Florilegium and the Psalter of the Virgin, in Latin, manuscript on paper

Estimate

1,000 - 1,500 GBP

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Description

86 leaves (5 blank), 147mm. by 100mm., possibly lacking text after fol.20, else complete, collation: i-ii^{10, iii^{8, iv^{4, v^{10, vi-ix^{8, x^{12, mostly with catchwords, first text (fols.1-50) mostly c.18-22 lines, written probably by a single scribe in various forms of humanistic cursive, the second text (fols.51-84v) 20 lines, ruled in ink, written-space 105mm. by 64mm., written in a gothic bookhand, blank spaces left for initials, some minor stains and defects, a few marginal wormholes and tears (some repaired), old (perhaps seventeenth-century) limp vellum, paper endleaves}}}}}}

Catalogue Note

The volume comprises two texts, not originally bound together (to judge from wormholes in the last pages up to fol.50v, but not from fol.51 onwards). The first part is a florilegium or commonplace book, perhaps compiled by the scribe himself since no other manuscript appears to be known with the present incipit. It comprises quotations initially in alphabetical order ‘A’ to ‘E’ and thereafter at random, often with the name of the author from which the quotation comes, beginning “Audeo dicere: superbis esse … [Augustine, De civitate dei, book XIV, cap.13); Amor dei numquam est occiosus … [Gregory, Homiliae in Evangelias, XXX]; Antiquus inimicus castitatem … [Gregory, Homiliae in Ezekielem, book I, cap.8]; Avis qui in plumis … [Pseudo-Bernard, probably actually William of St-Thierry, Tractatus de natura et dignitate amoris] …”, etc., taken from a wide range of sources, including Cicero, Seneca, Isidore, Jerome, Ambrose, John Chrysostom, Leo, Hugh of St-Victor, etc.; from fol.21r onwards the quotations are generally longer, with more precise sources given, including Pythagoras (fol.26v). The watermark of this section is a variant of Briquet 11838 (Brescia, 1482, and other uses in southern Germany), which may suggest a north-eastern Italian origin, last quarter of the fifteenth century.

The second portion of the volume has no watermark but may date from earlier in the century. The text comprises the Psalter of the Virgin, often attributed to Bonaventura, in which the 150 psalms are adapted to form hymns of praise to the Virgin Mary, opening on fol.51r, “[B]eatus vir qui diligit nomen tuum virgo maria …”, ending on fol.84v, “… laudet dominam mariam, amen”.