De contemplatione Christi

Item Information

Title:
De contemplatione Christi
Attributed name:
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430
Former owner:
Budé, Jean, 1430-1501
Former owner:
Le Gualès de Mézaubran, Gilberte, 1892-1970
Auctioneer:
Sotheby's (Firm)
Date:
[1450–1475]
Format:
Manuscripts
Books
Genre:
Illuminations
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--France
Manuscripts, Medieval--France
Inscriptions
Gothic scripts
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Subjects:
Catholic Church--Prayers and devotions--Early works to 1800
Places:
France
Extent:
32 leaves : parchment, ill. ; 144 x 105 (84 x 53) mm bound to 16 cm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/9w0367264
Terms of Use:
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Place of origin:
[France]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1-30: De Contemplatione Christi Hic incipit liber beati augustini de contemplacione christi alias verbo [ ] manuale./ Quoniam in medio laqueorum .../ ...cessant mihi dicere ut amen deus meus./ Explicit.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Title from incipit.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Spuriously attributed to Augustine, De contemplatione Christi is in fact a compilation drawn from John of Fécamp, St. Bernard, Hugh of Saint-Victor, and St. Anselm (see Patrologia Latina XL:951-968). The present manuscript was written in France in the third quarter of the fifteenth century.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: First owned by Jean Budé (1430-1502), courtier to King Louis XI and Charles VIII, noted book collector, and father of French humanist Guillaume Budé: his arms in the lower margin of fol. 1. According to Omont (p. 101), most of Budé's manuscripts bore his arms and were acquired between 1481 and 1488, as indicated by acquisition notes in his hand on many manuscripts (although no such inscription is found in the present manuscript). He notes forty-one manuscripts known to have been owned by Budé, a list that has been supplemented by Martin-Demézil, Droz and Garand, bringing the total number of manuscripts known to have been associated with Budé to more than 60, including the present manuscript which is not found in any of the published lists. After his death, Budé divided his library among his ten sons, and it is impossible to ascertain which of them acquired the present volume. 19th- or 20th-century notes on front flyleaf. Countess Gualès de Mézaubran, her sale Sotheby's London 2 July 1951, lot 23.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Sold to BPL by Maggs, cat. 816 (1953) no. 141.
Notes (date):
This date is inferred.
Notes (citation):
Bond, W.H. Supplement to the Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 214
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: ...leo virtute laudo...
Collation: Parchment, xii (18th-century paper flyleaves) + 32 ; 1-3⁸ 4⁶ 5² ; some signatures barely visible, mostly trimmed, lower right recto of the first half of several quires. Catchwords in brown ink in scribal hand, some repeated by a different hand in blue ink, lower center margin of the final verso of each quire. Modern arabic pencil foliation, partial.
Layout: Single column, 17 lines. Bounding and writing lines in red plummet, top and bottom writing lines extend across the width of the page.
Script: Written in a gothic cursiva formata (bastarda) in brown ink with blue rubrics.
Decoration: Two-line initials throughout in gold leaf on blue and salmon with white filigree highlighting; 3/4-page miniature on fol. 1: Augustine kneels on a hillside, his mitre and crozier at his side, with the vision of Christ in majesty in a heavenly aperture at the upper right, a fortified city in the background; full border of spindly vines and small leaves in gold and colors, arms of Jean Budé (d'argent, au chevron de gueules accompagné de trois grappes de raisin pourpres, deux en chef, une en pointe) in lower margin, 4-line floriate initial in colors on gold.
Binding: Modern vellum binding with paper pastedowns and endleaves.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: BPL quarterly VII (1955), p. 78; E. Droz, "Livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque de Jean Budé," in Humanisme et Renaissance, vol. VI (1939), pp. 288-293; C. Garand, "Les copistes de Jean Budé (1430-1502)," in Bulletin d'information de l'Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes 15 (1967), pp. 294-328; J. Martin-Demézil, "Un manuscrit de la bibliothèque de Jean Budé," in Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes 99 (1938), pp. 220-222; H. Omont, "Notes sur la famille de Guillaume Budé" and "Notices sur les collections de manuscrits de Jean et Guillaume Budé," in Bulletin de la société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Ile de France 12 (1885), pp. 45-50 and pp. 100-113; 13 (1886), pp. 112-113.
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
06_01_018689
Call #:
RARE BKS MS q Med.127
MS 1549 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999091846566