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Royal MS 13 D VI
- Record Id:
- 040-002106878
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x000021
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056060931.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 13 D VI
- Title:
- Excerpt from St Jerome, De viris illustribus; Josephus Flavius, Antiquitates iudaicae (books 1-14)
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript is the first volume of a two volume-set containing Flavius Josephus (b. 37, d. c. 98)'s Antiquitates Iudicae (Antiquities of the Jews). It is preceded by an excerpt on Flavius Josephus from St Jerome (b. c. 347, d. 420)'s De viris illustribus (On Illustrious Men). The second volume is Royal MS 13 D VII and contains the last books (books 15-20) of the Antiquitates Iudicae and also includes Josephus's De bello iudaico (On the Jewish War). The manuscript was written by Scribe A of the Benedictine abbey of St Albans between c. 1120-1140 (see Thomson, Manuscripts from St Albans Abbey (1983), no. 37).
Contents:
f. 1r: Excerpt on Josephus Flavius from St Jerome, De viris illustribus, beginning: 'Josephus Mathie filius ex Ierosolimis sacerdos, a Vespasiano captus', ending: 'et usque hodie Christianorum gens ab hoc sortita vocabulum non deficit'.
ff. 1r-218v: Josephus Flavius, Antiquitates iudaicae (Books 1-14), preceded by a prologue (ff. 1r-2r). The prologue, beginning (f. 1r): 'Prologus incipit. Hystoriam conscribere disponentibus non unam nec eandem video eius'; the text beginning (f. 3r): 'In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram. Sed dum terra ad aspectum non veniret'. Book 1 (ff. 3r-17v), preceded by capitula (f. 2v); Book 2 (ff. 17v-32v), preceded by capitula (f. 17v); Book 3 (ff. 33r-47r), preceded by capitula (f. 33r); Book 4 (ff. 47r-61v), preceded by capitula (f. 47r); Book 5 (ff. 61v-77r), preceded by capitula (f. 61v); Book 6 (ff. 77v-96r), preceded by capitula (f. 77v); Book 7 (ff. 96r-115r), preceded by capitula (f. 96r); Book 8 (ff. 115r-134r), preceded by capitula (f. 115r); Book 9 (ff. 134r-146v), preceded by capitula (f. 134r); Book 10 (ff. 146v-158r), preceded by capitula (ff. 146v-147r); Book 11 (ff. 158v-170v), preceded by capitula (f. 158v); Book 12 (ff. 170v-185v), preceded by capitula (f. 170v); Book 13 (ff. 185v-201r), preceded by capitula (ff. 185v-186r); Book 14 (ff. 201r-218v), preceded by capitula (ff. 201r-v); ending (f. 218v): 'Nos igitur hunc terminum cognationis a Samoneorum accepimus. Explicit liber quartus decimus'.
Decoration:
The style of the decoration is related to the St Albans Psalter (see Kauffman, Romanesque manuscripts (1975)).
One historiated initial of Creation, in colours, at the beginning of book 1 with eight medallions which show scenes from Creation, including a scene of the Creation of Adam in which God is depicted as a potter moulding Adam (f. 3r).
Fifteen large initials, some with foliate decoration interlaced with human figures, animals or birds, in colours, at the beginning of the prologue and other books.
Initials in blue or red. The rubrics are in red and green display-script. Headings in red. Quire signatures in Roman numerals and red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Royal Collection - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
036-002106877
040-002106878 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 13 D VI-VII : 13 D. VI, VIIWORKS of Flavius Josephus, in the Latin version ascribed to Rufinus; in two volumes.Vellum; ff. 218 and i + 211.…
Royal MS 13 D VI : Excerpt from St Jerome, De viris illustribus; Josephus Flavius, Antiquitates iudaicae (books 1-14) - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1097]/036-002106877[0001]/040-002106878
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100056060931.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1125
- End Date:
- 1149
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 390 x 285 mm (text space: 290 x 195 mm, in two columns).
Foliation: ff. 218 (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf at the beginning + at the end).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. Rebound in 1971.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: St Albans, Eastern England.
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of St Alban, St Albans, founded in 793: its 13th-century ownership inscription with anathema in red ink, 'Hic est liber Sancti Albani quem qui ei abstulerit aut titulum deleverit anathema sit. Amen'.
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 1158' (f. 1r), acquired by the Upper Library at Westminster after the inventory of 1542; in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 17v; and in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James’s Palace (see [Edward Bernard], Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), no. 8337).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 110-11.
C. R. Dodwell, The Canterbury School of Illumination 1066-1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954), pp. 50, 80.
T. S. R. Boase, English Art 1100-1216, Oxford History of English Art, 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), pp. 157, 167.
F. Blatt, The Latin Josephus, I: Introduction and Text: The Antiquities Books I-V, Acta Jutlandica, Humanistik series, 44 (Aarhus, 1958), p. 91, no. 163.
Otto Pächt, C. R. Dodwell, and Francis Wormald, The St. Albans Psalter (Albani Psalter) (London: Warburg Institute, 1960), pp. 166, 168, pls 148b, 151h, 152a, d, 153b.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 167.
Walter Cahn, 'St. Albans and the Channel Style in England', in The Year 1200: A Symposium (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975), pp. 187-230 (p. 206 n. 45, fig. 24).
C. M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 3 (London: Miller, 1975), no. 32.
Rodney M. Thomson, Manuscripts from St Albans Abbey 1066-1235, 2 vols (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1982), I, pp. 16, 23-24, 26, 33, 39-40, 56, 73, no. 36, pl. A.
J. J. G. Alexander and E. Temple, Illuminated Manuscripts in Oxford College Libraries, the University Archives and the Taylor Institution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), p. 5.
Michael Gullick, 'The Scribe of the Carilef Bible: A New Look at some Late Eleventh-Century Durham Cathedral Manuscripts', in Medieval Book Production: Assessing the Evidence, ed. by Linda l. Brownrigg, Proceedings of the Second Conference of The Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Oxford, July 1988 (Los Altos Hills, California: Anderson-Lovelace, 1990), pp. 61-83 (p. 78, n. 18).
Michael Gullick, 'Professional Scribes in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century England', in English Manuscript Studies, 7 (London: British Library, 1995), 1-24 (p. 20 n. 43).
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H2.1158.
John Higgitt, The Murthly Hours: Devotion, Literacy and Luxury in Paris, England and Gaelic West (London: The British Library, 2000), pp. 61, 124.
Kristine Haney, The St. Albans Psalter: An Anglo-Norman Song of Faith (New York: Lang, 2002), p. 309.
Kristen Collins, Peter Kidd and Nancy K. Turner, The St Albans Psalter: Painting and Prayer in Medieval England (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2013), p. 89.
- 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.