Augustine, Enchiridion, in Latin, in Anglo-Caroline minuscule, decorated manuscript on vellum [England (perhaps Canterbury), mid-eleventh century]

two leaves (reused as pastedowns in a late sixteenth-century, panel-stamped, Oxford binding of an imperfect copy of the works of Aeschylus in Greek (Paris: A. Turnebus, 1552), each approximately 150mm. by 100mm., with a further 20-30mm. folded back under themselves, 13 and 9 lines visible in dark brown ink in a precise and handsome Anglo-Caroline minuscule, one small initial touched in red, one 6-line marginal rubric in same, leaves in excellent condition, host volume bumped at corners and rebacked, else good

provenance

These leaves were reused as binding material in the late sixteenth century, probably in Oxford. Inscriptions on the flyleaves show that the whole volume was owned by Joannis Clercleri (perhaps Clerici) of Magdalen College in 1648 (most probably John Clarke of Reading, who matriculated into Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1624, and received his BA. there in 1626: Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, 1892, II, p.281); G. Thirelton in 1844; G.H.R. Denham in the nineteenth century; and A. Faustini of Brooklyn, NY., in 1925 (bookplate); acquired by Martin Schøyen from Quaritch in 1997: his MS 2366.

text

This is an outstanding and beautiful example of English Caroline minuscule, and the finest to come to the market since the sale of the leaf similar to the Leofric Missal (c.1050) in our rooms, 8 December 1981, lot 8 (now British Library, Addit. MS.62104). The text was well known in Anglo-Saxon England, and Gneuss lists six surviving copies as well as the present manuscript. Three of these probably trace their origin to Christ Church or St. Augustine's, Canterbury (his nos.132, 751 and 794.5).

literature

H. Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, 2001, no.875.7