Cassiodorus, Historia Ecclesiastica Tripartita, in Latin, manuscript on vellum

157 leaves, 379 mm. by 248 mm., complete, collation: i-xix^{8, xx5 [of 6, blank vi cancelled], mostly with signatures in roman numerals on last versos, pencil foliation (by Eric Millar, followed here) begins on flyleaf, double column, 37 lines, ruled in plummet, written-space 264 mm. by 162 mm., text begins above top line, written in dark brown ink in a very fine late romanesque bookhand, running-titles in majuscules in upper margins, headings in red, a few directions for the rubricator remaining (e.g., fols. 78v and 96v), small initials in chapter lists alternately red and blue}, over 500 large decorated initials throughout the manuscript, mostly 3 lines high (a few 2-line) in red, green or blue, with penwork in red or blue, twelve very large initials (fols. 2r, 2v, 22r, 33r, 40r, 53v, 73v, 89r, 107r, 116r, 135v and 153r) in divided red and blue, enclosing and often surrounded by elaborate penwork infilled with green, brown and other colours, sometimes extending far into the margins, a few early sidenotes, occasional signs of use, small marginal stains on fols. 87v-88r, a heading smudged on fol. 125r, generally in extremely fine condition throughout with wide margins often preserving the prickings, bound in late nineteenth-century brown morocco gilt, by F[rancis] Bedford (signed inside upper cover), gilt edges, vellum endleaves, in a brown quarter morocco fitted case, title gilt

provenance

(1) Guisborough Priory, North Yorkshire, the Augustinian priory of Saint Mary, founded by Robert de Bruce in 1119, suppressed in 1540, and now a romantic ruin.  The priory's ownership inscription is written across the top of the opening page "Liber s[an]c[t]e Marie de Gisburñ", apparently in the same hand as the text (compare the word "Liber" with the running-titles), which shows that the book was actually written for Guisborough itself.  The manuscript was probably chained in the library, for there is a rust mark apparently from a hasp at the foot of the opening page.  Contemporary sidenotes attest to careful study.  There are various forms of 'Nota' mark, and occasional letters 'D.M.' ("digna memoriae", fols. 9v, 59r, 93v, etc.) and pointing hands.  One reader was interested in heresies.  On fol. 39v he mentions another book in the Guisborough library, "Nota contra hoc legitur in vita Silvestri quam habemus".

Guisborough Priory was burned in 1289 and "libris theologie multis" were destroyed.  By the early fourteenth century, however, the Registrum Anglie, the union catalogue compiled by the Oxford Franciscans, recorded 184 titles at Guisborough (cf. Rouse and Rouse, Registrum Anglie, 1991, pp. 309-10, no. 161; and T. Webber and A. Watson, The Libraries of the Augustinian Canons, 1998, pp. 29-30).  Ker's Medieval Libraries, 1964, listed only seven extant volumes from Guisborough, with two further probable candidates; the Supplement, 1987, adds two more possibilities and cites the present volume as untraced.  The fourteenth-century historian Walter of Guisborough was a canon of the priory, and doubtless read the present manuscript.

(2) Bernard Quaritch, A General Catalogue of Books, The Supplement, 1875-77, 1877, p. 540, no. 6989.

(3) Jonathan Peckover (1835-1882), younger brother of Lord Peckover of Wisbech (1830-1919), formerly with his bookplate (a shadowy outline remains); and by descent to his sister, Algerina Peckover (1841-1927), of Sibalds House, Wisbech; her sale in these rooms, 12 December 1927, lot 56.

(4) Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968), his W MS 45, bought at the Peckover sale; his sale in these rooms, 3 December 1968, lot 10.

(5) Bought at the Chester Beatty sale by a private collector, and by descent to the present owner.

literature

E. G. Millar, The Library of A. Chester Beatty, A Descriptive Catalogue, II, Oxford, 1930, pp. 5-7, no. 45, and pl. CV.

M. L. W. Laistner, 'The Value and Influence of Cassiodorus' Ecclesiastical History', The Harvard Theological Review, XLI, 1948, p. 66.

