Peter Lombard

400x280mm, manuscript on vellum, ii+135+ii leaves, COMPLETE, in 12 quires each of 12 leaves except iv10 and xii4, some original quire signatures survive, each page ruled individually for 2 columns of up to 55 lines of gloss, the main text in larger script on alternate lines in blocks of varying size, the ruled space c.260x165mm, the text ending in Philippians and the spaces for initials mostly left blank, a few post-medieval marginal inscriptions (e.g. ff.58v, 86r), the outer margin of f.133 and the lower margin of f.135 excised, otherwise generally in very good condition; sewn on 7 bands and bound in a typical Parc binding of early eighteenth-century polished calf, gilt spine, each cover with the abbey’s gilt arms (effaced, as usual)

PROVENANCE

(1) THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ABBEY OF PARC, near Leuven, with their typical binding, shelf-mark ‘J | theca IIII.’ (upper pastedown), and partially-erased ownership inscription, ‘Liber …’ (f.1r); their sale, Baumans, 22 October 1829, lot 29 (this number inscribed on the front cover and f.iir). (2) DR JOHN LEE né Fiott (1783–1866), philanthropist, astronomer, mathematician, antiquarian, tomb-robber, barrister, and teetotaler, owner of numerous Parc manuscripts in his fine library kept at his country residence, Hartwell House: with his usual inscription (“J. Lee. Doctors Commons. Repaired. No. 2/94. London.”) and armorial bookplate, his library was sold in our rooms, 7 April 1876. (3) H. Wilmot Buxton (signed on upper pastedown), presumably Harry John Wilmot Buxton (1843–1911), vicar and author. (4) William O’Brien, bequest booklabel dated 1899.

TEXT AND DECORATION

The text consists of a preface, ‘[P]rincipia rerum …’ (f.1r), followed by Romans (f.1v); I Corinthians (f.49r); II Corinthians (f.84r); Galatians (f.103v); Ephesians (f.119v); and the start of Philippians (f.132r).

The manuscript was left unfinished by its original makers: the scribe leaves both the commentary and the main text incomplete at Philippians 2:9 (at ‘quod est super’), at the bottom of f.135r, leaving the verso unwritten; spaces are left for seven large decorated initials, at the beginning of the prologue and each book, and for alternate red or blue ones at the beginning of each chapter, but only the blue initials as far as f.26r were inserted.

PARC ABBEY LIBRARY

The manuscripts of Parc have been extensively studied by Émile van Balberghe in a series of articles conveniently reprinted in Les manuscrits médiévaux de l’abbaye de Parc: Recueil d’articles, Brussels, 1992.