Epistles of Saint Paul, glossed, in Latin, manuscript on vellum

162 leaves (first 2 originally blank), plus 2 original flyleaves at end, 274 mm. by 180 mm., complete, collation: i-xix^{8, xx10, with numerical signatures at foot of last versos, central column with 20-22 lines (see below), ruled in blind (gatherings 1-13) and in plummet from gathering 14, column width varies slightly with the different scribes but written-space mostly about 202 mm. by 65 mm., written in dark brown ink in a regular rounded romanesque bookhand, marginal glosses on either side and between the lines in a smaller script on lines ruled as required, some headings in red, a few prologues entirely in red, first words of books usually stroked in red, chapter initials in red or stroked in red,} fourteen large painted initials in designs including flowers, birds and dragons in colours on coloured panelled grounds, many signs of careful and scholarly use, several layers and early campaigns of added glosses and corrections (including erasures and glosses to the gloss), headings for liturgical readings added in red, many additions to endleaves, some wear, minor stains, some margins cut, stitched repairs to fols. 70-71 and 101, slight marginal worming at ends, generally sound and with wide margins preserving the prickings, bound in eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century dark red morocco gilt, in a red quarter morocco fitted case gilt

provenance

(1) The style of decoration is consistent with Milan. One reference to the liturgical readings of the Epistles is for the translation of Saint Victor (fol. 61v), a Milanese feast.  There are several partially erased thirteenth-century ownership inscriptions, including "Iste liber est fratrum minorum de ..." (fol. 1r).  A twelfth-century glossed St Luke with an apparently similar erased inscription was lot 1 in the sale at Christie's, 26 November 1997.  The entries in the present manuscript were tentatively read by Sydney Cockerell (cf. his pencil note on final flyleaf, "Scribbles examined, June 3 1912, SCC") and his suggested transcriptions are "Iste liber est fr[atrum] ... empsi ego math. de ?campo" (fol. 2r) and "Iste liber est fratrum minorum [? Pataviae] commorantium", of the Franciscans of Padua.  In 1449 the library there had no fewer than nine copies of the Pauline Epistles with gloss, shelved on the left side of the fourth book press in the library, none obviously identical with the present book (K. W. Humphreys, The Library of the Franciscans of the Convent of St Antony, Padua, at the beginning of the Fifteenth Century, 1966, pp. 128-29, nos. 395-403).

The many notes and additions at the end include a drawing of a wildman with a woolly beard, sketches of elaborately decorated initials 'A', and the courteous note, "pax vobis a deo patre qui legeris in isto libro" (fol. 163r).  A monogram and device dated 1427 on fol. 162v may mean that the book was back in private hands by the late Middle Ages.  Perhaps it had been discarded by the Franciscans as a duplicate. 

(2) Sir Joseph Radcliffe (1799-1872), second baronet, of Rudding Park, Yorkshire, and by descent; his bookplate was still in the volume in 1966.  Rudding Park was sold in 1962 and its library was dispersed.

(3) Bought by a private collector from H. P. Kraus, Manuscripts and Books, cat. 115 (1966), no. 14; and by descent to the present owner.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

text

Like the Gloss on the Psalms, that on the Epistles of Saint Paul is one of the texts attributable securely to Anselm of Laon himself (d. 1117).  It was probably in circulation by the last  decade of the eleventh century.  This text too was expanded later by Gilbert de la Porrée and Peter Lombard, and copies of the original Gloss on the Epistles are rare after the mid-twelfth century.  For the text, cf. C. de Hamel, Glossed Books of the Bible, 1984, and Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, IX, 1977, pp. 531-46, nos. 11832-44.  One of the features of Anselm's text is his naming of authorities he had used, including a rare citation on fol. 152r here of Lanfranc of Bec (cf. M. T. Gibson, 'Lanfranc's Commentary on the Pauline Epistles', Journal of Theological Studies, n.s., XXII, 1971, pp. 86-122).

The book comprises: Romans (fol.3r), I Corinthians (fol. 38r), II Corinthians (fol. 72r), Galatians (fol. 93v), Ephesians (fol. 104v), Philippians (fol. 114r), Colossians (fol. 119v), I Thessalonians (fol. 125r), II Thessalonians (fol. 129v), I Timothy (fol. 132r), II Timothy (fol. 137v), Titus (fol. 141r) and Hebrews (fol. 144v).