Beschreibung von Köln, Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek, Cod. 63

First codex of set of three (with Hss. 65, 67, and Vordere_Innenseite in Hs. 97) written by nuns, who Bischoff (loc. cit.) showed were most probably working at the convent Chelles, near Paris; written for Abp. Hildebald of Köln ; previously assumed by Jones, opp. citt., to be written in Köln, on the basis of the Hildebaldan ex libris; as E.A. Lowe stated, "It is quite clear that the nuns who wrote these books did not belong to the school of Cologne . The scriptorium must, of course have been a convent of importance" ( CLA 6, p. xxii). Two other copies of this text of Augustine were written at the same scriptorium in the same time period (see scribal colophon above and Omss for text below).

Bischoff's arguments in favor of Chelles as the home of Köln, Dombibl. Hss. 63 + 65 + 67 is worth summarizing here: These mss. are part of a group of mss. which E.H. Zimmermann (locc. citt.) had already identified as the "nordostfränkische" group (lists of mss. in CLA VI, p. xxii, and Bischoff, op. cit. p. 21). The Gelasian Sacramentary is the most famous item in the group, which includes mss. written in "N-uncial" and in "b-minuscule", as well as in the "nuns' minuscule", so named from these Köln mss. Chelles seems the most likely candidate for the home of this Northeast French scriptorium. Since its foundation in the middle of the 7c by Balthild, the Anglo-Saxon queen of Clovis II , Chelles' regal connections continued, reflected in its name 'la royale'; and Anglo-Saxon influences are reflected in the decoration of this group of manuscripts [see also McKitterick, op. cit. on further Anglo-Saxon connections]. The abbess of Chelles during the period when the Köln mss. were produced was Gisela, sister of Charlemagne , and her neice Rodtrud also was at the abbey. Letters written between these two women and Alcuin show that the royal ladies were avid readers of spiritual books, that Alcuin himself sent them books, and that books were copied at Chelles; and Alcuin's correspondence to other women does not include such book-related topics (see Bischoff, op. cit. p. 27). The abbey's ties to the royal court provide an obvious connection with Hildebald, who was Charlemagne's court chaplain . The lack of a carolingian list of names for the nuns at Chelles, plus the disappearance of all traces of their library, has conspired to obscure what must have been a very active scriptorium, with a wide area of dissemination for its books (op. cit., pp. 29-30).

Recent discovery of Chelles relic labels which include handwriting in the same script as these Cologne mss. has confirmed Bishoff's hypothesis (see Atsma and Vezin, op. cit. above, and D. Ganz and ******). On Chelles and other nuns' scriptoria, see McKitterick, op. cit.