Owned by the Austrian theologian Johann Hofmüllner of Weitra
Homilies by Augustine, Bede and others. (With:) (Pseudo-)Petrus de Pilichdorf (= Petrus Zwicker). Liber contra Waldenses, cap. 1-21.
Small folio (228 x 304 mm). Latin manuscript on paper. 228 ff. (including 7 blanks). Foliated by a single hand in red ink (1-216), followed by 12 ff. with later pencil foliation (217-228). Text by the first hand fols. 1-150; fols. 157-216 and 217-227 by two additional hands. Rubrication, red Lombardic initials and red captions throughout in first part and more sparingly in the second. Contemporary red-dyed full calf with all 14 brass bosses, 1 of 2 brass clasps, and handwritten cover label ("Omelie Sanctorum"). In custom-made half morocco solander case.
€ 45,000.00
Fine late medieval sermon manuscript owned by the Viennese theologian Johann Hofmüllner of Weitra (d. 1475), with an anti-Waldensian treatise at the end. The first part contains mainly homilies for various feast days and Bible passages drawn from St Augustine and the Venerable Bede:
1r: In vigilia ascensionis. S. Johan. In illo tempore sublevatis Ihesus oculis in celum ... Oml. bti. Aug. epi. Clarificatum a patre formam secundum sui filium ...
150v: Ach her got hilf. Finis adest libro sit laus et gloria. Explicit iste labor ... Deo gratias Amen.
151-156: vacant.
Followed by additional homilies by Bede, Augustine, Origin, Isidorus Hispalensis, Severinus etc:
157r: Incipiunt omelie per circulum anni [...]. Igitur quoniam post tempus spiritualibus epulis nos reficere debemus [...].
216v: ... matres tulerunt quidquid et angoris extitit et doloris et ideo non [breaks off].
The final part contains the first 21 chapters of Petrus Zwicker's "Liber contra Waldenses": 217r: Ortus et origo Waldensium haereticorum talis est ...; 227v: ... vel non commisit illud per sufficientiam poenitentiam diluit immediate [breaks off]. Transmitted in some 50 manuscripts, this treatise (erroneously attributed to Peter of Pilichdorf by its first editor, Jakob Gretser) constitutes "the single most important text on the Waldensians from the later Middle Ages" (Biller, The Waldenses, p. 237).
Provenance: several autograph ownerships by Johannes Hofmüllner: "Iste liber est Johannis Hofmulnar de weyttra" (1r), "Hic liber est Johan[n]is Hofmuln[er] de weyttra. 1447" (150r); later in the library of the Servite Order in Vienna's Rossau suburb with their 18th century engraved bookplate on the front pastedown and a smaller version thereof on the first page; handwritten shelfmark "MS 71" (olim: 21), stricken out and re-marked "CV/19" in red pencil.
The majority of the known surviving codices from Hofmüllner's private collection was acquired by the library of Seitenstetten Abbey in Lower Austria at some time during the last decades of the 15th century: a total of 17 or possibly 18 volumes. One other volume is in the Austrian National Library (Cod. 4059), while another, previously also in Seitenstetten, is now kept in The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (Ms. W.30). How and when exactly the volumes in Seitenstetten were acquired - during Hofmüllner's lifetime, or as a bequest, or a purchase - is not known, nor how many books Hofmüllner's library originally comprised (cf. Cerny, p. 8). "We first find Hofmüllner as a scribe of manuscripts in 1437, serving as 'cooperator divinorum' in Waidhofen an der Thaya. The following year he is in Vienna, soon in the office of an octonarius at St. Stephen's Cathedral (attested in 1445) [...] He is confirmed as serving in the office of magister chori in 1448. From his books, it would seem quite obvious that Hofmüllner consciously endeavoured to keep up to date on contemporary theological literature and to expand his library continually by writing and by buying new manuscripts [...] Indeed, Johann Hofmüllner was a generous man in many ways who gave away large sums of money for pious causes" (cf. ibid., p. 27f.).
Condition: binding rubbed and slightly chafed in a few places. Two leaves (167-168) have a large, straight tear in the upper edge reaching into the text. Insignificant worming to the upper corner from fol. 157 onwards, not concerning the text. Occasional marginalia and manicules, apparently some by Hofmüllner. Altogether a very appealing codex bound in a massive, dyed binding, complete with all the original brass bosses and fittings save for the lower clasp.
For Hofmüllner cf. Heimo Cerny, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Wissenschaftspflege in den Stiften Seitenstetten und Ardagger (PhD thesis, Vienna 1966). For Zwicker's treatise cf. Peter Biller, "The Anti-Waldensian Treatise Cum Dormirent Homines of 1395 and Its Author", in: The Waldenses 1170-1530 (Aldershot 2001), pp. 264-269.
