Lot 1
  • 1

Christianus (Druthmar) of Stavelot, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, decorated manuscript in Latin and Greek with a single word in a Germanic vernacular (probably Old Frankish/Old Low Franconian), on vellum [Germany (almost certainly Bamberg), second half of the eleventh century]

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 GBP
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Description

  • vellum
152 leaves, 265mm. by 200mm., wanting single leaves after fols. 58, 59, 129 and 149, else complete, collation: i8, ii4, iii1, iv10, v6, vi10, vii6, viii10, ix-x6, xi-xiii8, xiv4 (iii and iv singletons), xv10, xvi6, xvii10, xviii6, xix7 (ii wanting), xx8, xxi7 (viii wanting), xxii3 (all singletons), ruled in dry-point for 31 lines of dark brown ink in a fine late Carolingian hand, many pages with ornamental extensions of descenders of lowest line of letters, numerous small capital initials in dark brown in left-hand margin, rubrics in red, four 2- to 3-line initials in terracotta red (fols.91r, 103v, 109v and 148v), a line of display capitals opening each major section of the text, full page of large ornamental display capitals in terracotta red (fol.1v), twenty-nine large white-vine initials, 4- to 8-lines in height (fols.1v, 3v, 9v, 11v, 16r, 18v, 21v, 22v, 25v, 26rv, 27v, 30r, 34r, 35v, 38v, 42v, 43v, 44rv, 48r, 50r, 61r, 62v, 64rv, 65r, 67v and 88r, with two terminating in dragon-heads: fol.1v and 27v), with spaces for another twenty-two initials (41v, 45v, 46v, 52rv, 53v, 57r, 90rv, 92r, 94r, 96v, 100v, 102r, 104v, 108r, 110r, 112v, 113v, 114v, 115v, 116v), that on fol.92r with a dry-point sketch for an initial (perhaps contemporary), and a few others filled in by later medieval hands, small piece cut from corner of fol.128, fol.12 and last few leaves skilfully reattached without disbinding, else in remarkably clean and fresh condition, flyleaves from a twelfth-century German musical manuscript with diastematic neumes, late medieval binding of sheepskin over thick wooden boards, discoloured circles marking position of five missing copper or brass bosses on each board, remnants of two tags and clasps, excellent condition, fitted case

Provenance

An exceedingly fine Romanesque book, in near flawless condition, with an extremely early and important witness to the ancestor of Modern Flemish and Dutch as spoken by Charlemagne

provenance

1. Written for (and most probably at) the celebrated monastery of Michelsberg in Bamberg in the second half of the eleventh century: sixteenth-century inscription on first flyleaf, "Codex monasterii sancti michaelis prope babenberge" with the pressmark "B16", superseding a slightly earlier inscription  "montismonachorum". Remnants of same pressmark in ink on front cover and on label pasted to spine. The volume appears in the early twelfth-century book-list of Prior Burchard as L 2,54 "Item commentum super Matheum", and the mid-fifteenth-century list by Abbot Andreas Lang as "B16 Cristianum super Matheum" (P. Ruf, Mittelälterliche Bibliothekskataloge III.3, 1939, pp.359 and 379). The abbey was founded in 1015 by the Emperor Henry II (973-1024) and Bishop Eberhard I of Bamberg (d.1040), and was actively promoted by these patrons as a model centre of learning, and supplied with books and monks from the great Carolingian houses of Fulda, Amorbach and Münsterschwarzach. It suffered during the Peasants' War of 1525 and the Thirty Years' War, and was secularised in 1802, with many of its possessions (including much of the library) being confiscated by Bavarian troops.

2. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872); his MS.1148, with his lion-stamp on front flyleaf and paper label on spine; acquired from the Frankfurt bookdealer Franz Varrentrap (1776-1831), with his signature inside front board.

3. The Robinson brothers of Pall Mall; acquired in 1946, and exported in February 1949 to the State Library of Victoria, Australia, as part of a selling exhibition; the Acting Chief Librarian, J. Feely, expressing regret that sufficient funds could not be raised to acquire the present volume before its return to London in September of the same year (Carmody, 2008).

4. Frederick Fermor-Hesketh, 2nd Baron Hesketh (1916-55); acquired from Robinson cat.81 (1950), no.40; and by descent to the present owner.

Literature

literature

K. Hampe, 'Reise nach England vom Juli 1895 bis Februar 1896', Neues Archiv 22 (1897), p.677, no.15

F. Dreßler, 'Zwei versprengte Michelsberger Handschriften' Bericht des Historischen Vereins für die Pflege der Geschichte des ehemaligen Fürstbistums Bamberg 93-94 (1956), pp.275-82 and (1957), 266-87

K. Dengler-Schreiber, Scriptorium und Bibliothek des Klosters Michelsberg in Bamberg, 1979, pp.18, 27-8, 117-18

F. Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum, 1981, II, p.239

S. Krämer, Handschriftenerbe des Deutschen Mittelalters, 1989-90, p.55

R.B.C. Huygens, 'À propos de Christian dit de Stavelot et son explication de l'évangile selon Matthieu', Sacris Erudiri 44 (2005),  pp.252-73, his manuscript 'H'

