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Add MS 15310

Record Id:

040-002087019

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002087018

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001453.0x000066

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 15310

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 to the Book of 2 Kings, in a Dutch History Bible in which the biblical text alternates with commentary from the Historia Scholastica by the French theologian Peter Comestor (d. 1179). In the fifteenth century the History Bible was one of the most popular books in the Northern Netherlands. This manuscript presents a version of the first translation of the Bible into Dutch: a translation that was made in 1360, perhaps at the Carthusian monastery of Herne. This manuscript and its second volume (now Add MS 15311) are amongst the almost fifty extant manuscripts that feature the translation of 1360. Both manuscripts once belonged to the female Franciscan convent of Sint-Catharinadal in Hasselt, as is indicated by ownership inscriptions written by Maria Swilden, one of the convent's sisters and, presumably, its librarian as well.

Contents:

f. 1v: Table of Contents for Volume 1.

ff. 2r-3r: Prologue to the Pentateuch.

ff. 3r-56v: The Book of Genesis.

ff. 56v-88v: The Book of Exodus.

ff. 88v-104v: The Book of Leviticus.

ff. 104v-129r : The Book of Numbers.

ff. 129r-147r: The Book of Deuteronomy.

ff. 147r -159r: The Book of Joshua.

ff. 159r-172r: The Book of Judges.

ff. 172r-175r: The Book of Ruth.

ff. 175r-193v: The Book of 1 Kings.

ff. 193v-209r: The Book of 2 Kings.

Decoration:

2 miniatures: both woodcuts on paper in colours: God creates Eve from Adam (pasted into margin of f. 9r); a diagram of the priestly breastplate drawn in ink between the text's columns (f. 80v).

11 large initials opening the biblical books: puzzle initials in red and blue with red and blue penwork decoration (ff. 2r, 56v, 88v, 129r, 147r, 159r, 175r, 193v); initials in blue or red featuring white decoration with red or blue penwork decoration (ff. 104v, 146v, 172r).

Numerous initials in blue and red.

Cadels with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic faces.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002087018
040-002087019

Is part of:

Add MS 15310-15311 : THE OLD TESTAMENT, With a Commentary from the Historia Scholastica of Petrus Comestor, translated into the Low Dutch or…

Add MS 15310 : Old Testament books from a Dutch History Bible, with commentary from Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica

Hierarchy:

032-002087018[0001]/040-002087019

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 15310-15311

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Dutch

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1462

End Date:

1462

Date Range:

1462

Era:

Access:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 380 x 265 mm (text space: 240 x 180), in 2 columns.

Foliation: ff. 209 (+1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 1 at the end); unfoliated parchment stubs between f. 1 and f. 2, and f. 201 and f. 202; parchment tabs on ff. 56, 147, and 175.

Binding: 15^th-century blind-tooled and stamped (stamps are of the Lamb of God and a dragon) brown leather binding, re-backed at The British Museum, with two clasps.

Custodial History:

Origin: Netherlands, South.

Provenance: The female Franciscan tertiaries of Sint Catharinadal in Hasselt, 1462: inscribed on f. 209r: ‘Dit boeck hoert toe de[n] sustere[n] int besloeten cloester S[an]c[t]e Katherine[n]dael bin[n]en d[er] stat va[n] hasselt’ (f. 2r); ‘Hier eyndet dierste stuck der bibelen gode van isr[ae]l si lof volscreuen int iaer der gheboerten ih[es]u [Christ]i M cccc en[de] lxii op ten xiii auont’.

August Frederick (b. 1773, d. 1843), Duke of Sussex, between 1827 and 1843: his bookplate pasted on the inside cover. The manuscript is not mentioned among the Dutch manuscripts listed in first part of J. Pettigrew's Bibliotheca Sussexiana (1827), which suggests that Frederick acquired it after the catalogue's publication; his sale, 31 July 1844, lot 490 (see R. H., T. and C. Evans, Bibliotheca Sussexiana, auction catalogue (1844), p. 42 (no. 490)); purchased by Thomas Rodd.

Thomas Rodd the Younger (b. 1796, d. 1849), London bookseller, in 1844.

Thomas Thorpe (b. 1791, d. 1851) London bookseller: purchased from him by the British Museum on 13 August 1844 for £10.10: inscribed on f. [i] recto: ‘Purchased of Th[oma]s Thorpe, 13 Aug[us]t 1844 (Super Sale Lot 490)’.

Information About Originals:

Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum 1841-1845 (London: Woodfall, 1850), p. 125: 'The Old Testament, with a Commentary from the Historia Scholastica of Petrus Comestor, translated into the Low Dutch or Flemish language. On vellum, written in the years 1460-142, for the use of the sisterhood of the monastery of St. Katherine at Hasselt. 2 Vols. Folio'.

Publications:

Alexander Willem Byvanck and Godefridus J. Hoogewerff. Noord-Nederlandsche Miniaturen (1922-1925), no. 90.

Karel de Flou and Edward Gaillard, Beschrijving van Middelnederlandse andere handschriften die in Engeland bewaard worden, Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 3 vols (Ghent: Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 1895–1897), I, pp. 43-49 (nos 2-3).

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

Jean Deschamps, ‘Middelnederlandse Bijbelhandschriften uit het klooster Sint-Catharinadal te Hasselt’, in Liber amicorum aangeboden aan Meester Jan Gruyters ter gelegenheid van zijn 70e verjaardag, 28 jan. 1957, ed. by Jan Gruyters, Werken uitgegeven onder de auspiciën van de Bestendige Deputatie van de Provincie Limburg, 4 (Hasselt: s. n., 1957), pp. 193-233 (pp. 197-211, nos. 1-2).

Jean Deschamps, Middelnederlandse handschriften uit Europese en Amerikaanse bibliotheken: Tentoonstelling ter gelegenheid van het honderjarige bestaan van de Koninklijke Zuidnederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis: Brussel, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, 24 Okt. – 24 Dec. 1970 (Leiden: Brill, 1972), pp. 152-56 (no. 50)

Sandra Hindman, Text and Image in Fifteenth-Century Illustrated Dutch Bibles, Verzameling van Middelnederlandse Bijbelteksten, Miscellanea 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1977), p. 136.

Jos A. A. Biemans, Middelnederlandse Bijbelhandschriften: Verzameling van Middelnederlandse bijbelteksten (Leiden: Brill, 1984), pp. 61-62 (no. 36).

Karl Stooker and Theo Verbeij, Collecties op orde. Middelnederlandse handschriften uit kloosters en semi-religieuze gemeenschappen in de Nederlanden, Miscellanea neerlandica 15-16, 2 vols (Leuven: Peeters, 1997), II: Repertorium, pp. 1330-331 (nos. 577-578).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Related Archive Descriptions:

Add MS 15311