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Add MS 27926
- Record Id:
- 040-002019209
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002019208
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001293.0x00026f
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165147621.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 27926
- Title:
- Gospels of St Luke and St John
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the second half of a Gospel-book, comprising the Gospels of St Luke and St John, made in Germany at the end of the 12th century and later housed in the library of the Augustinian nunnery of St Peter and St Paul, Heiningen, in the diocese of Hildesheim, lower Saxony.
The manuscript was written by Scribe B of Hamersleben, who also copied the Bible of Hamersleben (Halberstadt, Cathedral Treasury, Inv. 472) and a Gospel-book, formerly in Dresden (Moscow, Russian State Archives of Old Acts, Fond 1607, Inv. 1, no. 23): on this identification, see Cohen-Mushlin, St. Pancras in Hamersleben (2004), pp. 58-70.
The first part of the original manuscript, containing the Gospels of St Matthew and St Mark, is now New York, Morgan Library, MS M. 565.
Contents:
Inside upper cover: two parchment fragments with musical notation, the upper fragment containing part of the Responsory for Terce nocturna on Passion Sunday, the lower fragment a sequence for Whitsunday.
ff. 2r-26v: Gospel of St Luke, imperfect.
ff . 27r-47v: Gospel of St John, imperfect.
ff. 47v-53v: a table of lessons for liturgical festivals throughout the year.
Decoration:
1 half-page miniature in colours and gold, depicting St John the Evangelist writing the opening words of his Gospel, 'In principio erat', with seven women representing the seven churches of Asia, and a historiated initial 'I' in colours and gold below, enclosing 2 medallions of Christ and the Virgin and Child, and an eagle, the symbol of St John, in the frame between them (f. 28r).
1 historiated initial in colours and gold (f. 2r), depicting the Annunciation to Zacharias, showing Zacharias and the Angel Gabriel holding a scroll, inscribed ,'Ne timeas Zacharia q[uonia]m exaud[ita]' (above) and a mother and child, probably Elizabeth and St John the Baptist (below).
1 large illuminated initial in colours and gold, with foliate decoration (f. 27r).
Rubrics in the calendar table, initials and line-fillers in red. Marginal rubrics outlined in red and letters highlighted in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002019208
040-002019209 - Is part of:
- Add MS 27926-27943 B : Bequeathed by Felix Slade, Esq.
Add MS 27926 : Gospels of St Luke and St John - Hierarchy:
- 032-002019208[0001]/040-002019209
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 27926-27943 B
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165147621.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1175
- End Date:
- 1199
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 325 x 200 mm (written space: 260 x 125 mm).
Foliation: ff. 53; f. 1 is a paste-down to the inside upper cover, made up of two parchment fragments.
Script: Protogothic, written by Scribe B of St Pancras, Hamersleben, who copied the Bible of Hamersleben (Halberstadt, Cathedral Treasury, Inv. 472 and a Gospel-book, formerly in Dresden (Moscow, Russian State Archives of Old Acts, Fond 1607, Inv. 1, no. 23): see Cohen-Mushlin, St. Pancras in Hamersleben (2004), pp. 58-70.
Binding: Pre-1600. Upper cover: a historiated panel of Limoges enamel, in champlevé and relief, on gilt copper, showing Christ in Majesty, seated and enclosed in a mandorla, with a book in one hand and blessing with the other, surrounded by the four Evangelist symbols; framed by a patterned enamel border. Lower cover: red-stained blind-stamped leather.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Hamersleben, Germany.
Provenance:
The Augustinian nunnery of St Peter and Paul, Heiningen, in the diocese of Hildesheim, lower Saxony: part of their library in the 15th century, dispersed in the 16th century.
Pierre Soltykoff (b. 1804, d. 1889), Prince of Russia: in his sale, Rue de Bretonvilliers, Paris, 8 April 1861, lots 1 (Gospels of Matthew and Mark) and 2 (the present manuscript), both with metal bindings; sold to the collector Bouvier of Amiens.
Bouvier of Amiens, collector, bought both parts of the manuscript for 6400 or 6500 francs: a note in an annotated catalogue of the Soltykoff sale, now in the Bibliotheque nationale de France (see Cohen-Mushlin, St Pancras in Hamersleben (2004), pp. 59, 60).
Guilleglmo Libri (b. 1802, d.1869), both parts bought by him from Bouvier: published in his Monuments (1862), pp. 9-11, pl. VII, VIII, with the present bindings; in his sale, Sotheby's, July 1862, lots 228 (the present manuscript) and 229 (Matthew and Mark, bought by Sir Thomas Phillips, subsequently New York, Morgan Library, MS M. 565).
Felix Slade (b. 1788, d. 1868), art collector and benefactor, the present manuscript was bought by him: featured in 'An Appendix containing a Description of Other Works of Art presented or bequeathed to the Nation by the late Felix Slade Esq.: Manuscripts and Printed Books' in A.W. Franks, Catalogue of the Collection of Glass formed by Felix Slade (London: Wertheimer, Lea and Co, 1871), p. 173, no. 69.
Bequeathed by him to the British Museum as part of his collection, 25 July 1868, together with Add MSS 27927-27943 B: see inscribed note (inside upper cover).
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1854-1875, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1877), II, p. 378.
F. Steenbock, Der kirchliche Prachteinband im frühen Mittelalter von den Anfängen bis zum Beginn der Gotik (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag fur Kunstwissenschaft, 1965), no. 124.
Alan G. Thomas, Great Books and Book Collectors (London: Spring Books, 1975), pl. xiii.
Christopher de Hamel, Glossed Books of the Bible and the Origins of the Paris Booktrade (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1984), p. 84.
Miriam Foot, Pictorial Bookbindings (London: British Library, 1986), pp. 50-51, pl. 48.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 46.
Jeffrey F. Hamburger, St. John the Divine: The Deified Evangelist in Medieval Art and Theology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), p. 30, fig. 21.
Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Scriptoria in Medieval Saxony: St. Pancras in Hamersleben (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004) pp. 11-12, 18-19, 58-70.
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, The Art of the Bible: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Medieval World (London: Thames and Hudson, 2016), pp. 27-28.
Lorenzo Margani, 'L’association entre reliures et manuscrits : le cas des émaux de Limoges. Quelques réflexions préliminaires', Bulletin du bibliophile (2020, 2), 221-239 (pp. 230-31).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)