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Egerton MS 3089
- Record Id:
- 032-001985221
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001985221
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000057.0x000388
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059295698.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Egerton MS 3089
- Title:
-
Gregory the Great, Dialogi
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a copy of the four books of the Dialogi (Dialogues) written in 593-594 by Pope Gregory I (b. c. 540, d. 604), commonly known as St Gregory the Great. The Dialogues discuss the miracles and prophecies of holy men in 6th-century Italy, especially those of Benedict of Nursia, to whom the second book is entirely dedicated, and were particularly popular among monastic audiences. This manuscript, written by a scribe who identifies himself as a cleric named Gaufridus, was written for a male religious community in Southern France, possibly the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Alyre in Clairmont (Auvergne).
Contents:
ff. 1r-2r: A list of chapters for Books 1-3 of the Dialogi.
ff. 2r-88v: Gregory the Great, Dialogi (Books 1-4).
[f. 88v is blank].
Decoration:
1 miniature in red and brown ink on f. 18v: St Benedict of Nursia.
1 large historiated initial (‘Q’) in a frame, containing knot-work, in red and green, on f. 2r: Gregory the Great.
4 small historiated initials in red and brown ink. The subjects of the miniatures is as follows:
f. 32v: A child, raised from the dead (described in Book 2, Chapter 32) inside the initial; a man with horns (a purgatorial demon?) below the initial.
f. 40v: St Sabinus of Canosa.
f. 48r: Benedict the monk (described in Book 3, Chapter 18).
f. 61r: A man in a red robe, grabbing the initial ‘P’ [Rustic capital].
3 large decorated initials with knot-work in green and orange (f. 1r, 18v, 36r). 1 small initial with knot-work in brown ink (f. 17v). Small initials in brown or orange. Rubrics and chapter numbers in orange; a pen drawing of an anthropomorphic figure (a human head) in the margin of f. 17v.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Egerton Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001985221", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Egerton MS 3089: Gregory the Great, Dialogi" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001985221
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001985221
- 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_100059295698.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0900
- End Date:
- 0999
- Date Range:
- 10th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 350 x 260 mm (text space: 265 x 190 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 88 ( +1 unfoliated paper flyleaf and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginnning +1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the end).
Script: Carolingian minuscule.
Binding: Post-1600. Half-leather binding with marbled paper sides, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘GREGORII LIBER DIALOGORUM’; a printed Phillipps label (‘3674’) pasted on the spine.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ?Clermont-Ferrand, Central France.
Provenance:
An unnamed monastery (possibly the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Alyre), in the 10th-century: a male religious community is asked to pray for a scribe who identifies himself as a cleric named ‘Gaufredis’ in a colophon on f. 88r: 'Obsecro vos fratres omnes qui lecturi estis hunc librum orate pro scriptore si deum habeatis protectoren (sic) Gaufredus diaconus'.
?The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Alyre at Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne: a note by Sir Thomas Phillipps on f. [ii] recto ('Ex abbatiae S. Illidii'); a 20th-century note on the inside of the upper cover (‘Probably France (Clermont – Ferrand?) x cent.’).
?Abbé Joseph-Felix Allard of Paris (b. 1795, d. 1831): a note by Sir Thomas Phillipps on the inside of the upper cover (‘Ex Bibl. Allard’).
Sir Thomas Phillipps (b. 1792, d. 1872), baronet, collector of books and manuscripts, c. 1828: his notes in pencil on the inside of the upper cover and f. [ii] recto; his manuscript number on the spine (‘3674’), the inside of the upper cover ('3674 MSS Ph'), and f. [ii] recto ('Phillipps MS 3674').
Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (b. 1875, d. 1968), mining engineer and art collector, from 1921 until 1933: purchased privately from the Philipps Collection in January 1921; his catalogue of manuscripts (see Millar, The Library of A. Chester Beatty, I (1927), pp. 62-64); his Western manuscript number 'W. MS. 16' in a note written on and on a label pasted on the inside of the upper cover; his sale, Sotheby's, London, 9 May 1933, lot 39; purchased by Quaritch.
Bought by the British Museum for £300, 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 the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
The British Museum Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts 1931-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), pp. 309-10.
Eric George Millar, The Library of A. Chester Beatty: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Western Manuscripts, 4 vols (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, 1927), I, pp. 62-64, pls 37-38 (this manuscript as Chester Beatty Western MS 16).
Alan Noel Latimer Munby, The Formation of the Phillipps Library up to the Year 1840, Phillipps Studies, 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954), pp. 33, 152.
- 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.