Life of St. Augustine : in Latin

Item Information

Title:
Life of St. Augustine : in Latin
Description:
This pictorial life of St. Augustine originally comprised 132 "chapters," each an illustration with a brief explanatory paragraph, although chapters 1-4 and 22-25 are now lacking (the two outermost bifolia of the first quire). The manuscript has been edited and reproduced in facsimile, it's possible sources studied in detail (see Courcelle), although the authors of the edition can only speculate as to any direct sources of the text and illustrations. This is one of the most thoroughly illustrated Vitae Augustini known, and as such preserves many unique scenes, all of which are examined in the edition.
Former owner:
A. Rosenthal Ltd.
Date:
[ca. 1470–1485]
Format:
Manuscripts
Genre:
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--Germany
Manuscripts, Medieval--Germany
Gothic scripts
Incunabula
Pigskin bindings
Bevelled edge boards
Wooden boards
Blind tooled bindings
Printed waste
Manuscript waste
Inscriptions
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Subjects:
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430
Places:
Germany > Rhineland Palatinate > Speyer
Extent:
54 leaves : paper, ill. ; 285 x 200 (196 x 127) mm bound to 30 cm, in box 32 cm.
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/v692tg25c
Terms of Use:
No Copyright - United States icon No Copyright - United States
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Restrictions:
Access to physical copy/copies by appointment only. Please contact Boston Public Library Rare Books and Manuscripts Department for further information.
Place of origin:
[Speyer?]
Language:
Latin
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis and on entry 68 in the 2016 Beyond Words exhibition catalog (J. Hamburger).
Origin: Written in Germany, possibly Speyer. Dated to ca. 1470-1485 and localized based on watermark evidence.
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: Effaced early ex libris on fol. 1, now illegible. Several ownership inscriptions in red on fol. 54v, including: "Hic liber pertinet fratribus eremitaru[m] S. Augustini, 1591" and another, faded, in the same hand: "Johann G[...] S. Augustini Monsaterij Con[...] 1591" (possibly the Augustinian monastery of Constance -- see Courcelle); in a later hand: "En liber antiquus describit in ordine vitam Sancti Augustini/ 1748."
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased by BPL from A. Rosenthal, March 1939 (SDBM 56857).
Notes (citation):
Bond, W.H. Supplement to the Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, page 207
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: Ibi augustinus puer ...
Collation: Paper (an unidentified bull's head watermark, two others corresponding to Piccard numbers 75345 and 74842), fol. 54 ; 1¹²⁻⁴ (lacking two outermost bifolia, i.e. two leaves before fol. 1 and two leaves after fol. 8), 2-14¹² 5¹²⁻² (final two leaves cancelled; their conjoints, fol. 45 and 46, are loose and laid-in) ; signatures extant on quires 2-5, signed 2us-5us, lower left corner of the first recto. Modern arabic foliation, upper outer corner of each page.
Layout: One column, number of lines varies from a few lines to a half page. Bounding lines ruled in brown ink.
Script: Written in a gothic cursive in black ink with red rubrics.
Decoration: 116 ink drawings with colored wash (135 x 130 mm) all depicting scenes from the life of St. Augustine with descriptive captions. Most pages contain one drawing, some pages contain two.
Binding: Early (ca. 1494) half-pigskin over wooden boards, blindstamped floral lozenges, bevelled edges, lacking center clasp, sewn on three split bands (spine missing in part), blank paper pastedown in front, leaf of an incunable pasted-down in back (folio s3 of the Freiburg 1494 edition of Augustine's City of God). Manuscript waste hinges affix upper and lower boards.
Notes (bibliography):
Bibliography: Jeffrey Hamburger, et al., eds. Beyond Words: Illuminated Manuscripts in Boston Collections. (Chestnut Hill: McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, 2016), no. 68; Ellen M. Oldham, "The Life of St. Augustine in Pictures," Boston Public Library Quarterly IV (1952): 20-26; P. Courcelle and J. Courcelle-Ladmirant, Vita Sancti Augustini: Imaginibus Adornata (Manuscrit de Boston, Public Library, no. 1483, s. XV, inédit) (Paris, 1964).
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
MS-fMed-77
Call #:
RARE BKS MS f Med. 77
MS 1483 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999063757122