Eusebius of Cremona, Vita sancti Hieronymi, life of St. Jerome, and other texts, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [northern Italy, c.1460-70]

70 leaves, 202mm. by 153mm., complete, collation: i-vii^{10, note first word of last gathering missed (that agreeing with the catchword "sunt") but text continuous between gatherings, single column, 29-30 lines in brown ink in a fine humanistic bookhand, paragraph marks in faded red, initials in blue or red with contrasting penwork,} large initial 'I' in gold (fol.63v) intertwined with white-vine foliage on red and blue grounds flecked with white dots, large historiated initial 'P' (fol.1r) enclosing Jerome as a bearded man before a crucifix, with full border of white vine on red and blue, with erased arms in bas-de-page, flyleaves mostly cut away (offset of pastedown at front from an Italian fourteenth-century copy of Latin verse; pastedown at back in situ, from an Italian copy of Donatus, Ars Minor, of c.1400), some small spots and stains (mainly to first and last leaves), else in fine condition, early if not original binding of red leather over thick wooden boards (some scuffs and small tears exposing areas of stitching at spine), working clasp with early metal catch, front cover augmented in the nineteenth century with paintwork designs and later bosses

The volume comprises: Eusebius' letter to  bishop Damascus and the Roman senator Theodosius concerning the death of Jerome, opening "Patri reverendissimo Damasso ..." (fol.1r); Pseudo-Augustine's letter to St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, concerning the appearance of Jerome's spirit to him, opening "Gloriosissimi christiane fidei athlete ..." (fol.29v, Migne, Pat.Lat., 22, cols.282-326); St. Cyril's letter to Augustine concerning the miracles of Jerome, opening "Venerabili viro episcoporum ..." (fol.35r); Eusebius' Vita of Jerome, opening "Hieronymus Eusebii viri nobilissimi ..." (fol.61v); and the tract ascribed to Jerome on the life of Saint Paul the hermit, addressing the desert anchorites, opening "Inter multos sepe dubitatum ..." (fol.64v Pat. Lat. 22, coll.17).