De viris illustribus

Item Information

Title:
De viris illustribus
Contributor:
Jerome, Saint, -419 or 420. De viris illustribus
Contributor:
Eusebius, of Caesarea, Bishop of Caesarea, approximately 260-approximately 340
Contributor:
Prosper, of Aquitaine, Saint, approximately 390-approximately 463
Contributor:
Sigebert, of Gembloux, approximately 1030-1112
Former owner:
Newcastle, Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham Clinton, Duke of, 1785-1851
Former owner:
Newcastle, Henry Pelham Archibald Douglas Pelham-Clinton, 7th Duke of, 1864-1928
Former owner:
Abbaye d'Anchin (Pecquencourt, France)
Former owner:
Saint-Amand-les-Eaux (Abbey)
Former owner:
Maggs Bros.
Name on Item:
Saint Jerome. Chronicon / Eusebius. Chronographia / Prosper of Aquitaine. Chronicon ab anno 381 ad 1112 / Sigebert of Gembloux
Date:
[ca. 1150]
Format:
Manuscripts
Genre:
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)--France
Manuscripts, Medieval--France
Marginalia
Inscriptions
Bookplates
Manicules
Protogothic
Location:
Boston Public Library
Rare Books Department
Collection (local):
Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts (Collection of Distinction)
Places:
France > Saint-Amand-les-Eaux
Extent:
112 leaves : parchment, ill. ; 325 x 217 (243 x 265) mm bound to 34 cm in box 35 cm.
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/v692th41z
Terms of Use:
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:
[France]
Language:
Latin
Table of Contents:
1. fol. 1: letter from Jerome to Pope Damasus (Epistola beati Iheronimi presbiteri ad beatissimum damasum papam urbis Romae/ BEATISSIMO PA/pae damaso ... / ... ora pro nobis beatissime papa)
2. fol. 1: Pope Damasus' response (Rescriptum damasi papae ad Iheronimum presbiter/ Damasus espicopus urbis romae ... / ... miss de roma iherusolimam)
3. fol. 2v preface to De viris illustribus (Incipit prefatio beati iheronimi presbiteri in Libro de viris illustribus/HORTARIS/dexter ut ... / ... potius imperitiam recognoscat)
4. fol. 3: list of chapters.
5. fol. 3v-18: De viris illustribus (Incipit liber beati iheronimi presbiteri de illustribus viris/SYMON/petris filius ... / ... et necdum expleta sunt./ EXPLICIT LIBER BEA/TI HIERONIMI PR[ES]B[I]T[ER]/ DE ILLUSTRIBUS VIRIS)
6. fol. 18-19v: Jerome's preface (INCIPIT PREFATIO EIUSDEM/ IN LIBRO CHRONICORUM/ EUSEBIUS HIERONIMUS VINCENTIO GALLENO suis SALUTEM/VETUS/ IS/TE/ disertorum mos ... / ... incerta sunt omnia./ Explicit prefacio Beati iheronimi presbiter)
7. fol. 19v-22v: Eusebius' preface (Incipit prefatio eusebii interpretata a beato iheronimo presbitero/ MOYSEN/ GENTIS HEBRAICAE/ qui primus ... / ... summa brevitate ponemus./EXPLICIT PREFA/TIO EUSEBII CESA/RIENSIS/ EPISCOPI/A BEATO HIERONIMO/ INTERPRETAT)
8. fol. 22v-70v: Eusebius, Chronokoi Kanones (INCIPIT CHRONOGRA/FIA EUSEBII AB EODEM/ IHERONIMO DE GRECO LA/TINUM TRANSLATIO/ PRIMUS ASSYRIORUM REX NINUS/ Beli filius ... / ... valentiniani iterum omnis anni v.d.lxx novem)
9. fol. 70v-72v: Prosper of Aquitaine, Chronographia (HUC USQUE HIERONIMUS presbiter ordinum precedentium digessit anorum/ QUE SEQUNTUR PRESPER digessit/ Igitur valente a gothis ... / ... filiabus eius carthaginem abducti sunt)
10. fol. 72v-75: preface, Sigebert of Gembloux (d. 1112), Chronicon ab anno 381 ad 1112 (INCIPIT CHRONICA DOMNI SIGEBERTI/ GEMBLACENSIS MONACHI/ DICTURI aliquid iuvante ... / ... wintharius balamber)
11. fol. 75-112v: Chronicon (THEODOSIUS/ A gratiano magister ... / ... Terremotus factus est marinius circa meridiem XIII kalends decembris [of the year 1013])
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Bibliographic record created by BPL staff based on description by Dr. Lisa Fagin Davis.
