Parchment, 134 ff., 22,7 × 15,3 cm; Denmark (?), 1250-1300
E don. var. 155 4° is the only extant medieval manuscript containing the text of Hexaemeron by Andreas Sunonis (Anders Sunesen, archbishop of Lund, d. 1228), a didactic poem of 8040 hexameter lines divided into 12 main parts labelled distinctiones or libri in the manuscript
The manuscript consists of 17 gatherings, 16 quaternions (f. 1-128) + 1 ternion (f. 129-134). The text was copied by a single scribe. It was corrected by another person who also added a few marginal notes. A third hand added further interlinear notes and marginalia
Although it cannot be proven by explicit evidence, it is most likely that the manuscript was produced in Denmark
In the Middle Ages the manuscripts belonged to the cathedral library of Roskilde, cf. ex libris on f. 1r. Its presence there is attested still in 1589. Later it belonged to Christian Rantzau (1684-1771), who donated it to Copenhagen University Library in 1731. Following the entire collection of manuscripts of the University Library it was transferred to the Royal Library in 1938
Bibl.: Andreae Sunonis filii Hexaemeron, post M. Cl. Gertz ediderunt Sten Ebbesen & Laurentius Boethius Mortensen, I, Hauniae 1985, p. 47-54 & passim. - Birger Munk Olsen, Roskildehåndskriftet af Hexaemeron, in: Anders Sunesen. Stormand, teolog, administrator, digter, ed. Sten Ebbesen, København 1985, p. 233-242 (summary p. 265: The Roskilde Manuscript of Hexaemeron)
Erik Petersen