S. Carmody, 'William H. Robinson, Booksellers and the Public Library of Victoria', La Trobe Journal 81 (2008), pp. 100-02 and 105, n.17

Condition

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

text

Christianus was one of the most accomplished biblical scholars of the Carolingian Renaissance, and yet is one of its least well-known figures. He was a monk in the great abbey of Corbie in Picardy, and in the mid-ninth century was sent to the ancient abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy in Liège (founded between 648 and 651), to act as tutor to the monks there. This text is the fruit of those decades of labour. It is a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Migne, Pat. Lat. 106, cols.1261-1504), sprinkled with anecdotal detail, composed (as he explains) as Jerome's allegorical commentary on Matthew was too advanced for many students, and Bede's on Mark had made all others on that Gospel superfluous. He states his intention to write others on Luke and John, but if they were ever composed, they do not survive.

What is most remarkable is his excellent knowledge of Greek. As Laistner notes "assuredly competent Hellenists of the eighth and ninth centuries can be counted on one hand" (Thought & Letters in Western Europe, 1931, p. 238), and yet substantial quotations from Greek sources are found throughout the text (see fols.9v, 144r, 146r for example, and Laistner, Harvard Theological Review, 20, 1927, pp.141-2), some demonstrating a deep understanding of Greek grammar. His Greek is more competent than that of Alcuin (730s-804), Hrabanus Maurus (c.780-856) or Lupus Servatus (c.805-62), who appear to have blindly copied the few words in their texts from the works of Isidore of Seville. This gave Christianus access to the text of the New Testament in the original, enriching his work with numerous readings taken from versions other than Jerome's Vulgate. In his quotation of Christ's words on the Cross, "Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum", he corrects his reading against the Lucianic text of Psalm 30:6 (Laistner, p.145), which Jerome located between Constantinople and Antioch, and was almost unheard of in the West in the Middle Ages.

His anecdotal asides add great charm, with views on women: "Curiosum animal est femina et ardens novitate" (fol.140r), wine "Nec improperabant ei quod vinum biberet, quod non est vitium, si moderate potetur" (fol.60v), and even where a pilgrim could stay in Rome in the time of Charlemagne (fol.141v). Perhaps the most important of these is in a gloss on the phrase "a reed shaken by the wind" (Matt. 11:7), where he equates arundo (reed) with canna, and explains that "such reeds are common in Judea as they are in Italy ... and they grow in marshy places in the way of the plants which we call ros" (fol.59v). This word must be a cognate of Old High German rôr, Modern German Rohr, archaic Dutch roer and Modern English rush, with a simple misunderstanding of the final 'r' by a later scribe; but which vernacular is it? In the context of a work written by a Carolingian teacher for a readership primarily in the Low Countries and northern France, this is most probably Old Frankish/Old Low Franconian (the former evolving into the latter c.800), the language spoken by Charlemagne and the direct ancestor of Flemish and Dutch. Early sources for this language are very few. A runic inscription on the fifth-century Bergakker sword-sheath may be in Old Frankish, and a single sentence in that language survives in the sixth-century Lex Salica in various late and garbled forms. However, the only uncontested examples of Old Low Franconian before the twelfth century are the interlinear vernacular glosses added to the Wachtendonck Psalter (apparently in the tenth century). That manuscript is now lost, and is known only from sixteenth-century transcriptions. The present word is not recorded there, and thus this single word used by Christianus would appear to be one of the absolute earliest witnesses to the direct ancestor of Flemish and Dutch. There is no manuscript copy of the text in either Belgium or the Netherlands.

Apart from the present manuscript, Huygens records eight other copies. The earliest is the somewhat poor witness of Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibl. Weissenburg 42 (late ninth century; ex Weissenburg). Others are Vienna, ÖNB Cod.724 (tenth century; ex Lorsch); Munich, Bayer. Staatsbibl., Clm 14066 (eleventh century; ex Regensberg); Paris, Bibl. Sainte-Geneviève ms.71 (twelfth century; ex Amiens); Nuremberg, Stadtbibl., Cent.III.61 (1473, ex St. Egidius, Nuremberg); Munich, Bayer. Staatsbibl., Clm 4527 (c.1500; ex Benediktbeuren); Graz, Universitätsbibl. mss.700 (1331, ex Seckau) and 382 (c.1400; from Styria). This is the only one to ever come to public sale.

script

While the hand dates to the second half of the eleventh century, aspects of the script and decoration hark back to forms of the ninth or tenth centuries. In particular, the full page of elegant display capitals on fol.1v closely echoes the format of the highest quality of early Carolingian biblical and liturgical manuscripts, such as the Gospels of St. Médard of Soissons (BnF., ms. lat.8850; court school, ninth century), the Drogo Sacramentary (BnF., ms. lat.9428; court school, c.850) and copies of biblical commentaries such as Alcuin's Commentary on John (Cologne, Dom. Hs.107; Tours, second quarter ninth century; Glaube und Wissen im Mittelalter, 1998, pp.215-17), and Jerome's commentary on Isaiah (BnF, ms. lat.11627; probably Corbie, end of eighth century; Trésors carolingiens, 2007, pp. 120 and 125). It seems likely that a similar lost exemplar, of imperial quality, is the direct ancestor of the present manuscript.