Add MS 41491

BAPTISTA SALVATORIS: a Life of St John the Baptist, in two books, attributed to Garcias de Benquet, Canon, after-vv. (circ. 1166- 1179) Bishop, of Bazas in Southern France. Latin. No other MS. appears to be known, but the text was published in I530 by another Canon of Bazas, Johannes Dibarolla. Of this edition a copy survives in the Bibliothèque Ste Geneviève, Paris, from which the work was reprinted by Dom Aurélien, La Gaule Catacombaire, 1880, pp. 127-306 (cf. Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, i, no. 4315). Bazas Cathedral possessed a relic of the blood of St John the Baptist, and the last half of Book II (chh. v-ix) describes its acquisition and subsequent fortunes. Imperf. at both ends: beg. '[ingrelditur' (Book I, ch. vii; Aurélien, p. 187); ends 'quondam habitatore ut ab. . . ' (Book II, ch. viii; Aurélien, p. 290). There are some substantial differences from the version given by Dibarolla, who used an admittedly faulty exemplar (cf. Aurélien, pp. 133, 134). Vellum; ff. i + 16. 11½ in. x 7½ in. XIII cent. Probably written in Southern France. Gatherings of 8 leaves, with catchwords. Double columns of 40 lines. Flourished initials in red and blue alternately. Formerly bound with Add. MS. 41490. Belonged to Lt.-Col. E. G. Troyte-Bullock (Sotheby's sale-cat., 27-29 June 1927, part of lot 512).