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Add MS 38122

Record Id:

040-002057332

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002057322

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001102.0x0003af

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 38122

Title:

Old Testament books from a Dutch History Bible, with commentary from Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains Old Testament books, from the Book of Genesis until the Book of Tobit, in a Dutch History Bible: a bible in which the biblical text alternates with commentary from the Historia Scolastica by the French theologian Peter Comestor (d. 1179). In the fifteenth century the History Bible was one of the most popular books in the North Netherlands. This manuscript presents a version of the so-called 'Utrecht Bible': the work of an anonymous compiler who, in the second quarter of the fifteenth century, joined materials from the Dutch History Bible of 1360 (perhaps made at the Carthusian monastery of Herne) and the translations of the New Testament and Old Testament lessons that Johan Scutken (d. 1425), a lay brother at the Augustinian monastery of Windesheim, made around 1390. The 'Utrecht Bible' is so called because the decoration in most of its copies is associated with artists in Utrecht. This manuscript contains 114 miniatures executed by the Master of Catherina of Cleves (fl. c. 1430-1460), a Utrecht artists who is named after a Book of Hours he decorated for the Duchess of Guelders, and who is considered to have been one of the most skilled artists in the Low Countries. It was most likely commissioned by a member of the aristocratic family of Lochorst in Utrecht (as was Add MS 10043, another volume containing the first Old Testament books of the Utrecht Bible).

Contents:

ff. 1r-3r: Prologue.

ff. 3r-72v: The Book of Genesis.

ff. 73r-120v: The Book of Exodus.

ff. 121r-144v: The Book of Leviticus.

ff. 145r-178v: The Book of Numbers.

ff. 179r-205r: The Book of Deuteronomy.

ff. 207r-225v: The Book of Joshua.

ff. 225v-245v: The Book of Judges

ff. 245v-248v: The Book of Ruth.

ff 251r: Prologue to the Book of Kings.

ff. 251v-278r: The Book of 1 Kings.

ff. 278r-299r: The Book of 2 Kings.

ff. 299v-331v: The Book of 3 Kings.

ff. 331v-366v: The Book of 4 Kings.

ff. 367r-372r: The Book of Esdras.

ff. 372r-379r: The Book of Tobias.

ff. 206, 249, and 250 are blank.

The manuscript contains a number of 16th- and 17th-century additions:

ff. 379r-381r: notes on floods in Holland, obituaries added by several 16th-century owners.

f. [iii]verso: notes on two papers pasted onto parchment about the manuscript's contents, with reference to Isaac Le Long, Boekzaal der Nederduytsche Bijbels (1732).

Decoration:

Numerous (114) miniatures in frames drawn with brown ink in single columns at their relevant bible passages by the Master of Catherine of Cleves (fl. c. 1430 - 1460) in a style that imitates contemporary woodcuts (see Defoer, The Golden Age of Dutch Manuscript Painting (1990), p. 148); almost all illustrations contain gold, which the artist used to highlight objects; some illustrations feature the colour red (often used to highlight fire); one illustration contains the colours red, green and blue, which the artist used to highlight a crown's gemstones (f. 76r); otherwise the illustrations feature no colours. The illustrations can be found only in the manuscript's first segment (ff. 1r-248r). The second segment (ff. 251r-279r) has only empty spaces where illustrations were planned.

16 large puzzle initials in red and blue: with red penwork decoration (ff. 1r, 3r, 73r, 121r,179r, 207r, 225v, 245v, 248v), with red ,blue and green penwork decoration (ff. 251r, 251v, 367r), and without penwork decoration (ff. 278r, 299v, 331v, 372r); some with partial borders in red and blue (ff. 1r, 251r, 251v, 278r, 299v).

Numerous small red and blue initials.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002057322
040-002057332

Is part of:

Add MS 38114-38126 : HUTH BEQUEST. The following thirteen MSS., 38114-38126, were included amoung the fifty books to be selected from his…

Add MS 38122 : Old Testament books from a Dutch History Bible, with commentary from Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica

Hierarchy:

032-002057322[0008]/040-002057332

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 38114-38126

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Dutch

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1430

End Date:

1470

Date Range:

c 1440

Era:

Access:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 280 x 195 mm (text space: 210 x 145 mm), in 2 columns.

Foliation: ff. 381 (+ 1 parchment flyleaf misfoliated as f. 1 + 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); parchment stubs between f. 12 and f. 13, and f. 381 and f. [382].

Binding: Post-1600: (18th- or 19th century?) white calf leather binding.

Custodial History:

Origin: Netherlands, North.

Provenance:

A member of the Lochorst family in Utrecht: the family crest on ff. 73v; 156r; 158r; 174v; 214v; the manuscript also features the family crest of the family Zuylen-Nyvelt (f. 230v) and other crests associated with Utrecht (ff. 69v, 165r, 211r, 235r, 238v, 238r, f. 69v, 211r).

Members of the Zuylen van Nyvelt family in Utrecht, 1517 until 1557: 56 obituaries (ff. 379r-381r) of which many refer to members of this family.

