Dialogus dictus malogranatum, Book III, in Latin; Germany, Hildesheim, dated 1459

315×225mm, vellum, i+226 leaves, two leaves foliated 168, COMPLETE, collation: i-xxviii8, xix2, 2 columns, 37 lines, 220×145mm, AN 8-LINE PUZZLE INITIAL with flourishing and green infill (f.1v), smaller flourished and plain coloured initials throughout, in the ORIGINAL HILDESHEIM BINDING of blind-stamped brown leather over wood boards, pastedowns from a decorated missal, rebacked, bosses and clasps missing

PROVENANCE

(1) WRITTEN IN 1459 FOR THE USE OF THE AUGUSTINIAN NUNS OF ST MARY MAGDALENE, HILDESHEIM: ‘Anno domini millesimo quadringentesimo quinquagesimo nono presens liber scriptus est et datus pro utilitate sororum sancte Marie Magdalene prope et extra muros Hilden(semenses). Orate ergo pro huius datoribus …’ (f.1r). (2) Ampleforth Abbey, with their shelfmark label ‘M/182/S.S.’, the spine gilt with the initials ‘S’(ancti) ‘L’(aurentii) and a grid-iron, and the former shelfmark ‘M.S.6’; described by Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, II, 1977, pp.28-9.

TEXT

Melogranatus, Book III, ‘de statu perfectorum’, opening ‘Postquam informatus sum a te o pater …’ (ff.2v–225r), preceded (f.2r) by a table of contents listing 52 chapters.

The preface suggests that the work is well-named because, just as a pomegranate (malogranatum) has many pips, so it includes many grains of wisdom from the Doctors of the Church. The entire work is structured as a dialogue between a father and son (rubrics filius and pater introduce each section), in three books: the first describing the state of the beginner, the second the advancing person, and the third (present here) the flawless person. Apparently the patron who had this book written for the nuns of Hildesheim thought that they only needed this third part.

In the late 15th century the work was plausibly attributed to Gallus, supposedly a late 14th-century abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Zbraslav, south of Prague. The work was printed several times in the 15th century, and 150 manuscripts are listed in M. Gerwing, Malogranatum oder der dreifache Weg zur Vollkommenheit, 1986, but manuscripts appear for sale very rarely: the Schoenberg database records fewer than ten copies of any part of the work appearing for sale in auction and dealer catalogues since the 18th century, and Gerwing knew of only a single copy in private hands.