Introduction

Medieval manuscripts sent by mail

A letter from the Imperial Foreign Office, 19.9.1911, with a return note by Reinhold Koser, 29.11.1911

Ernst Perels worked for the Monumenta in the section Epistolae from 1904 until 1923, and was responsible, among other things, for the MGH edition of papal letters of the 9^th century. His thesis paper: "Die kirchlichen Zehnten im karolingischen Reich" (the church tithe under the Carolingian empire), with which he attained his PhD under Michael Tangl, the head of the section Epistolae, had qualified him admirably for this task. During these years, Perels additionally edited one of the most important canonistic works of the 11^th century, Bonizo of Sutri’s „Liber de vita Christiana“, for the Prussian Academy of Sciences; the edition appeared in print in 1930. He also published a number of studies that were more or less closely related to the editions he was currently working on.

In preparation of a MGH edition, editors begin by collating the textual evidence: in simple terms this means going through medieval manuscripts and comparing their versions of the text word for word in order to reconstruct a text that is as close as possible to the original. In Perels’ day, editors either travelled through Europe to consult the important codices on site, or had the originals sent to Berlin; alternatively they could rely on transcripts that had been made by colleagues or local scholars and were either brought or sent to them. At that time, the use of photographical manuscript reproductions had already begun, but was still very expensive.

The lending of valuable books from abroad was conducted through the official channels of the foreign office in Berlin and its embassies and required a formal request by the president of the MGH. After the crates of manuscripts had been delivered in Berlin, the foreign office transported them to the Königliche Bibliothek (the royal library) in Berlin where they could be consulted. The MGH archive contains a number of letters concerning the lending of manuscripts with letters from the Carolingian Age that Ernst Perels required for his work on volume 6 of the Epistolae series between 1911 and 1913, such as the one on display.

Transcription

Auswärtiges Amt
Berlin, den 19. September 1911

Nr. III^d 8062./66034.
Im Anschluß an das Schreiben vom 16. August d[es] J[ahres] – IIId 7160.-/58027.

Die für den Privatdozenten Dr. Perels hierselbst weiter gewünschte Handschrift Cod[ex] Bibl[iothèque] d’Alençon 10, saec[ulum] XII der Stadtbibliothek in Alençon wird anbei übersandt.

Sie ist unter den bekannten Bedingungen auf die Dauer von drei Monaten dargeliehen. Nach Mitteilung der Französischen Regierung hat sie nicht früher übersandt werden können, da sie zur Instandsetzung erst in die Nationalbibliothek in Paris hat gegeben werden müssen.

In Vertretung des Staatssekretärs

Buntzen

[neben dem Text zwei Vermerke:]

1 Kiste

979 mthg [Mitteilung(?)], … zur weiteren Veranlassung überlassen … Ch 30/II Berlin 29. Nov[ember] 1911.

[Rücksendevermerk von Reinhold Koser, den Vorsitzenden der Zentraldirektion:]

Berlin, 29. Nov[ember] 1911

An den Herrn Staatssekretär des Auswärtigen Amts

E[uer] E[xzellenz] schicke ich die mit dem hohen Erlaß vom 19. Sept[ember] d[es] J[ahres] (III ^d 8062/66034) mir zugestellte Handschrift hierneben gehorsamst zurück.

K[oser] 29/11

An den Herrn Vorsitzenden der Zentraldirektion der Monumenta Germaniae historica.