Gospel Book

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Accession number:

MS M.1152

Title:

Gospel Book

Created:

Paris, France, ca. 1170-1180.

Binding:

Mid-18th century French tan calf gilt, spine in compartments profusely gilt, red morocco title label gilt, marbled paper endleaves, vellum flyleaf, red edges.

Credit:

Melvin R. Seiden Collection, 2006.

Description:

140 leaves (3 columns, 19-38 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 257 x 179 mm

Provenance:

Remained in France at least until the late eighteenth century; bookplate of F. Gaudy, perhaps the German poet Franz von Gaudy (1800-1840); sale (London, Sotheby's December 3, 2002, lot. 1).

Notes:

Ms. selections from the Bible, glossed, written and illuminated in Northern France, probably in Paris, ca. 1170-1180.
Decoration: 4 large illuminated initials, of which 3 are inhabited; 2 large divided initials; painted and penwork initials throughout.
Texts: Prologue to the Gospel of St. Mark; Gospel of St. Mark, glossed (fols. 3r-85r); Prologue to the Canonical Epistles (fol. 86r); Canonical Epistles, glossed (fols. 86v-140r), including: James (fol. 86v), I Peter (fol. 99v), II Peter (fol. 112v), I John (fol. 120v), II John (fol. 132r), III John (fol. 134v), Jude (fol. 136r).
Scribe: close to the hand of the glossed books made in Paris around 1180 for Master Robert of Adington--Cf. R. Mynors, Durham Cathedral Manuscripts, 1939, 78-82, pl. 48.
Collation: i-xi8, xi5 [of 6, blank vi cancelled], xii-xvii8, xviii7 [of 8, blank viii cancelled], with some catchwords (referring to the Gloss) and some numerical signatures in two sequences beginning again from the start of the Epistles.

Script:

romanesque textura

Language:

Latin

Century:

Genres:

Glosses (annotations)

Vellum (parchment)