Origin: Produced in Saint-Amand (northern France) after the papacy of Callixtus IV, i.e. between 1119-1125, soon after the death of Sigebert of Gembloux in 1112, making this one of the earliest copies of Sigebert's text. Patricia Stirnemann has demonstrated that the manuscript was written in the abbey of Anchin and decorated at Saint-Amand, both in the far North of France. The script is similar to that found in Douai, Bibl. Mun. MS 16, a mid 12th-century manuscript from Anchin, while the decoration is closer to that produced in Saint-Amand, in particular Valenciennes, Bibl. Mun. 1, 48, 112, and 132 (ILLUSTRATE Valenciennes Bib. Mun. 1). McCusker relates this copy to the "B" group as defined in the MGH edition, descended from a manuscript copied by the Flemish monk Anchin, a contemporary of Sigebert's, ca. 1112-1113 (McCusker, p. 98). McCusker assumes that the present manuscript probably originally included Anchin's additions. The chronicles of Eusebius, Prosper and Sigebert are parallel chronologies that provide corresponding dates from different calendars for each year (Roman, Egyptian, Syrian, etc.). These are indicated in the upper margin by capital letters at the head of each column of dates. Ca.17th-century[?] notes in Latin inside front cover, describing the contents of the manuscript and referring to Henricus Stephanus' edition of Sigibert (Paris 1513).
Notes (ownership):
Provenance: The manuscript is identifiable as number CCLIII in the mid 12th-century inventory of St-Amand manuscripts, where it is described as "Ieronimi cronica, sequentibus cronicis Prosperi et Sigeberti." It is not recorded in the 1635 inventory and had in all likelihood left the library by then. Old library number 13 on fol. 1; sold by Payne and Foss in 1825, lot 9159 (number written inside front cover; owned by Henry Pelham-Clinton (1785-1851), the 4th Duke of Newcastle, his arms on the front cover; sold as part of the collection of his great-grandson Henry Pelham-Clinton (1864-1928), the 7th Duke, at Sotheby's on 6 December 1937, lot 953, to Maggs.
Notes (acquisition):
Immediate source of acquisition: Purchased by the BPL from Maggs via the James Lyman Whitney Fund in March 1938.
Notes (citation):
Bond, W.H. Supplement to the Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, pages 206-207
Notes (object):
Secundo folio: Stephanus sedit annos iii ...
Collation: Parchment, fol. i (paper) + 112 + i (paper) ; 1⁶⁺¹ (fol. 7 singleton) 2⁸ 3⁶⁺¹ (fol. 18 singleton) 4-8⁸ 9¹⁰ 10-14⁸ ; signed on the final verso of each quire: i, ii, [quire 3 unsigned], A-L (skips [J]). Fol. 1-22 are codicologically distinct from fol. 23-112, using a different page layout and signature scheme. This suggests that the two parts were originally conceived as distinct manuscripts, though the entire manuscript was written by a single scribe. The first section may originally have ended at fol. 18 after De viris illustribus, with the other texts added very soon thereafter. 15th-century arabic foliation numbers fol. 75-112 (Sigebert's Chronicon) as 1-38; modern arabic pencil foliation, upper outer corner of each page (used here for reference).
Layout: Fol. 1-22v: one column, writing space 251 x 164 mm, 35 lines; fol. 23-112: two columns, 41 lines. Bounding and writing lines ruled in blind.
Script: Written in a romanesque script by one scribe (fol. 1-22v slightly larger module) in brown ink with inter-textual rubrics in red half-uncial; incipit or explicit rubrics in alternating lines of red and green in epigraphic capitals, some guides preserved in margins.
Decoration: White-vine historiated initials in green and red on fol. 18 (9-line "V," Jerome seated presenting a scroll of the text's incipit to Vincentius and Gallienus, the addressees of the preface) -- fol. 72v (10-line "D," Sigebert seated at a writing desk, holding a quill in his right hand and a knife for erasures in his left) -- and fol. 75 (18-line "T," Emperor Theodosius enthroned instructing his sons Acadius and Honorius). White-vine "puzzle" initials in red and green with wings, dragons' heads or birds on fol. 2v (9-line), 3v (11-line), 19v (12-line), and 23 (7-line, white-vine, the only initial in the manuscript add blue to the palette); 1-line initials throughout alternating red and green.
Binding: Ca.-1830 English mottled calf over pasteboard, gilt arms of the 4th Duke of Newcastle (Henry Pelham-Clinton (1785-1851)) on front cover, with motto "Honi soit qui mal y pense"; red leather gilt labels on spine, "LIBER/ B. HIERONYMI/ DE VIRIS/ ILLUSTRIBUS" and "SIGEBERTI/ GEMBLACENSIS/ CHRONICON/ AD ANN. 1014;" paper pastedowns and flyleaves, decorative head and tailbands. Housed in custom brown slipcase.
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. 21; Julius Desilve, De schola Elnonensi Sancti Amandi a saeculo IX ad XII usque (Louvain, 1890), 154-177; Honor McCusker, "A XIIth Century Manuscript of St. Jerome," in More Books/BPL Quarterly XIV (1939): 95-105; "Medieval Manuscripts," in More Books XIV (1939): 229; Ludwig Berthman, ed., "Chronica Sigeberti Gemblacensis monachi" in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptorum VI ([Chronica et annales aevi Salici] (Hanover, 1844), 300-385; B. Lambert, Bibliotheca Hieronymiana Manuscripta (Steenbrugis, 1969), I: 34 (nr. 203) and I:434 (nr. 260).
Notes (language):
In Latin.
Identifier:
MS-fMed-75
Call #:
RARE BKS MS f Med. 75
MS 1481 (no longer used)
Barcode:
39999085498002