14 leaves from a mid-13th-century Bible : in Latin

Item Information

Title:
14 leaves from a mid-13th-century Bible : in Latin
Title (uniform):
Bible. Latin. Vulgate
Description:
Fragment from a 13th-century Paris Bible with illuminations attributed to the so-called Dominican Painter.
Illuminator:
Dominican Painter, active 13th century
Attributed name:
Jarman, John Boykett, 1782-1864
Former owner:
Jarman, John Boykett, 1782-1864
Former owner:
Gruel, Léon, 1841-1923
Former owner:
Gruel, Paul, 1864-1954
Former owner:
Beatty, A. Chester (Alfred Chester), Sir, 1875-1968
Former owner:
Thomas, Alan G.
Former owner:
Ede, Charles
Former owner:
Stilwell, Brian Douglas
Former owner:
Scholz, Wolfgang G., 1927-2015
Attributed name:
Ludwig Rosenthal's Antiquariat
Former owner:
Ludwig Rosenthal's Antiquariat
Auctioneer:
Sotheby's (Firm)
Auctioneer:
Skinner, Inc.
Former owner:
William H. Allen, Bookseller
Date:
[1250?–1260?]
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Illuminations
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--France
Manuscripts, Medieval--France
Gothic scripts
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Places:
France > Île-de-France (region) > Paris
Extent:
14 leaves : parchment, ill. ; 232 x 158 (167 x 108) mm, bound to 24 cm.
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/5t34tr51v
Terms of Use:
No Copyright - United States icon No Copyright - United States
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[Paris]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1. Final 2 lines of XII Hebrews through XIII Hebrews
2. fol. 1. Prologue to Acts (Lucas antiocenses natione syrus) (Stegmüller 641)
3. fol. 1-14. Acts (Primum quid[em] sermone[m]) (Stegmüller 51)
4. fol. 14 Prologue to Epistles (Non ita est ordo [with initial 'P' in place of 'N.']) (Stegmüller 809)
5. fol. 14 James (Iacobus ihű xp̋i seruus)
Notes:
Ms. gathering.
Title devised by cataloger; date of production based on Branner.
Origin: Written in France between approximately 1250 and 1260. Illuminations sometimes attributed to the the artist who Robert Branner calls "The Dominican Painter" (see, for example, H.P. Kraus catalog 188, no. 8).
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: The present fragment originally formed part of a 549-leaf Bible, which, according to Sotheby's (3 December, 1968, lot 14), might once have been owned by John Boykett Jarman, of London, whose collection was damaged by flood in 1846. Peter Kidd notes that Ludwig Rosenthal Catalogue 135 (1910), no. 300, describes a substantially similar bible: "Biblia Latina. Manuscrit de la fin du 13 ou du commencement du 14 siècle s. vélin. Avec nombreuses initiales enluminées. 549 ff. 2 coll. 51 ll. Veau r." The original manuscript eventually passed, apparently intact, to Léon or Paul Gruel, Paris book dealers and binders, who removed most of the Old Testament text and rebound the remainder into a single volume of 187 leaves. Purchased from Gruel before ca. 1930 by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (cf. Chester Beatty Archives). Thereafter Chester Beatty W. MS. VIII, then foliated and renumbered as Western MS 116 by Eric Millar for his intended catalog (Peter Kidd, private correspondence, July, 2019). Chester Beatty sale, Sotheby's, 3 December, 1968, lot 14, to booksellers Alan G. Thomas and Charles Ede (SDBM 3163). Subsequently broken up and sold as single leaves and in groups of leaves. This fragment appeared in Thomas' catalog 22, no. 1(d). Later owned by Brian Douglas Stilwell (his bookplate tipped to front pastedown). Sold by the William H. Allen Co., of Philadelphia, to Dr. Wolfgang G. Scholz, of Mystic, Connecticut.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased from the sale of the Scholz collection (Skinner Inc., Boston, 23 July, 2019, lot 2)
Notes (object):
Collation: Parchment, fol. ii (modern paper) + 14 + ii (modern paper) ; possibly 1¹⁴ (oversewing prevents detailed inspection of structure) ; modern arabic foliation (498-511) in upper right margins; later refoliated 136-149.
Layout: 2 columns, 51 lines. Ruled in plummet.
Script: Written in a gothic bookhand in brown ink with red rubrics. Errors corrected by scraping away text or extending lines into the margins; where corrections extend into margins, extra ruling is added and red pen-flourishes surround the text.
Decoration: 32 illuminated initials of varying sizes, in colors with burnished gold, many with vertical bar borders extending into the margins. Small initials at the beginning of each chapter, larger initials at the beginning of prologues. Illuminated initial 'P' in place of 'N' in the Acts prologue (thus "[P]on ita est ordo"). Two historiated initials: ten-line 'P' at the beginning of Acts (Paul seated, holding a sword) and 14-line 'I' at the beginning of the Epistle of James (James standing under a turret, with right arm pointing upward). Headlines and chapter numbers lettered in alternating blue and red, rubrication guides (chapter numbers) in margins.
Binding: Bound in modern blue goatskin and housed in a blue cloth slipcase.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: A Loan Collection of Western Illuminated Manuscripts from the Library of Sir Chester Beatty, Exhibited in the Library of Trinity College Dublin, 1955. Dublin: Friends of the Library, 1955. 10; Branner, Robert. Manuscript Painting in Paris during the time of Saint Louis: a Study of Styles. Berkeley: UCLA Press, 1977. 118-122; H.P. Kraus. Catalogue 188: One Hundred Distinguished Manuscripts and Printed Books. New York: The firm, 1991. 8 (for attribution to the Dominican Painter); for a list of all known leaves, see also Peter Kidd's catalog of The McCarthy Collection, vol. III (forthcoming as of July, 2019)
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
06_01_016832
Call #:
RARE BKS MS q Med. 275
Barcode:
39999092833001