Bible, Old Testament, with capitula lists, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, thirteenth century]

261 leaves (plus 8 modern paper endleaves), 200mm. by 135mm., wanting leaves throughout and a few gatherings and leaves at end, collation: i-iii⁸ (inserted gatherings of late fourteenth or early fifteenth century), iv² (isolated bifolium from a lost gathering), v⁷ (i wanting), vi¹⁵ (xiii wanting, and next gathering wanting from beginning of Exodus), vii⁷ (first leaf a cancelled blank), viii² (isolated bifolium from a lost gathering once containing end of Exodus and opening of Leviticus), ix¹⁴ (wanting bifolium from centre), x¹⁴ (wanting bifolium from centre), xi¹⁶ (wants xii, ix misplaced in volume and tipped in), xii¹⁷ (last a singleton), xiii⁸ (wanting leaves at front, after ii and at end), xiv13 (wants iv, then gathering wanting), xv16, xvi¹⁵ (x wanting), xvii⁶ (remaining leaves cut down to stubs), xviii¹⁵ (i wanting, ii-iv stubs only), xix¹⁶, xx⁹ (v, vii and viii stubs), xxi¹⁶, xxii¹⁵ (v wanting), xxiii¹⁴, modern pencil foliation in Arabic numerals from start of original text (but followed here), double column, 48 lines in a tiny gothic bookhand, rubrics in red, one-line initials in blue or red with fine and trailing penwork to contrast, running titles and chapter numbers in alternate red and blue initials, some ending in geometric shapes and on fols.118r and 119r pen-sketches of a human face and a man in a coif holding his hands out, remains of twenty-four larger illuminated initials with text borders in gold and colours (fols.14, 28v, 37v, 52rv, 60v, 70v, 79v, 97v, 98r, 110v, 113v, 118r, 150r, 165r, 171r, 173r, 174r, 175v, 176r, 185r, 191v, 206rv, usually with the central part of initial cut away, leaving only text borders) terminating in lacertine or drollery animals, three with human faces, and supporting birds, a monkey in a red robe and a crouching dog, one initial enclosing St. Paul holding his sword, with a lacertine animal within the body of the initial and another in a smaller initial immediately above (fol.226r, wear to this leaf and so three small holes, one affecting body of initial), small initials completely cut from corner of fol.88, upper parts of fol.112 and 118, areas of fols.i, viii and xxxii cut away, some natural flaws to vellum, small spots and a few leaves with splits or cuts, slightly trimmed at base, else fair condition, nineteenth-century leather over pasteboards (cracking at edges of spine)

From the collection of Sir Walter Wilson Greg (1875-1959), the bibliographer: his ex libris dated 1923 on first endleaf. He presented a part of his manuscript collection, including thirteenth-century copies of Thomas Cisterciensis, Commentary on the Song of Songs, and Sermons on the Psalter, to the British Library (now Additional MSS.45567-73), and his library was dispersed in the mid-1950s. He also owned Los Angeles, University of California, MS.170/331, a thirteenth-century Anglo-French Stephen Langton (M. Ferrari, Medieval and Renaissance MSS at the University of California, 1991, p.64). Others are recorded by Faye and Bond, Census: Supplement, 1962, pp.78 (a fifteenth-century Greek Hymnarium, then in the collection of T.E. Marston, Connecticut), 100 (fifteenth-century Richard Rolle, Prick of Conscience, then J.M. Osborn, Connecticut) and 390 (Fredericus de Venetiis, dated 1456, then C.F. Bühler, New York), and de la Mare, Lyell Cat., p.287 (thirteenth-century religious compendium).