Barcelona BC 569 and a Carolingian programme on the virtues

Abstract

The Frankish noblewoman Dhuoda composed the Liber manualis for her son, William. It survives in only one complete manuscript copy, found in Barcelona's Biblioteca de Catalunya, Ms 569. Pierre Riché argued that the Barcelona copy descended from William's own. This article points out evidence suggesting that the other texts in the manuscript (save one later addition) may derive from early medieval exemplars as well, providing the opportunity to see what kinds of texts made up a lay nobleman's library in the mid‐ninth century.