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 deg. CCCC deg. XLIX deg. 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. saec. 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.
S. W. SINGER.
Mickleham, Dec. 10. 1849.
* * * * *
NOTES UPON CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK FOR LONDON.
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 C
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