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Add MS 15311

Record Id:

040-002087020

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002087018

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001453.0x000067

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Add MS 15311

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 3 Kings to the Book of 2 Maccabees, 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 first volume (now Add MS 15310) 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:

ff. 1r-27r : The Book of 3 Kings.

ff. 27r-54v: The Book of 4 Kings.

ff. 54v-59v: The Book of Tobit.

ff. 59v-61v: The Book of Ezekiel.

ff. 61v-75v: The Book of Job.

ff. 76r-76v: Prologue to the Book of Proverbs.

ff. 76v-88v: The Book of Proverbs.

ff. 89r-93r: The Book of Ecclesiastes.

ff. 93r-93v: Prologue to the Song of Songs.

ff. 93v-95v: The Song of Songs.

f. 95v: Prologue to the Book of Wisdom.

ff. 96r-104v: The Book of Wisdom.

ff. 104r-104v: Prologue to the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus).

ff. 104v-126v: The Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus).

f. 127r: Prologue to Daniel.

ff. 127r-142r: The Book of Daniel.

ff. 142r-148v: The Book of Esther.

ff. 148v-155r: The Book of Judith

ff. 155r-171v: The Book of 1 Maccabees.

ff. 171v-183r: The Book of 2 Maccabees.

Decoration:

18 puzzle initial in red and blue with red and blue penwork decoration: with partial borders with foliate, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures (f. 1r); with pen flourishing (ff. 27r, 54v, 59v, 61v, 76r, 76v, 89r, 98r, 93v, 95v, 96r, 104v, 127r, 142r, 148v, 155r, 171v).

Numerous red and blue initials.

Unlike the first volume, this manuscript features no added illustrations or cadelles with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic faces.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Additional Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002087018
040-002087020

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 15311 : Old Testament books from a Dutch History Bible, with commentary from Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica

Hierarchy:

032-002087018[0002]/040-002087020

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:

1460

End Date:

1460

Date Range:

1460

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 375 x 270 mm (text space: 250 x 175 mm).

Foliation: ff. 183 (+ 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); 2 unfoliated parchment stubs between f. 8 and f. 9, and f. 176 and f. 177. Leather and rope tabs have been attached to ff. 76, 127, and 175.

Binding: 15^th-century blind-tooled and stamped (stamps featuring the lamb of God, a dragon, and fleur-de-lis) brown leather binding, re-backed at the British Museum, space for two clasps and brass studs, no longer present.

Custodial History:

Origin: Netherlands, South.

Provenance:

The female Franciscan tertiaries of Sint Catharinadal in Hasselt, 1460: f. 1r ‘Dit boeck hoert toe den sustere[n] int besloete[n] cloester S[int] Katherine[n] dale bin[n]en d[er] stat va[n] hassalt [sic]’; f. 183r: ‘Int jaer der gheboerten ons liefs heren ih[es]u [Christ]i doe men screef .M.cccc. en[de] . lx. op sinte iohannes baptiste[n] avont soe waert begonnen te scriven dit stuc vander bibelen En[de] int iaer ons heren ih[es]u [Christ]i doe me[n] screef . M.cccc. opten pinxt avo[n]t doen waest volscreuen En[de]het ho[er]t toe den sustere[n] des beslote[n] cloesters van S[int] katherine[n] dael bin[n]en d[er] stat van haselt’.

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 of Add MS 15310: ‘Purchased of Th[oma]s Thorpe, 13 Aug[us]t 1844 (Super Sale Lot 490)’.

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 Material:

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'.

Related Archive Descriptions:

Add MS 15310