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Add MS 15219
- Record Id:
- 032-002086922
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002086922
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000052.0x000201
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100064568890.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 15219
- Title:
-
Bede, De Locis Sanctis, Interpretatio Nominum Graecorum, Interpretatio Nominum Hebraeorum; Pseudo-Antoninus of Piacenza, De Locis Terrae Sanctae
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript was produced in the second half of the 12th century, probably at the Benedictine monastery of St Martin at Tournai. It most likely remained there until the abbey’s dissolution in 1796 by French Revolutionary forces. The manuscript contains two works on sacred places by Pseudo-Antoninus of Piacenza also known as the Anonymous Pilgrim of Piacenza (fl. c. 570) and the English Benedictine monk Bede (b. 672/3, d. 735), commentaries on biblical books, and Bede’s glossaries of Latin and Hebrew biblical names. Both the medieval table of contents on f. 1v and a catalogue of 1641 (see Sanderus, Bibliotheca, I (1641), pp. 133-34 (‘H. 1’)) state that the manuscript’s final item is the Tractatus de coloribus (Treatise on Colours), a work by Petrus Pictor (fl. c. 1110), a canon of Saint-Omer, but this item is no longer part of the manuscript. A pencil inscription next to this item in the table of contents notes that it has been ‘Taken away (?)’ on ‘8 Nov. (?) 1829’. This fragment has not been located elsewhere.
The manuscript is especially known for its detailed two-page drawing of St Martin of Tours. One page shows the saint, according to a well-established iconographic tradition, sharing his cloak with a beggar. The other page, however, shows men and women, apparently companions of St Martin, engaged in falconry. This setting is unique and is one of the earliest chivalric representations of St Martin (Holcomb, Pen and Parchment (2009), p. 136).
Contents:
ff. 3r-11r: Bede, De locis sanctis (On Sacred Places), beginning ‘Procedente beato Antonino martyre una cum collega’.
ff. 12v-19v: Bede, De locis sanctis (continued), beginning ‘Libellus bede patri de locis sanctis · quem de opusculis maiorum ad brevando composuit · versus eiusdem · numero sex’.
ff. 20r-54v: Gloss on the biblical books of Genesis (and St Jerome’s prologue), Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua (and St Jerome’s prologue), Kings (and St Jerome’s prologue) , Chronicles, Ezra, Esther, Tobit, Judith, Maccabees, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticle of Canticles, Wisdom, Sirach, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Twelve Minor Prophets, Gospels, and Epistles, beginning ‘Glose in prologo sancti ieronimi super Genesim’.
ff. 55r-74r: Bede, Interpretatio Nominum Graecorum (The Interpretation of Greek Names), ‘Apocriphus . grecae . latinae dicitur’.
ff. 75r-92r: Bede, Interpretatio Nominum Hebraeorum (The Interpretation of Hebrew Names), ‘Aleph . doctrina. vel deus’.
The manuscript contains a number of additions:
f. 1v: A table of contents, added in the 13th (?) century.
ff. 2r-2v: Pseudo-Antoninus of Piacenza, De Locis Terrae Sanctae (On the Places in the Holy Land), imperfect, added in the 12th century.
[ff. 1r, 62r, 74v (except for a red initial ‘A’), 92v, 93r, 93v are empty].
Decoration:
Two full-page drawings in ink, perhaps added later, with captions. The subjects of the drawings are as follows:
f. 11v: A group of men and women on horses, hawking.
f. 12r: St Martin of Tours cutting his cloak for a beggar.
1 marginal drawing in brown ink, with a caption. The subject of the drawing is as follows:
f. 14r: The pillar on which Christ was flagellated (‘hic columna stat marmorea cui adherens dominus flagellatus est’).
1 large initial in red with green pen-work decoration (f. 3r). Large and small initials in red, capitals highlighted in red, and rubrics throughout the manuscript.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002086922", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 15219: Bede, De Locis Sanctis, Interpretatio Nominum Graecorum, Interpretatio Nominum Hebraeorum; Pseudo-Antoninus of Piacenza, De Locis Terrae…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002086922
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002086922
- 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_100064568890.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1150
- End Date:
- 1199
- Date Range:
- 2nd half 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: 230 x 155 mm (text space: 170 x 115 mm).
Foliation: ff. 93 ( + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); 1 parchment stub between f. 19 and f. 20; f. 1 has been cropped and framed in new parchment; 1 paper with bibliographical notes pasted on f. [i] recto.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown gold-tooled leather, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘TRACTATUS THEOLOGICI’.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Tournai, Southern Netherlands (now in Belgium).
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of St. Martin at Tournai (Wallonia): an ownership inscription written twice on f. 2r, and once on f. 93v (partially legible) reads: ‘Liber sancti Martini tornacensis servanti benedictio et econtra auferenti maledictio’. The manuscript has been listed in the library's manuscript catalogue of 1641 (see Sanderus, Bibliotheca, I (1641), pp. 133-34 (‘H. 1’)) and most likely remained in the library until the abbey’s dissolution in 1796 by French Revolutionary forces.
? An unknown owner, in the 18th or 19th(?) century: possibly an owner's initials (‘J. H’) on f. 1v.
Benjamin Heywood Bright (b. 1787, d. 1843), book and manuscript collector: his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 18 June 1844, lot 154; purchased by the British Museum (see note on f. 1r: ‘Purchased at Bright's sale, 18 June 1844 (lot 154)’) for £14.14.0.
- Information About Copies:
-
Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
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Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1841-1845 (London: Woodfall, 1850), p. 113.
Hanns Swarzenski, ‘Zwei Zeichnungen der Martinslegende aus Tournai’, in Adolph Goldschmidt zu seinem siebzigsten Geburtstag, am 15. Januar 1933 (Berlin: Würfel, 1935), pp. 40-42 (here erroneously referred to as Add MS 15216).
Hanns Swarzenski, Monuments of Romanesque Art: The Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954), pl. 233, fig. 546.
Friedrich Stegmüller and Klaus Reinhardt, Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi, 11 vols (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1950-1980), VI (1958): Commentaria: anonyma A-O, p. 369 (no. 9686).
Florens Deuchler, Der Ingeborgpsalter (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1967), p. 146, n. 237, pls 231-32.
Michael W. Evans, Medieval Drawings (London: Hamlyn, 1969), no. 45.
Celestina Milani, ‘Per una nuova edizione del cosiddetto Itinerarium Antonii Placenti’, Aevum, 48 (1974), 359-66 (p. 360, n. 6).
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in The British Library (London: The British Library, 1993), p. 63.
Dominique Vanwijnsberghe, « De fin or et d'azur ». Les commanditaires de livres et le métier de l'enluminure à Tournai à la fin du Moyen Âge (XIVe -XVe siècles), Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts, 10, Low Countries Series, 7 (Leuven: Peeters, 2001), p. 8.
Margaret Scott, Medieval Dress & Fashion (London: British Library, 2007), pl. 30.
Melanie Holcomb, Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), pp. 136-38 (no. 39).
- 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.