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Add MS 38687
- Record Id:
- 040-002058002
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002057998
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001159.0x0001d2
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100063333703.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 38687
- Title:
- Hrabanus Maurus, Commentaries on Deuteronomy and Joshua
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the commentaries on the Book of Deuteronomy and the Book of Joshua of the Benedictine monk Hrabanus Maurus (b. c. 780, d. 856). It was one of several biblical commentaries that the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, one of the oldest daughter houses of the Cistercian abbey of Cîteaux, produced in the 1st quarter of the 13th century. The manuscript was preserved in the abbey's library from the 12th century until the monastery was dissolved by French revolutionary forces in 1790.
Contents:
ff. 1r-1v: Hrabanus Maurus, dedicatory letter to Freculphus, Bishop of Lisieux (d. 850), ‘Incipit epistola Rabani ad a friduricum [sic] episcopum in exposicione Deuteronomium’.
ff. 1v-3r: A table of contents for Hrabanus Maurus, Commentary on Deuteronomy.
ff. 3r-95r: Hrabanus Maurus, Commentary on Deuteronomy (Books I-IV).
ff. 96r-97r: Hrabanus Maurus, dedicatory letter to Frederick I, Bishop of Utrecht (d. 838), beginning, ‘Incipit epistola Rabani ad friduricum episcopum in exposicione Josue’.
ff. 97r-98r: A table of contents for Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Joshua.
ff. 98r-150r: Hrabanus Maurus, Commentary on Joshua (Books I-III).
f. 150r: A book curse (rubricated) from the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny: ‘Volumine isto continetur Rabanus super deuteronomium . Et super Josue. Est autem liber iste sancte Marie pontiniacensis. Cuius fraude vel dolo perierit ; anathema sit’.
[f. 95v and f. 150v are empty].
Decoration:
7 large initials in frames with interlace containing foliate decoration, some with zoomorphic figures, in colours at the beginning of the preface and the books (ff. 1r, 3r, 21r, 48v, 71r, 98r, 116r). 1 large initial in blue and red with pen-flourishing at the beginning of Joshua (f. 96r). 1 large red initials in a green frame with blue penwork decoration and pen-flourishing (f. 98r). Small initials in red or blue throughout the manuscript, some with penwork decoration in blue or red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002057998
040-002058002 - Is part of:
- Add MS 38684-38720 : Phillips Manuscripts
Add MS 38687 : Hrabanus Maurus, Commentaries on Deuteronomy and Joshua - Hierarchy:
- 032-002057998[0004]/040-002058002
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 38684-38720
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100063333703.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1200
- End Date:
- 1224
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
-
Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 325 x 245 mm (text space: 230 x 155 mm, 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 150 ( + 1 unfoliated modern paper flyleaf at the beginning + 1 at the end).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown half leather binding with black boards, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘RABANUS MAURUS IN DEUTERONOMIUM ET IOSUE.’. The binding was made for Sir Thomas Phillipps (b. 1792, d. 1872) by George James Bertherton (b. 1820, d. 1895), bookbinder in Gloucester: his label (‘Bretherton, ligavit 1849’) on the inside of the upper cover.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Pontigny, Northern France.
Provenance:
The Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, from the 12th century until its dissolution by Revolutionary forces in 1790: a 13th-century ownership inscription on f. 150r: ‘Est autem liber iste sancte Marie pontiniacensis’; the manuscript is recorded in Pontigny’s manuscript catalogues from the 17th century (see Peyrafort-Huin, La bibliothèque médiévale (2001), p. 299 no. 122), the early 18th century (see Peyrafort-Huin, La bibliothèque médiévale (2001), p. 319 no. 56); 1778 (see Peyrafort-Huin, La bibliothèque médiévale (2001), p. 360 no. 166), the 1792 catalogue of Pontigny manuscripts that were transferred to Auxerre (see Peyrafort-Huin, La bibliothèque médiévale (2001), p. 400 no. 131), and a catalogue created by Revolutionary commissioners in 1794 (see Peyrafort-Huin, La bibliothèque médiévale (2001), p. 432 no. 150).
The Public Library of Auxerre, from 1791 until 1825: Pontigny’s manuscripts were transferred to Auxerre in 1791 and sold in 1825 by François-Nicolas Comynet (b. 1791, d. 1848) (see Peyrafort-Huin, La bibliothèque médiévale (2001), pp. 209-28).
Joseph-Félix Allard (b. 1795, d. 1831), cleric at the church of Saint-Eustache in Paris, owned between 1825 and 1829: a note in pencil on f. [i] recto: ‘Ex Bibl. Allard’. Purchased from him by Sir Thomas Phillipps.
Sir Thomas Phillipps (b. 1792, d. 1872), baronet, collector of books and manuscripts, from 1829 onward: his shelfmark inscribed on f. 1r: ‘Phillipps MS 3725’ in the lower and upper margin (see also Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in Bibliotheca Phillippica (1837), no. 3725). Purchased by the British Museum at the sale of his manuscripts, Sotheby’s, London, 21 May 1913 (see the note on f. [i] recto: ‘Purchased at Sotheby’s (Phillipps sale), 21 May 1913, Lot 548’).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1911-1915, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1925; repr. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), I: Descriptions, pp. 206-07.
Charles H. Talbot, 'Cistercian Manuscripts in England', Collectanea Ordinis Cisterciensium Reformatorum, 14 (1952), 208-12, 264-77 (p. 272).
Charles H. Talbot, 'Notes on the Library of Pontigny', Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis, 10 (1954), 106-68 (p. 162 no. 167).
Margaret T. Gibson, The Bible in the Latin West, The Medieval Book, 1 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993), no. 8.
Monique Peyrafort-Huin, La bibliothèque médiévale de l'abbaye de Pontigny (XIIe-XIXe siècles): Histoire, inventaires anciens, manuscrits, Documents, études et répertoires, 60 (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2001), 19 fn. 11, 73 fn. 44, 74, 78, 84 fn. 33, 113 fn. 113, 138 fig. 14, 152 n. 47, 230 fn. 8, 234, 526-527, 562, p. 829 pl. 41.
- 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.