F-7nce: Aldobrandinus de Toscanella, Scala fidei
The bifolium is identified with high confidence as part of the Scala fidei, a cycle of sermons on the articles of the Apostles' Creed attributed to the Dominican Aldobrandinus de Toscanella (d. 1314). Two passages, one on each leaf, agree with a fifteenth-century manuscript of the work: the opening of a sermon on "Tertia die resurrexit a mortuis", and the end of one sermon on "Sedet ad dexteram dei patris" running into the opening of the next.
The Fragmentarium record describes a trimmed parchment bifolium in a private collection ("Utopia, armarium codicum bibliophilorum", Tra.MF.2019.09.01), 140 × 195 mm, dated 1301–1400, catalogued as an unidentified Tractatus de articulis fidei. The catalogue's description of the subject is right; the work is a sermon cycle. The catalogue date has not been reassessed.
- Identification: identified, high. The two passages total about thirty manuscript lines and include a sermon ending, the transition formula "et sic patet tercium", and the next sermon's theme and opening, which a later borrower of single passages would not reproduce in sequence. Each article is assigned to an apostle ("hunc gradum sive articulum posuit beatus Bartholomeus"), which is the plan of the Scala. The work is not printed, so the comparison is with a manuscript witness, not an edition. No alternative work was found; other expositions of the Creed were not searched systematically.
- Transcription: image-only first reading by an isolated reader, and a source-assisted selected reading of the two passages. Accuracy has not been measured; the upper parts of three columns are stained and were not read.
- Verification: a research reader found the candidate through a sermon repertory and then read the two places in the Vatican manuscript from its page images; the coordinator compared the same fragment lines and manuscript lines on the images. The fragment's other columns were not compared. No human review.
Textual evidence
Manuscript images: f. 1r, left column, native-pixel box 1873,1161,2597,2169; ff. 1v–2r, fourth column, box 2683,309,3395,1321. Abbreviations are resolved silently here; the preserved readings show them.
| Fragment | Vatican, BAV, Pal. lat. 449 |
|---|---|
| ff. 1v–2r, fourth column, from the red initial: "Tercia die resurrexit a mortuis. Hunc gradum sive articulum posuit beatus Bartholomeus. Nam sicut necessarium est nobis credere quod Christus mortuus fuit, ita etiam quod a mortuis resurrexit. Sed querendum est quare dominus resurrectionem suam usque ad generalem resurrectionem non distulit. Et dicendum quod hoc fuit factum quadruplici ratione. Primo propter exemplum bonitatis, secundo propter firmamentum veritatis, tercio propter [...]tatis ..." | f. 167ra: "Tercia die resurrexit a mortuis. Hunc gradum sive articulum posuit beatus Bartholomeus. Nam sicut necessarium est nobis credere quod Christus mortuus fuit, ita eciam quod a mortuis resurrexit. Sed querendum est quare dominus resurrectionem suam usque ad generalem resurrectionem non distulit. Et dicendum quod hoc fuit factum quadruplici ratione. Primo propter exemplum bonitatis, 2o propter firmamentum veritatis, 3o propter [...] securitatis, 4to propter [...] felicitatis." |
| f. 1r, left column, lower half: "... Conveniens ergo et iustum fuit post tantum laborem tenderet ad quietem, propter quod dicitur sedere ad dexteram patris. Unde dicitur in evangelio: Et dominus quidem Ihesus postquam locutus est assumptus est in celum et sedet ad dexteram dei patris. Et sic patet tercium. [red initial] Sedet ad dexteram dei patris omnipotentis. Quia bonum quanto magis cognoscitur tanto magis desideratur, ideo de condicionibus celestis patrie adhuc amplius est dicendum. Dicendum est ergo quod Christus dicitur sedere ad dexteram dei, id est in equalitate dei quantum ad divinitatem et in ..." | f. 172va: "Conveniens ergo fuit et iustum quod post tantum laborem tenderet ad quietem, propter quod dicitur sedere ad dexteram patris. Unde dicitur Mar[ci ...]: Et dominus quidem Ihesus postquam locutus est assumptus est in celum et sedet ad dexteram dei patris. Et patet tercium. [rubric: De eodem sermo] Sedet ad dexteram dei patris omnipotentis. Quia bonum quanto magis cognoscitur tanto magis desideratur, ideo de condicionibus celestis patrie adhuc amplius est dicendum. Dicendum est ergo quod Christus dicitur sedere ad dexteram dei, id est in equalitate dei quantum ad divinitatem, et in pocioribus bonis dei quantum ad humanitatem." |
The research reader followed both passages further than the table shows: thirteen lines after "Tercia die" (the four reasons, then "ut sicut ipse tercia die resurrexit a mortuis ita nos tercia die resurgamus a peccatis ... Tres quidem dies sunt scilicet contricio confessio et satisfactio") and about twenty lines before and after "Sedet" (the arrow that rests in the target and the ship in port, then "pauper sum ego et in labore a iuventute mea"). Differences noted: the fragment has "surge a mortuis" where the manuscript has "exurge", "in evangelio" where the manuscript names Mark, "a prima die scilicet nativitatis" where the manuscript has "a prima die", and a clause after "quiescit a fructu" that was not seen in the manuscript. The manuscript images are small and watermarked, and a word or two at some line ends were not legible there.
The work and its attribution
The witness is Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 449, ff. 155ra–189va, described in the Heidelberg catalogue of the Palatini as "Aldobrandinus de Tuscanella, Scala fidei sive expositio symboli apostolorum", about 1454. J. B. Schneyer, Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters, vol. 1, pp. 250–252, lists the cycle under Aldobrandinus as nos. 350–380; no. 364 there opens "Sedet ad dexteram ... Quia bonum quanto magis cognoscitur tanto magis desideratur", as on the fragment. The attribution follows Schneyer and T. Kaeppeli, "La tradizione manoscritta delle opere di Aldobrandino da Toscanella", Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 8 (1938), 163–192; whether Pal. lat. 449 itself names an author was not checked, and Schneyer was seen in search snippets only.
No claim is made about the fragment's date or origin, about the order of its two leaves within the cycle beyond the two places compared, or about its relation to other manuscripts of the work.