A Latin Bible manuscript in Lisbon: Textual description of the text of the Gospel of Mark

in a manuscript of the monastery of Lorvão (PT/TT/MSML/B/46)

Ph. Maertens

The monastery of Lorvão, situated at a 25km from Coimbra, between Lisbon and Porto, is
considered one of the oldest monasteries on Portuguese territory. Founded in the ninth
century –some would even say in the sixth century – it adopted the benedict order in the
twelfth century before it was changed into a female monastery of the Cistercian order in
the year 1200. With the extinction of religious orders at the end of the 19th century, the
monastery’s heritage was nationalized, although a part has been lost.1 Documents and
manuscripts that once belonged to the monastery of Lorvõa can now be accessed at the
Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo – Portuguese National Archives located in Lisbon or
through their web site: http://digitarq.dgarq.gov.pt/. One of such a manuscript is an
incomplete codex of the Bible in Latin, called the Livro da Sagrada Escritura.2 Starting
with the book of Isaiah, it ends with Apocalypse 2, 14. Already at the beginning of the 20th
century, it was recognized as forming the continuation of the Old Testament of Lorvão,
which is also preserved in the Arquivo Nacional.3 According to Inês Correia, both were
part of a complete Bible together with a third part – the psalterium – which is also guarded
at the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo.4 Based on iconographic details, she also
suggests a Parisian origin.5

1
For more details see the information and bibliography proposed on the site of the “Instituto de Gestão do
Património Arquitectónico e Arqueológico”
(http://www.igespar.pt/pt/patrimonio/pesquisa/geral/patrimonioimovel/detail/70694/)
2
PT/TT/MSML/B/46 (http://digitarq.dgarq.gov.pt/details?id=4381068)
3
Pedro A. D’Azevedo, A. Baião, O Arquivo da Torre do Tombo. Sua Historia, corpos que o compõem e
organização (Lisbon, Imprensa Commercial, 1905) 75. The images of the Old Testament of Lorvão
(PT/TT/MSML/B/45) are also made available: http://digitarq.dgarq.gov.pt/details?id=4381092.
4
Inês Correia, “A imagem como instrumento de identidade – A figuração de São Jerónimo no manuscrito
Bíblico ANTT, Lorvão 45”, Medievalista 11 (Jan – Jun 2012; online version:

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Our interest in the Livro da Sagrada Escritura is centred on its text. More specifically, we
would like to know where its text of the Gospel of Marc situates in comparison to the text
of the Vulgata.

The preliminary research, which can be accessed here, has been executed in two steps.
First we collated the text of the Gospel of Marc according to the manuscript against the one
of the Biblia Sacra Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem, Fourth Revised Edition, edited by Roger
Gryson (1994 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart) as published in Bibleworks 8. The set
of readings obtained in this way was then compared with the text and the critical apparatus
of John Wordsworth, Henry J. White, Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi
latine secundum editionem Sancti Hieronymi ad codicum manuscriptorum fidem recensuit
Iohannes Wordsworth in operis societatem adsumto Henrico Iuliano White Oxonii: E.
Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1889-1898. Orthographical variants – such as ‘e’ for ‘ae’ or
‘michi’ instead of ‘mihi’ – have, as a rule, not been retained. The following tables are a
summary of the comparison of the list of readings and the work of Wordsworth and White.
The first table shows the percentage of agreement, for each chapter, between the text of the
manuscript and the text and witnesses used by Wordsworth and White. The last line gives
the average of agreement with each witness for the whole book of Marc. This table has
then been “cut up” in sixteen smaller tables, one for each chapter. They have been sorted
from higher to lower percentage of agreement. For these tables, only in case the manuscript
showed 20% or more of agreement have the witnesses been retained; witnesses with a less
than 20% of agreement have not been retained. A last table offers a list of readings of the
manuscript that are not supported neither by the Biblia Sacra Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem,
neither by the text or witnesses presented by Wordsworth and White. First the ratio

http://www2.fcsh.unl.pt/iem/medievalista/MEDIEVALISTA11\correia1109.html), 14, 16. Although Pedro A.

D’Azevedo and A. Baião, op. cit., 78-79, recognized its resemblance with the other two volumes, they did
not reckon that the three volumes were part of the same Bible. The document can be consulted here:
http://digitarq.dgarq.gov.pt/details?id=4381080.
5
art. cit., 14.

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between supported and unsupported readings is given for each chapter. Then the readings
themselves are given, collated against the text of the Biblia Sacra.

Resuming the data in two words, one has first to point out that there are almost half as
much unsupported readings (i.e. readings in the manuscript for which there is no support
neither in the work of Wordsworth and White neither in the Biblia Sacra) as readings for
which there are other witnesses: we counted 410 supported and 186 unsupported readings.6
Further research may reduce that number. Secondly, one may say that the text of Marc is a
witness to the Vulgate. Besides, in 39% of the supported readings, the manuscript agrees
with vg, in other words, with the text of the Vulgate as established in the second half of the
sixteenth century in the editions of Stephen, Hentenius, Sixtus and Clement.7 Next in order
is the manuscript W, written at Salisbury, at about the same time as the Lorvão manuscript,
with which it agrees in little more than 30% of the cases.8 It is followed by the Old Latin
witness, Codex Brixianus (10) (27%) and the Codex Ardmachanus (D (63), 25%).9

The present research is, as one can guess, far from being the last word on this manuscript.
Rather, it serves a modest introduction which, I hope, will serve the scientific community.
At least three issues need to be addressed:
- There is need for a more precise identification of the type(s) of text, not only in the
Gospel of Marc, but also in the rest of the Bible.

6
Caveat; infallible scribes do not exist, neither do infallible collators. In spite of the care I took while
collating the manuscript of Lorvão, errors may have slipped in my collation. So, please feel free to relay your
corrections, comments or suggestions.
7
J. Wordsworth, H. J. White, Nouum Testamentum, xxix.
8
H. H. Glunz, History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon. Being an Inquiry into the text
of some English Manuscripts of the Vulgate Gospels, (Cambridge, University Press, 2011), 184-85.
9
B. M. Metzger, The Early Versions of the New Testament. Their Origin, Transmission and Limitations
(Oxford, University Press, 1977, 2001), 297, 313-14, 340. Note that Codex Brixianus presents lacunae: Mark
12:5-13:32; 14:53-62; 14:70-16:20.

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 - There is need for an identification of the origin of the Lorvão Bible on firmer
grounds. Here the textual study can meet the codicological approach in order to
examine if the proposed origin is confirmed by textual agreement.
- If a Parisian origin is confirmed, is it possible to evaluate the influence (if any) of
the Lorvão Bible on the history of the transmission of the texts of the Bible in
Portugal? This would involve the comparison with other biblical manuscripts on
the one hand and on the other a study of the texts of the prayer-books, especially
those from Lorvão.

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