Add MS 63143

GOSPEL BOOK LEAF: England; circa A.D. 1000. Latin. Contains Luke xxii, 1-7 and 9-36, relating the Easter story and representing the beginning and part of the Gospel reading for Wednesday in Holy Week. The text is closely related to that of MS. A (the Codex Amiatinus) in J. Wordsworth and H. White, Novum Testamentum Latine: Quattuor Evangelia (1889-98). From the pioneering study collection formed of binders' waste materials, assembled by the Oxford antiquary Philip Bliss (1787-1857) during the early 19th century. Sir Frederick Madden makes reference to Bliss's somewhat casual methods of acquisition from binders (Madden's Diary, 15 May 1825). On the subject of 16th century spoliation by Oxford and Cambridge binders see the introduction to N. R. Ker, Pastedowns in Oxford Bindings, Oxford Bibliographical Society, N.S., V (1954). Sold in the Bliss sale, 21 Aug. 1858 (lots 100 and 119), this collection became partly Phillipps MS. 18133 and subsequently formed lot 390 in the Phillipps sale of 24 April 1911, passing into private hands. Purchased from Quaritch, Cat. 1036, item 56, July 1984.

Vellum; 200 x 200mm. Ruled (double bounding lines) in hard point for a single column of at least 26 lines (trimming at foot, obscuring original number of lines, although the textual lacuna indicates that the text block was probably not much taller). Written space 200 x 150mm (trimmed). Script is an English Caroline minuscule of good quality, with regular use of rustic capitals to introduce sentences (compare, for example, with T. A. M. Bishop, English Caroline Minuscule (1971), nos. 20 and 22). Word and character division are good and the script has an upright aspect and slightly clubbed ascenders. Abbreviations are minimal and standard and punctuation consists of the punctus versus (major pause), the punctus elevatus (minor pause) and the punctus interrogativus (question mark). The ink has faded to a brown, its original blacker appearance remaining in the enlarged initial I at the beginning of the text on the recto. Marginal notes in a near-contemporary hand. The verso shows signs of use as a pastedown, and offsetting of orange pigment on the recto may also relate to such use.