In the electronic version of the Bollandist preface to the “Life” of St Botulf or Botolph, we find the following words about manuscripts used:
Eamdem Vitam olim Ioannes Capgravius, omisso Prologo redactam in compendium, Legendæ suæ inseruerat: & ejus partem potiorem jam pridem habebamus ex duplici Ms. altero Canonicorum Regularium Rubeæ-vallis prope Bruxellas, cujus ecgraphum curaverat Rosweidus: altero Coloniensi, unde aliud Bollando transmiserat Grothusius etiam noster.
The same Life was inserted into his Legenda by John Capgrave, omitting the prologue, and reduced to a compendium: and we had long had the more important part of it from two manuscripts, one of the Canons Regular of Rubeæ-vallis near Brussels, of which made a copy: the other from Cologne, from which another was transmitted by our own Grothusius to Bolland.
Here is the printed version:
In fact I was quite unable to find out where this might be, until a kind commenter came to my assistance. I thought that a quick post with the varying names of this place might help others, googling hopelessly.
The Latin name of the place is “Rubea Vallis”. So this refers to the canons regular of “Rubra Vallis”, the “Red Valley.” But I have also seen “Rubra Vallis.” There is another place of this name in Picardy in France, so it is correctly qualified as “proper Bruxellas”, “the one near Brussels”.
In literature in French the place seems to be known usually as “Rouge-Cloître.” But “Rougeval” is also used sometimes – i.e. “red valley” -, again qualified with “Brussels” to distinguish from Rougeval in France.
In Dutch the place seems to be known usually as “Rooklooster,” although the Wikipedia article also gives “Roodklooster” or even “Rood klooster”.
In German the place seems to be referred to as “Rookloster” – no doubt under the influence of German “Klöster”. Thus we see “Rookloster bei Brüssel” here. This spelling also makes its way into articles in other languages.
This was an Augustinian Priory near Brussels, which was closed in 1782 by the reforming Austrian Emperor Joseph II. The manuscripts ended up in the Austrian National Library, but with a few bumps along the way.
In fact there is a fascinating website about Rooklooster and its manuscripts: The Rooklooster Register unveiled. From this I learn the following:
Rooklooster boasted an important library and an active scriptorium as a result of the many authors, copiists, miniaturists and binders that worked in the priory.
And:
When emperor Joseph II, ruler of the Austrian Netherlands, decreed the suppression of the monasteries of most contemplative monastic orders in 1783-1874, the Rooklooster Register and many other manuscripts ended up in the Chambre Héraldique (“Heraldic Chamber”) of Brussels.
When French revolutionaries occupied the Netherlands in 1792/94, the chairman of the Chambre Héraldique, Ch. J. Beydaels de Zittaert (†1811), took the codices of his society with him as he roamed around the Northern Netherlands and Germany. After his peregrination, he eventually offered them to emperor Franz I of Austria in 1803. Parts of the manuscripts ended up in the so-called Familien-Fideikommiss-Bibliothek, the personal library of the emperor.
Being a bibliophile himself, the emperor believed he had a right to the book collection. After Franz’ death in 1835, the manuscripts remained in the possession of the imperial family.
The Rooklooster Register was kept in the library as reference number 9373. A year after the Imperial and Royal Court Library of Vienna was transformed into the National Library in 1920, the manuscripts formed a Series nova, in which the Rooklooster Register was given the book number 12694.
So the first place to look for a Rooklooster manuscript is in Austria. But …. this last bit of the article holds a trap for the unwary. The shelfmark for these manuscripts is NOT “12345”, or “Ser. n. 12345” but “SN12345”. If you don’t know this, you will search manuscripta.at in vain.
So where is our manuscript, after all that? It is SN12814, online here, where it has the shelfmark Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB), Cod. Ser. n. 12814, and the page states:Vorbesitzer: Rooklooster (Rougecloître) bei Brüssel!
Apparently there is a digitised microfilm available. As ever, you have to know the trick in order to download it.
Once downloaded, it is worrying to find that it has only 239 pages. For the Legendiers Latins entry says that Botulf is on “ff.960r-961r”. Luckily there is a table of contents at the front, with the saints in alphabetical order:
So what do these numbers refer to? Well, it looks as if there are two sets of folio numbers. At the top of PDF page 25, folio 21r, is the numbering “928”. Clearly this manuscript has been rebound. And in due course, on folio 63r (page 67 in the PDF) we find the Vita Sancti Botulfi.
Sadly the microfilm is not going to do my eyes any good. But… we got there!
Phew, that was hard work!