Lot 50

Bible, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [England (probably Oxford), second quarter of the thirteenth century]

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

431 leaves, 265mm. by 190mm., wanting single leaves from after fols.206, 232, 310, 344 and 374, two folios after fol.98, and a number of gatherings from beginning and end, else apparently complete, single column, 43-44 lines in brown ink in a single professional early gothic hand, running titles and rubrics in red and blue, 2-line initials in red or blue with penwork to contrast, larger initials with intricate penwork opening each book (that on fols.65v, 313r, 315v smudged), many neat medieval marginal additions, fol.209 blank and mostly cut away, corners of fols.69, 226, 253 and 290 cut away and repaired with modern paper, somewhat discoloured throughout through use, else good condition, nineteenth-century English brown tooled calf over pasteboards, now cracking at spine

Provenance

provenance

1. Probably produced in Oxford in the second quarter of the thirteenth century, and perhaps used by a Dominican there: contemporary quotations on fol.389r with the name "Kilwordeby", ie. Cardinal Robert Kilwardby (c.1215-79), the provincial of the English Dominicans.

2. Nycolas Stede: his sixteenth-century ownership inscription on fol.313r.

3. Williame Doble (presumably the man of the same name who matriculated from St Mary Hall, Oxford in April 1618): his seventeenth-century inscription on fol.252v.

4. Morley Chubb, who presented the book on 1 May 1824, to W. Stradling: his armorial bookplate with notes on front pastedown.

5. F. G. Mooney, bought from Quaritch; his sale in our rooms, 8 December 1981, lot 71, to Alan Thomas.

6. Bergendal MS.49; bought by Joseph Pope from Thomas in October 1982: Bergendal catalogue no.49; Stoneman, 'Guide', pp.185-86; exhibited in Medieval Manuscripts in Toronto Collections, 1987, pp.13-14.

Catalogue Note

text

The text of this large and handsome English bible opens in Exodus 6:2 and ends at II St. Peter 1:14. It is a very early example of a one-volume Bible, still in the formative period. The prologues agree with those recorded by Ker (MMBL, I:96-97), except that Stegmüller 327 is lacking; the prologue, "Tradunt Hebrei hunc Librum" appears in the place of Stegmüller 462; as does "Post eas manifestavit" in place of Stegmüller 677; and "Paulus apostolus non ab hominibus" appears instead of Stegmüller 640.