W. Jacob, Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der sogennaten Historia Tripartita des Epiphanius-Cassiodor (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, LIX), Berlin, 1954, p. 50, no. 124.

N. R. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, A List of Surviving Books, 2 ed., London, 1964, p. 94; A. G. Watson, Supplement, 1987, p. 38.

R. H. and M. A. Rouse, Registrum Anglie de Libris Doctorum et Auctorum Veterum, London, 1991 (Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 2), p. 133.

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

Cassiodorus (c.485-c.580) is the giant of late Roman culture, who stands between the fast-vanishing ancient world and the beginnings of Christian learning.  He had been consul of Rome in 514, head of the civil service (by 526) and praetorian prefect in 533.  He retired from public service in 540 and became a Christian monk at the community he had founded at Vivarium, near Naples.  Here he wrote various major texts on religion and on the liberal arts.  The Historia Tripartitum is a history of the Roman empire from Constantine (306) to Theodosius II (439), based on three Greek sources, which were translated for him by his friend Epiphanius.  They are those of Socrates Scholasticus (c.380-450), Sozomen (early fifth century) and Theoderet (c.393-c.466).  138 manuscripts are listed by Jacob, Handschriftliche Überlieferung, 1954, of which only two are outside Europe (both fifteenth-century paper manuscripts in the United States) and only two are in private hands, the present manuscript and a twelfth-century continental copy, sold in our rooms, 20 June 1995, lot 72 (citing the present manuscript in the catalogue, p. 96), now London and Oslo, Schøyen MS 2035.  "Not only are early MSS of this celebrated Church-history – the great handbook of the middle ages – very rare; but the present Codex has a peculiar interest in its pedigree" (Quaritch, 1877, p. 540).  The manuscript opens with the preface, "In hoc opere continentur historie ecclesiastice ... Utiliter nimis in capite libri ..."; followed by books I (fol. 2v), II (fol. 22r), III (fol. 33r), IV (fol. 40r), V (fol. 54v), VI (fol. 73v), VII (fol. 89r), VIII (fol. 107r), IX (fol. 116r), X (fol. 135v), XI (fol. 146v) and XII (fol. 153r), all ending on fol. 158v, "... imperatoris theodosii, Explicit liber duodecimus historie ecclesiastice Tripertite".

The extreme remoteness of northern England was famously evoked in the twelfth century by William of Malmesbury (Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, prologue to Book III).  North of York, William said, was occupied by savage tribes.  The language of northerners was unintelligible, he wrote, for they lived in proximity to barbarians.  Kings of England seldom visited the north (with good reason, William implied), and never without an army for protection.  Even in Chaucer's time, the North was still considered remote: the Reeve says, "far in the north, I kan nat telle where".  The principal centre for the dissemination of learning in the northern provinces was evidently Durham.  It had a tradition of historical scholarship stretching back to Bede and to the early Northumbrian monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, which had acquired part of the library of Cassiodorus himself from Italy in the seventh century.  In the twelfth century, Durham Cathedral appears to have been the source, directly or indirectly, of texts owned by northern Benedictine houses such as Selby and Whitby, Cistercian houses like Byland, Rievaulx and Sawley, and Augustinian houses such as Hexham and, notably, Guisborough (cf. A. Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, 2003, esp. pp. 191 and 228 for Guisborough).  It is not so clear whether Durham was making manuscripts on commission, or was lending exemplars to local communities, or was perhaps receiving scribes from other monasteries to make use of facilities of the Durham scriptorium.  That the present manuscript was prepared specifically for Guisborough is evident from the ownership inscription being in the hand of the scribe.  "The writing is an extremely beautiful and regular English hand of the late twelfth century" (Millar, p. 7).  It is very like that of Durham A.III.10, Gilbert de la Porrée, third quarter of the twelfth century (Mynors, Durham Cathedral Manuscripts, 1939, pl. 45), and is not unlike that of the Puiset Bible (A.II.1), written at Durham in the late twelfth century.  There was a potential exemplar at Durham, for the cathedral catalogue of the mid-twelfth century lists, as no. 139, "Cassiodorus super tripartitam historiam", now lost.