Izaak Enschedé (b. 1681, d. 1761), Dutch printer (Haarlem): his auction, Haarlem, 12 December 1867, Lot 222: see Catalogue de la bibliothèque (manuscrits, ouvrages xylographiques, incunables, ouvrages d'estampes, livres curieux et rares), formée pendant le 18e siècle par messieurs Izaak, Iohannes et le dr Iohannes Enschedé (Amsterdam: Muller, 1867), p.22 (possibly added the modern paper flyleaves that contain watermarks with the city of Amsterdam's crest).

The bookshop established by Adolphus Asher (b. 1800, d. 1853): see Biemans, Middelnederlandse Bijbelhandschriften, p. 270.

Alfred Henry Huth (b. 1850, d. 1910), book collector: a paper pasted on the inside binding features the note 'Huth Bequest.'. Bequeathed by him to the British Museum in 1910 (see Catalogue of the Huth Bequest (1912), pp. 11-12 (no. IX).

Publications:

Alexander Willem Byvanck and Godefridus J. Hoogewerff. Noord-Nederlandsche Miniaturen (1922-1925), no. 26.

Robert Priebsch, Deutsche Handschriften in England, 2 vols (Erlangen: Junge, 1896–1901), II (1901), p. 133 (no. 153).

Sandra Hindman, Text and Image in Fifteenth-Century Illustrated Dutch Bibles, Verzameling van Middelnederlandse Bijbelteksten, Miscellanea 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1977), p. 138.

Jos A. A. Biemans, Middelnederlandse Bijbelhandschriften: Verzameling van Middelnederlandse bijbelteksten (Leiden: Brill, 1984), p. 270 (no. 260).

Henri L. M. Defoer and others, The Golden Age of Dutch manuscript Painting (New York: Braziller, 1990), pp. 12, 130, 148.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Related Material:

From the Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts (1925): 'HUTH BEQUEST. Vol. IX. Bible History, in Flemish: viz. the Octateuch, 1-4 Kings, Ezra, and Tobit, with a Prologue, and with a commentary mainly derived from the Historia Scholastica of Petrus Comestor. The Prologue begins "Onse here god voirsiende die grote droecheyt van deuocien." f. 1. It contains (f. I b) a reference to "dat passionael [other copies add the words "ofte aurea legenda"] dat wi hiervoirtijts te duytsche vten latijn maecten," and further on (f. 2 b) the author's explanation that he has glossed difficult passages in the text "wt scolastica hystoria." Printed from a MS. of circ. 1400 by I. Le Long, Boek-zaal der Nederduytsche Bybels, 1732, p. 235, and from several MSS. by C. H. Ebbinge Wubben, Over Middelnederl. Vertalingen van het 0. Testament, 1903, p. 66 ; also prefixed, in an abridged and otherwise modified form, to the early printed edition (Delft, 1477) of the Dutch Old Testament. The last-named edition contains the same Biblical text as the present MS., but omits the commentary. Prologue, text, and commentary are all contained in Add. MSS. 10043, 15310-11, 15410, and 16951, described by K. de Flou and E. Gailliard, Beschrijving van Middelned. Hss. in Engeland, nos. 1-5 (Verslagen en Mededeelingen der K. Vlaamsche Acad., Ghent, 1895, pp. 39-54), and by R. Priebsch, Deutsche Hss. in England, ii, 1901, pp. 100, 133, 162. These and many other MSS. of what he calls "De Bijbel van 1360" are also described by Wubben, op . cit. pp. 7-41. At the end (fr. 379-381) are entries of deaths and burials chiefly in the family of Van Zu[y]len van Nyvelt, in and about Utrecht, 1517-1558 ; also a note of the Rhine or Leek having overflowed as far as Schalkwijk on 2 Dec. 1536. Vellum ; fir. iii + 381 (ff. 206, 249, 250 blank, but for some scribbled memoranda on f. 250b). About the middle of the xv cent.

11 in x 7 1/2 in. Double columns of 42 lines. Gatherings of 12 or 8 leaves (i-viii, xxx¹², xxi-xxxvii⁸, ix^I2besides an inserted pair, ff. 108, log, xxxviii3, a blank leaf having been cut away at the end). Headings in red, initials in red and blue, with large flourished initials at the beginnings of books. The text is illustrated, as far as the end of Ruth, with pen-and-ink drawings, touched here and there with gold, enclosed in rectangular frames set in the column of text, of the same width, approximately, as the text, viz. 2 1/2 in., but varying in height from 2 to 3 in. These are very finely executed by Flemish artists, the drawing being exquisitely delicate; for twelve of them see Cat. of Huth Bequest, pl. 8, 9. In the remaining books are blank spaces for a continuation of the series. Apparently executed for a member of the Van Lockhorst family, of the province of Utrecht: see arms on ff. 29 b, 73 b, 112 b, 156, 158, 174 b, 214 b, 238. Afterwards probably in the possession of the family of Van Zuylen van Nyvelt : see death entries at end, noted above. Huth bookplate. The Huth Library, i, p. 165.'