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Add MS 11849
- Record Id:
- 040-002041552
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002041530
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000451.0x000067
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100055966120.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 11849
- Title:
- The Four Gospels
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript consists of a 9th-century Gospel book produced perhaps in Tours in the Franco-Saxon style. It was copied by the same scribe who wrote Paris, BnF, MS lat. 267 from the school of Tours (see Rand, 'Franco-Saxon Ornamentation in a Book of Tours' (1929), 214-215).
The manuscript includes the Four Gospels preceded by the prologues to the Gospels: St Jerome's Epistle to Pope Damasus; Pseudo-Jerome's epistle to Pope Damasus; and St Jerome's prologue on the Four Gospels from his commentary on St Matthew's, followed by the Eusebian Canon tables. Originally, the manuscript ended with a Capitula Evangelii per Circulum Anni (The Chapters of the Gospel for the Entire Year), which summarized contents of the Four Gospels according to the liturgical year: 'Incipiunt capitula evangelii per circulum anni' (f. 183v). Only the title-page of this work survives due to quires lacking after f. 183. This part was probably already lacking in the 15th century, because short summaries of the Four Gospels have been written and interpolated in ff. 14v-16v in a late hand.
ff. 1r-3r: Epistula Hieronymi ad Damasum papam (St Jerome's Epistle to Pope Damasus), beginning: 'Beatissimo papae Damaso Hieronimus. Novum opus me facere cogis ex vetere'.
ff. 3v-4v: Pseudo-Epistula Hieronymi ad Damasum papam Pseudo-Jerome's epistle to Pope Damasus, beginning: 'Sciendum etiam que ignarum ex similitudine numerorum error involvat'.
ff. 5r-7v: Hieronymus, Prologus Quattuor Evangeliorum ex Commentario Hieronymi in Matthei Evangelium (St Jerome's Prologue on the Four Gospels from his Commentary on St Matthew's Gospel), beginning (ff. 5r-v): 'Incipit prologus secundum Mattheum quattuor evangeliorum. Plures fuisse qui evangelia scripserunt'.
ff. 8r-9r: Eusebius, Epistula ad Carpianum (Eusebius's Epistle to Carpianus), beginning: 'Eusebius Carpiano fratri in domino salute. Ammonius quidem Alexandrinus magno studio atque industria unum nobis pro quattuor evangeliis dereliquit'.
ff. 9v-16v: Prologus et Capitula in Evangelium Secundum Mattheum (The Gospel of St Matthew), preceded by the prologue (ff. 10r-v), and capitula (ff. 11r-14r). Short summaries of the Four Gospels have been added in a 15th-century hand on ff. 14v-16v.
ff. 18r-25v: The Eusebian Canon tables.
ff. 26v-68v-: Evangelium Secundum Mattheum (The Gospel of St Matthew), including lections written in a contemporary hand, beginning: 'Incipit evangelium secundum Mattheum. Liber generationis Ihesu Christi filii David, filii Abraham. Abraham genuit Isaac'.
ff. 69r-71v: Prologus et Capitula in Evangelium Secundum Marcum (The Gospel of St Mark), preceded by a prologue (ff. 69v-70r) and capitula (ff. 70v-71v).
ff. 72r-98v: Evangelium Secundum Marcum (The Gospel of St Mark), including lections, beginning: 'Incipit evangelium secundum Marcum. Initium evangelii Ihesu Christi filii Dei sicut scriptum est in Isaia propheta'.
ff. 99v-102r: Prologus et Capitula in Evangelium Secundum Lucam (The Gospel of St Luke), preceded by a prologue (ff. 99v-100r) and capitula (ff. 100v-102r).
ff. 102v-148v: Evangelium Secundum Lucam (The Gospel of St Luke), including lections, beginning: 'Incipit Evangelium secundum Lucam. Quoniam quidem multi conati sunt ordinare narrationem quae in nobis conpletae sunt rerum'.
ff. 149r-150r: Prologus et Capitula in Evangelium Secundum Iohannem (The Gospel of St John), preceded by a prologue (ff. 149r-150r) and capitula (ff. 150v-151r).
ff. 150v-183r: Evangelium Secundum Iohannem (The Gospel of St John), including lections, beginning: 'In principio erat verbum et verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat verbum, hoc erat in principio apud Deum'.
