domni Aimonis, which Barré judges a later reworking of the homiliary of Haymo of Auxerre. It was printed by F. Liverani, Spicilegium Liberianum (Florence, 1863), from a manuscript of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, under the name of Haymo of Halberstadt, an attribution no longer accepted. Barré distinguishes an Italian recension (Liverani's manuscript and others) from a French one, to which he assigns Paris, BnF, Latin 3806, a homiliary from Vilabertran in Catalonia of the 11th or 12th century according to the BnF notice. No page scan of Liverani was found; his text and Barré's inventory were read through Google Books search-within snippets, which give the printed wording and page but can drop or garble words. Latin 3806 was read from the digitised microfilm on Gallica. The pages of Latin 3806 used here are fols. 163v-164r and fols. 164v-165r; the homily occupies fols. 161-166 of that manuscript according to Barré.
The manuscript, and what is not claimed
Three Fragmentarium records for NAL 2317 are leaves of one manuscript: this one, ff. 4-5 (F-kr2n) and f. 7 (F-vpe8). The catalogue describes them separately, with three different dates, and does not connect them. The grounds for joining them are the same small rounded Carolingian minuscule and spelling habits on all four leaves (abebat, ominum, scripturra, ut for uel, "&" inside words, ".;" at sentence ends), the same two-column layout of 31 to 33 lines with a written area that the catalogue itself measures as 236 x 184, 238 x 185 and 235 x 184 mm, and the content: homilies of one collection in its liturgical order, Barré nos. 55 to 57 on ff. 4-5 and nos. 67, 68 and 69 across ff. 6 and 7. The leaves are not consecutive. This is a reader's comparison of images, not a codicological examination.
The text order confirms that the face numbered 6 is the recto. The recto carries later notes: the years 1574 to 1579, a letter "A", and "8 janvier 1574 - 27 juin 1579", from its use as a wrapper. No claim is made about the date or place of origin; the catalogue dates were not reassessed, and the spelling and the agreement with a Catalan witness only suggest, without showing, a southern origin. The recension is not determined: a full collation with Latin 3806, with Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, theol. lat. fol. 595, and with a page copy of Liverani would be needed, and the Catalan homiliary of Luculentius, another reworking of Haymo, was not tested because no searchable text was found. Whether these leaves are already known to students of the collection was not checked.