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Egerton MS 2204
- Record Id:
- 032-001983145
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001983145
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000053.0x0001d3
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059154449.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Egerton MS 2204
- Title:
- Bede the Venerable, In Lucae Evangelium Expositio
- Scope & Content:
-
This 12th-century manuscript originates from the Benedictine abbey of St Mary in Reading. It contains the commentary on the Gospel of Luke by Bede the Venerable (d. 673, d. 735), an English Benedictine monk, theologian, and historian. This is one of the more than a hundred manuscripts that survive from Reading abbey’s library today, a large number of which can be dated to the mid- to late 12th century. The manuscript is listed in a catalogue (c. 1192) that survives in a cartulary of Reading abbey (now Egerton MS 3031, f. 8v), which includes at least six other manuscripts with Bede’s biblical commentaries.
Contents:
ff. 2r-184r: Bede, In Lucae Evangelium Expositio (Commentary on the Gospel of Luke); ff. 2r-2v: Bede, Letter to Acca, Bishop of Hexham (b. 709, d. 732); ff. 2r-4r: Bede, Letter to Acca, Bishop of Hexham (b. 709, d. 732); ff. 4r-7r: A list of chapters; ff.7r-184r: Books I-VI.
[ff. 1r, 1v, and 184v are empty].
Decoration:
7 large initials in blue, red, and green with intricate foliate penwork decoration at the beginning of books and prefatory material (ff. 2r, 7r, 42v, 72v, 100v, 127v, 157v). 1 large initial in red with green penwork decoration (f. 2v). 1 large initial in red with green and red penwork decoration (f. 4r). Display capitals in red and green. Large initials in red or green, some with penwork decoration in red and green. Small initials in red or green. Incipits in red or green. Paragraph markers in red. Quotation marks (for passages from Luke), line-fillers, running headers, quire signatures (versos of final folios) and catchwords in brown ink.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Egerton Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001983145", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Egerton MS 2204: Bede the Venerable, In Lucae Evangelium Expositio" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001983145
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001983145
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100059154449.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1150
- End Date:
- 1174
- Date Range:
- 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 320 x 210 mm (text space: 240 x 225 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 184; f. 1 is an original flyleaf, containing a partially cut out parchment strip with the faded or erased inscription: ‘Beda super lucam’ (perhaps intended as a title for the cover).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Pre-1600. Whittawed leather over oak boards with a flat spine and two projecting flaps, at the top and bottom. A white leather strap secured to the front cover fits onto a pin in the middle of the back cover by means of a decorated metal loop with a braided white leather strap attached to it. The spine has a 12th-century inscription in brown ink: ‘Beda · super · lucam’.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Reading, Southeastern England.
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of St Mary, Reading, founded in 1125: included in its catalogue (see Medieval Libraries, ed. by Ker); its ownership inscription and anathema, early 13th century 'Hic est liber sancte [effaced] Quem qui celaverit vel fraudem de eo fecerit anathema sit (f. 1v).
Thomas Fytton (perhaps T. Fytton of Siddington (d. 1599)): a 15th- or 16th-century inscription 'Thomas ffytton' (f. 2r); his marginal translation on f. 131r: ‘Abrahames Boosome [trans. of ‘Sinus abrahae’]’.
Philip Mainwaring (d. 1649) of Over Peover (Cheshire): a 17th-century inscription on f. 2r: 'pre: 4l 10s Ph: Mainwaringe': presumably passed into his family by the marriage of Margaret Fitton of Gawsworth, niece of Thomas Fitton, to Sir Randle Mainwaring of Over Peover, Philip's grandfather.
Sir Henry Mainwaring (b. 1726, d. 1797), 4th baronet: his book-plate on the inside of the upper cover.
Joseph Lilly (b. 1865, d. 1936), London bookseller: purchased by the British Museum at the Lilly sale, 27 January 1873, lot 1375 (see note on f. 1r: ‘Purchased at Sotheby’s Jan-Feb. 1873’) for £14 using the Bridgewater fund (£12,000 bequeathed in 1829 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1854-1875, 2 vols (London: Clowes, 1877), II, p. 1004.
Montague Rhodes James, Abbeys (London: The Great Western Railway, 1926), p. 14.
Max Ludwig Wolfram Laistner and Henry Hall King, A Hand-List of Bede Manuscripts (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1943), p. 46.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil Ripley Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 155.
English Benedictine Libraries: The Shorter Catalogues, ed. by Richard Sharpe and others, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 4 (London: British Library, 1996), p. 433 (B71.89).
Alan Coates, English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 29, 47, 50-54, 59, 147 (as no. 19).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.