171 MANUSCRIPT. BIBLIA SACRA LATINA. EDITIO VULGATA, cum Prologis S. Hieronymi et Interpretationibus Hebraicorum Nominum. A FINE LATE XIIITH CENTURY MANUSCRIPT ON 495 LEAVES OF UTERINE VELLUM, 6 by 4 inches, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN BY AN ANGLO-NORMAN SCRIBE IN A SMALL gothic letter, double columns, 48 lines to a full column, AND DECORATED WITH A DELICATELY EXECUTED INITIAL IN BLUE AND RED TO EACH PROLOGUE AND BOOK, WITH ORNAMENTAL PENWORK ATTACHED, together with hundreds of small capitals of similar character, 2 leaves are very slightly defective, headlines mostly cut into, and there are a number of cuts and tears, chiefly in blank margins, and some natural flaws in the vellum, BUT A FINE WELL-PRESERVED MANUSCRIPT WITH WIDE MARGINS, XVIIth century calf, with holes for tie-strings, corners worn, £75 * A fine, perfect Codex of the Vulgate, written over 600 years ago (c. 1280), and noticeable for the beauty of the writing and delicacy of the initial work. The text varies in places from editions of the Vulgate printed in the XVth century, and the scribe leaves out the epistles of St. Jerome, and in some cases his prologues. He has also omitted part of the Apocrypha, namely, I. and II. Esdras, the rest of Esther, Song of the three Children, Story of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, and the Prayer of Manasseh. There are numerous additions and marginal annotations by two almost contemporary medieval scholars, and a table of the books contained in the manuscript, with the number of chapters in each. Also several marginal annotations in a XVth century hand, and a duplicate table of books by the same writer on one of the two vellum fly-leaves at the beginning, with a curious full-page early pen-and-ink drawing of St George and the Dragon on its recto. Used as a lining is part of a folio leaf from a XIVth century manuscript, apparently on Canon Law. 172 MANUSCRIPT.-HORE BEATE MARIE VIRGINIS AD USUM ROTHOMAGENSEM (ROUEN), cum Calendario et aliis officiis. A BEAUTIFUL ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM, EXECUTED PROBABLY AT ROUEN ABOUT THE END OF THE XIVTH OR VERY EARLY IN THE XVTH CENTURY BY A SKILFUL FRENCH ARTIST, 127 leaves, gothic letter, long lines, 15 to a full page, 6 by 5 inches. DECORATED WITH A SQUARE MINIATURE DEPICTING THE EMBLEMS OF THE PASSION, on a burnished gold background, accompanied by a large ornamental initial D extended to form a full-page border by means of bar and ivy leaf work, 6 OTHER LARGE INITIALS CONTAINING SMALL AND FINELY PAINTED MINIATURES, on chequered or burnished gold backgrounds, of the Annunciation, Salutation, the Nativity, the Magi, the Flight into Egypt, and two monks standing by a bier, 3 of them with similar full-page borders, to the one above described, the other 3 with similar part borders, II VERY FINE LARGE INITIALS, with similar part borders, 122 SMALLER ORNAMENTAL INITIALS WITH SPRAYS OF GOLD LEAVES OR IVY LEAF DESIGN, 20 SIMILAR INITIALS WITHOUT SPRAYS, and upwards of 1,350 capitals and finials, THE WHOLE BRILLIANTLY ILLUMINATED IN GOLD AND COLOURS, very fresh and well preserved, with wide margins, OLD FRENCH RED MOROCCO, triple gold fillet on sides, flat back covered with scroll tooling in gold, g. e., BY PADELOUP, £100 * A choice and very attractive manuscript of an unusual type, remarkable for the beauty, elegance and variety of its initial and border work. The hymn at Matins and the capitulum at Lauds show the use to be that of Rouen, while St. Romanus, Archbishop of Rouen, and St. Ouen, of Rouen, are both invoked in the litany. The calendar, curiously enough, is left unfinished, and only extends to June, while of that portion the first half of April, nearly the whole of March, the headings and parts of the other months are still in their original blank state. [See Illustration.] |