The greater part of the Bobbio collection has been dispersed through
the libraries of Rome, Milan, Naples, and Vienna.[312] It is
practically certain that the Ambrosian palimpsest of Plautus and those
of several of Cicero’s orations and of the letters of Fronto discovered
in the Ambrosian Library (Milan) early in the ninth century all came
from the monastery founded by the Irish monk of Bobbio.[313] Among
other MSS. which once belonged to Bobbio may be mentioned fragments
of Symmachus (in Milan) and the Theodosian Code (formerly in Turin),
Scholia on Cicero (v. century) MSS. of St. Luke (v.–vi. cent.), St.
Severinus (vi. cent.), Josephus (vi.–vii.), Gregory’s Dialogue (c. 750)
and St. Isadore’s (before 840). Last but not least we must mention the
“Muratori Fragment” (viii. cent., or earlier), the earliest extant list
of Books of the New Testament.[314]
St. Agilius (St. Aile), a pupil of St. Columbanus the founder of
Bobbio, was first abbot of the monastery founded at Resbacus (Rébais,
east of Paris) in 634 A.D.[315] The MSS. copied there included the
works of Terence, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Donatus, Priscian and
Boethius.[316]
The libraries of the Irish monasteries of Würzburg and Reichau seem
to have been large and important. Many existing Irish MSS. come from
these two monasteries. Unfortunately, no old catalogue of the Würzburg
collection seems to have come down to us. In the case of Reichau (Augia
Major) on Lake Constance a catalogue was made while Erlebald was abbot
between 822 and 838 A.D. The number of MSS. given in this catalogue is
415 of which 30 were written in Erlebald’s time.[317]
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