XL homiliarum in Evangelia libri duo

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Accession number:

MS M.1156

Title:

XL homiliarum in Evangelia libri duo

Created:

Rhineland, Germany, second half of 12th century.

Binding:

19th-century quarter red morocco gilt and pink paper boards, in a fitted quarter morocco case, title gilt.

Credit:

Melvin R. Seiden Collection, 2007.

Description:

125 leaves (1 column, 37-38 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 320 x 195 mm

Provenance:

Written and illustrated in a monastery in Rhineland; in Venice by the late 13th century (on the last leaf are contemporary copies of letters from Petrus Cortegatane of Venice to Johannes, bishop of Kalocsa in Hungary (1279-1301) and to Lorenzo Tiepolo, doge of Venice (1268-1275)); Andreas Scena, Dominican friar and citizen of Venice; bequeathed by Scena to the Dominician Convent in Venice, SS. Giovanni e Paolo (on fol. 125v, the deed of gift dated the feast of the Ascension (14 May) 1355), with the library's pressmark "Iste liber debet esse in octava bancha ex parte maris" on fol. 124v; Abbé Luigi Celotti; his sale (London, Sotheby's, March 14, 1825, lot 156); bought through the bookseller Rodd by Sir Thomas Phillipps, his MS.935; H.P. Kraus cat. 153, 1979, no. 10; private collector in Hamburg; his sale (London, Sotheby's, July 3, 1984, lot 42); to Quaritch; sale (Christie's, June 26, 1991, lot 25); sale (London, Sotheby's, December 6, 2001).

Notes:

Ms. homilies on the gospels by Gregory the Great; written and illuminated in Rhineland in the second half of the 12th century.
Decoration: 22 marginal drawings; approximately 100 large painted initials, in red; over 500 small red initials; some decorative line-fillers.
The subjects of the marginal drawings are: 1. the head of a bishop (fol. 2r) -- 2. a man lying in bed with a large bolster pillow (fol. 2r) -- 3. a fishing-rod, line and hook (fol. 69r) -- 4. an arm brooch (fol. 69r) -- 5-9. differnt kinds of plant and tree (fols. 73v, 94v, 101v, 105v, and 112v) -- 10. a dove (fol. 83r) -- 11. a mountain (fol. 84v) -- 12. a spade (fol. 85v) -- 13. a monster (the spirit of evil) riding on the back of a hunched-up man holding and spilling a pair of scales (fol. 87v) -- 14. a nude man (fol. 87v) -- 15. the head of a monk with a cross behind him (fol. 88r) -- 16. a castle and dome, representing the Kingdom of Heaven (fol. 98r) --17. a chest with a lock and 6 metal fittings (fol. 108r) -- 18. a pair of shackels (fol. 109v) -- 19. a boat (fol. 113r) -- 20. the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (fol. 116v) -- 21. a broad sword (fol. 118v) -- 22. Dives sticking out his parched tongue (fol. 123r).
Scribe: Written in brown and red ink by two main scribes (changing after fol. 54v).
The marginal drawings and the script resemble the work of the scriptorum of the house of Augustinian canons at Frankenthal, diocese of Worms.--Cf. Sotheby's, 2001.
Collation:125 leaves (plus original pastedown), i8 [of 8+1, original i now the pastedown, original ix (fol.8) a single sheet], ii-v8, vi7 [of 8, ii cancelled], vii7 [of 8, viii cancelled], viii-xi8, xii7 [of 8, v cancelled], xiii-xv8, xvi-xvii4, with quire signatures from [.i.] in the second part only (i.e. from quire 8).

Script:

late romanesque bookhands

Language:

Latin

Resources:

Description/Bibliography

Century:

12th century

Genres:

Sermons

Illuminated manuscripts

Illuminated initials