Various - Notes and Queries, Number 08, December 22, 1849

Sir,—In Dr. Maitland's able vindication of the Dark Ages (p. 419. 1st ed.), he concludes his interesting extract from the scribe Otloh's account of himself by saying:—"One would like to know what books they were which Otlohnus thus multiplied; but this, perhaps, is now impossible." I have it accidentally in my power to identify two at least of the number; and if it was his universal practice to subscribe his name, as he does in these instances, a search into the principal repositories of MSS. would, no doubt, give a large list. A valuable MS. volume in my possession has been thus described by a learned Benedictine: "Codex Membranaceus constans foliis 223 numerando; sæculis ix. desinente, x. et xi. incipiente, variis manibus scriptus, per partes qui in unum collectus, ex scriptis variis natidæ scripturæ carlovingicæ, varia continens: 1° Vita et Passio, seu Martirium S. Dionisii; scripta fuit ab Hilduino Abbate Coenobii S. Dionisii in Francia sub Ludovico Pio." It is said that Hilduinus was the first writer who gave the marvellous story of the saint carrying his own head in his hand for nearly two miles after his decapitation. But he tells us that he abridged his narration ex Græcam et Latinorum Historiis .

2° Revelatio facta S. Stephano Papæ de consecratione altaris SS. Petri et Pauli ante Sepulchrum S. Martirii Dionisii quæ consecratio facta fuit v. kal. Aug. 754. This part of the MS. is remarkable for containing in one place the date written in Roman ciphers, thus—dccLiiii. v. kl. aug.; a circumstance so rare in MSS. of this age, as to have astonished the learned diplomatists Papebroch and Germon.

3° Historia S. Simeonis Trevirensis Solitarii. Of whom it is recorded that he lived sub Poppone Episcopo Trevirense, in quædam cellula ad portam nigram sitâ . At fol. 36. an interesting account of the death of the saint is given by the author, who was present, and with the assistance of two other monks, piously performed his obsequies. It appears that the abbey of S. Maximin was about 120 paces from the cell of the saint at Treves, and it is therefore most probable that the writer was a monk of the Benedictine order then belonging to that foundation; but he puts his name out of doubt by the following couplet, inscribed at the end of the narrative:—

This dedication of his labours to S. Boniface may only indicate his veneration for the national saint; but, as he tells us he worked a great deal in the monastery at Fulda (of which S. Boniface was the patron saint and founder), may not this have been one of his labours there? At a subsequent period, it appears, he revised and amplified Wilibald's Life of Boniface .

I must summarily indicate the other contents of this interesting MS., which are: 4. Passio SS Sebastiani et Vincentii. 5. Vita S. Burchardi. 6. Vita et Passio S. Kiliani (genere Scoti). 7. Vita S. Sole. 8. Vita S. Ciri. 9. Depositio S. Satiri. 10. Alphabetum Græcum. 11. Officio pro Choro cum notis musicis, pro festo S. Pancratii; sequitur ipsiis martiriis passio. 12. Vita S. Columbani [this is anonymous, but is attributed to his disciple Jonas, and contains much valuable historical matter]. Lastly, 13. Vita S. Wolfgangi, by the hand of our interesting scribe OTLOH, written at the instance of the Benedictine Coenobites of his monastery of S. Emmeram, at Ratisbon, where the saint was buried. This, as in the case of the Life of S. Boniface , is a rifaccimento ; it was made from two older lives of S. Wolfgang, as Otloh himself tells us, one of them by a certain monk named Arnolfus, the other having been brought out of France. He is here, therefore, more an author than a scribe; but he declares modestly that it was a task he would willingly avoid for the future. The passage of his Preface is worth transcribing: "Fratrum quorundam nostrorum hortatu sedulo infimus ego, O coenobitarum S. Emmerammi compulsus sum S. Wolfgangi vitam in libellulis duobus dissimili interdum, et impolita materie descriptam in unum colligere, et aliquantulum sublimiori modo corrigere.... Multa etiam quæ in libro neutro inveniebantur, fidelium quorundam attestatione compertâ addere studui, sicque quædam addendo, quædam vero fastidiose vel inepte dicta excerpendo, pluraque etiam corrigendo, sed et capitularia præponendo. Vobis O fratres mei exactoresque hujus rei prout ingenioli mei parvitas permisit obedivi. Jam rogo cessate plus tale quid exigere a me." At the end of the Life he has written:—

We have here sufficient evidence that Otloh was a worthy predecessor of the distinguished Benedictines to whom the world of letters has been so deeply indebted in more recent times.

Dr. Maitland's mention of the calligraphic labours of the nun Diemudis, Otloh's contemporary, is not a solitary instance: in all ages, the world has been indebted to the pious zeal of these recluse females for the multiplication of books of devotion and devout instruction. An instance, of so late a date as the eve of the invention of printing, now lies before me, in a thick volume, most beautifully written by fair hands that must have been long practised in the art. As the colophon at the end preserves the names of the ladies, and records that the parchment was charitably furnished by their spiritual father, I think it worth transcribing:—

"Expliciunt, Deo laus omnipotente, quinque libri de VITA & CONVERSATIONE SANCTORVM PATRVM Scripti per manibus Sororum AUE TRICI et GHEEZE YSENOUDI in festivus diebus suis consororibus dilectis in memoriam earum. Finiti ano dni M° CCCC° XLIX° in festo decollationis Sci Johannis baptiste ante sumam missam. Et habebant ad hoc pergamenum sibi ex caritate provisum de venerabi li presbitero Dno NICOLAO WYT tunc temporis earundem patre spirituali & sibi ipsiis spiritualiter ac in Dno sat reverenter dilectio. Ex caritativo amore sitis propter Deum memores eorum cum uno AVE MARIA."

I omitted to mention that Massmann, in his Kleinen Sprachdenkmale des VIII. bis XII. Jahrhunderts , Leipsig, 1830, p. 50, says: "The Benedictine priest Otloh, of Regensburg, left behind him a work, De Ammonicione Clericorum et Laicorum , in which is twice given a Latin prayer (Cod. Monacens. Emmeram. f. cxiii. mbr. sæc. xi.), at fol. 51. d ., as Oratio ejus qui et suprascripta et sequentia edidit dicta , and at fol. 158. as Oratio cuidam peccatoris ." On fol. 161. b . is an old German version, first printed by Pez (Thes. i. 417.), corrected by Graff. Diutiska, 111. 211., by Massmann, at p. 168. Otloh mentions in this prayer the destruction of his monastery of St. Emmeram, which took place in 1062.

I have advisedly called him Otloh, and not Otlohnus.

Mickleham, Dec. 10. 1849.

No. 1. " Gerrard Street, Soho. * * * At the Turk's Head, in Gerrard Street, Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds founded, in the year 1764, 'The Literary Club.'"

It would appear from the following extracts in my Common-place Book, that the original Turk's Head, at which the Literary Club first held their meetings, was in Greek Street, Soho, not in Gerrard Street:—

"The Literary Club was first held at the Turk's Head in Greek Street, which tavern was almost half a century since removed to Gerrard Street, where it continued nearly as long as the house was kept open."— European Mag. Jan. 1803.