Decoration:
6 full page borders with foliate and geometrical decoration in colours and gold, with display capitals in gold, some on purple grounds, at the beginnings of the prologues and Gospels (ff. 3v, 26v, 72r, 102v, 149r, 151v). Large initials in colours and gold with foliate, interlace and geometric decoration (ff. 1r, 4r, 5v, 27r, 72v, 103r, 149v, 152r). Decorated canon tables in red, blue and white with gold and silver arches and columns, including lamps, animals and birds (ff. 18r-27v). Small initials and rubrics in red. Added decoration red and blue foliate initials (14v-16v).
The decoration of this manuscript is similar to that of contemporary manuscripts designed in Tours or in its surroundings. In the second half of the 9th century some manuscripts produced in Tours, or by scribes trained in Tours, included Franco-Saxon ornamentation. On the resurgence of the Franco-Saxon style at Tours in the 9th century (see: Charlotte Denoël, 'De Saint-Martin de Tours à Fleury', in Trésors carolingiens: Livres Manuscrits de Charlemagne à Charles le Chauve, ed. by Charlotte Denoël and Marie-Pierre Laffitte (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2007), pp. 151-53).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002041530
040-002041552 - Is part of:
- Add MS 11828-12117 : Collection belonging to the late Right Rev. Samuel Butler, D.D., Lord Bishop of Lichfield.
Add MS 11849 : The Four Gospels - Hierarchy:
- 032-002041530[0022]/040-002041552
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 11828-12117
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100055966120.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0850
- End Date:
- 0899
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 9th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 225 x 175 mm (text space 160 x 105 mm).
Foliation: ff. 183 (+ 2 unfoliated modern parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end).
Script: Caroline minuscule.
Binding: Post-1600. Binding of the Bibliotheca Butleriana: green leather, gold tooling, with coat of arms.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Tours, Central France, or ? Southern Netherlands.
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Martin de Tours: the decoration is in the Tours style and the scribe is the same as for Paris, BnF, MS lat. 267, a manuscript from the school of Tours, see Rand, 'Franco-Saxon Ornamentation in a Book of Tours', (1929), 214-15.
?Southern Netherlands: according to Gameson, 'An itinerant English Master' (2001), p. 119 n16.
Samuel Butler (b. 1774, d. 1839), headmaster and Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield: his arms gold tooled on the binding with the inscription 'Bibliotheca Butleriana'; in his sale, 15 July, 1841, lot 355.
Bought by the British Museum, one of 300 manuscripts from the Butler library for £2,200.
- Information About Copies:
- Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1876-1881 (London: British Museum, 1882), p. 31, no. 11849.
Samuel Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate (Paris: Georg Olms, 1893), p. 257.
E. K. Rand, 'Franco-Saxon Ornamentation in a Book of Tours', Speculum, 4:2 (1929), 213-15 (pp. 214-15).
E. K. Rand, A Survey of the Manuscripts of Tours, Medieval Academy of America, 3, 2 vols (Cambridge Mass: the Medieval Academy of America, 1929), I: Studies in the Script of Tours, no. 131, p. 162.
W. Koehler, Die Karolingischen Miniaturen, 3 vols (Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1930), I: Die Schule von Tours, pp. 163-66; 418.
H. H. Glunz, History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933), p. xiv.
Theodor Klauser, Das römische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen. 28 (Munster: Aschendorffschen, 1935), p. xlix.
J. J. G. Alexander, Norman Illumination at Mont St Michel 966-1100 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), p. 49.
Bonifatius Fischer, Die Lateinischen Evangelien bis zum 10. Jahrhundert, 4 vols (Freiburg: Herder, 1988-1991), I: Varianten zu Matthäus, Vetus Latina die Reste der Altlateinischen Bible: Aus der Geschichte der Lateinischen Bibel, 13, p. 23*.
Richard Gameson, 'The Oldest Medieval Manuscript in New Zealand', in Migrations: Medieval Manuscripts in New Zealand, ed. by Stephanie Hollis and Alexandra Barratt (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007), pp. 147-64.
Richard Gameson, 'An Itinerant English master around the Millenium' in England and the Continent in the Tenth Century: Studies in Honour of Wilhelm Levison (1876-1947), ed. by D. Rollason, C. Leyser and H. Williams (Turnhout: Brepols, '2010', recte 2011), pp. 87-134 (p. 99, n. 16).
Kathleen Doyle and Charlotte Denoël, Medieval Illumination: Manuscript Art in England and France 700-1200 (London: British Library, 2018), also published as Enluminures Médiévales: Chefs-d'oeuvre de la Bibliothèque nationale de France et de la British Library, 700-1200 (Paris : BnF Éditions, 2018), pp. 16, 18, 22, 164.
- 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.