Royal MS 3 E I-V

3 E. i-v OLD TESTAMENT, in Latin, of S. jerome's version; with the Glossa Ordinaria and interlinear glosses. The prologues of S. Jerome are prefixed to the several books. Five volumes.

Gatherings of 10 leaves, with catchwords. Sec. fol. '-ram spiritualem'. Small miniature-initials are prefixed to each book, and at the beginning of Genesis (3 E 1, f. 3) is a fine border with a large I with miniatures of the Creation and Crucifixion (see PI. 33). Coloured paragraphmarks and flourished initials, with pen-mark ornamentation in red and blue projecting into the lower margins. In each volume (except vol. iv) is a note in a contemporary hand, stating the number of illuminated letters (e.g. 3 E. i, f. 220 b, In isto volumine sunt parve littere et paragrafi 3890, item grosse litters 343'; in the other volumes the figures are respectively, in vol. ii 4028 and 347, in vol. iii 27o6 and 534, and in vol. v 1782 and 229). In vol. v this note occurs not at the end but at f. 90 b, with a further note in another hand stating that the rest of Ezekiel and the whole of Daniel,the Minor Prophets and job are wanting; Ezekiel and Daniel, however, have been completed in a similar hand, but without coloured initials (for which places are left.) and in gatherings of 12 leaves, with different ruling. On f. 102 b is another note, apparently in the same hand as the above numeration, 'hic deficit quaternus traditus Regin. Oxon. ad continuandum uolumen istud'. The text, however, now continues without break. On the present (18th cent.) binding of each volume is a statement that it belonged to the convent of Preaching Friars in London [established soon after 1221], and with regard to vol. iii the same statement appears in Casley's catalogue; but the original evidence for this has disappeared, presumably with the old binding. The binding also has 'Comitissae' under the title, as if the MS. had been executed for some Countess. The names of Henry Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, and john, Lord Lumley, appear on the first page of each volume. To vol. i is prefixed a note (f. 1 b) in a hand of the 16th cent., describing these five volumes, together with 3 E. VII and viii, as a Bible in seven vols., and referring to another Bible in eight vols. [of which 3 E. ix, which contains a corresponding note, is the first] as supplying all the missing portions except the books of Kings and Chronicles, and desiring that both sets may be kept together for that reason. 3 E. VIII evidently belongs to the same set as 3 E. I-V; and 3 E. vii, though not quite uniform with the rest in execution, certainly belonged to the same convent.,