Lot 45

Homiliary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Italy (Milan), third quarter of the twelfth century]

Estimate

12,000 - 18,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

190 leaves, 310mm. by 217mm., wanting last 2 leaves, else complete, collation: i-xxiii^{8, xxiv^{6, double column, 35-37 lines in brown ink in two early gothic bookhands, rubrics in red, one-initials in red or blue, 2- and 3-line simple initials in same with ornamental extensions into margin,}} large initials 'Q' (4-line; fol.1r) in variegated red, and 'F' (7-line; fol.1v) in variegated blue, margins of fol.1 partly cut away, fol.2 with small strip cut out, medieval repairs to a number of leaves (see fols.25, 182 and 189), some minor discolouration to leaves at each end, slight cockling, else good condition, modern brown leather over early wooden boards, single plaited leather clasp

Provenance

1. The monastery of Sancta Maria of Morimondo, near Milan: inscription contemporary with Giovio formerly on strip pasted into volume.

2. Bishop Paolo Giovio (1483-1552), the historian and humanist; sale by his descendents, Christie's, 1 June 1977, lot 163, to Kraus.

3. Bergendal MS.20; bought by Joseph Pope from Kraus in November 1981: Bergendal catalogue no.20; Stoneman, 'Guide', pp.174-75; M. Ferrari, 'Biblioteche e scrittori' in Archivio ambrosiano 40, 1980, no.72; 'Dopo Bernardo' in San Bernardo e l'Italia, 1993, p.292; and R. Etaix, 'Les homéliares carolingiens', in L'école carolingienne d'Auxerre, 1991, p.247.

Catalogue Note

text

This large volume contains a collection of homilies on the Epistles and Gospels for almost all the year from Christmas Eve to Ember Wednesday of Advent, presumably made for public reading. The text was almost certainly compiled in the early ninth century in the school of Auxerre (see H. Barré, Les homéliares carolingiens de l'école d'Auxerre, 1962, pp.214-35). The contents of the summer part are near-identical to that in Lyons, Bibliothèque municipale MS.628 (early ninth century), and the winter part closely compares to that in Zurich, Zentralbibliothek, Rheinau MS.12 (second half of ninth century). However, there are two Easter sermons here not in either of those witnesses (here fols.73r, opening "Ita debes facere ...", and 75r, "Simplicem resurrectionem suam ..."), and this manuscript may be the sole record of these Carolingian texts.

Eight sermons in the present manuscript have been attributed to the early Carolingian scholar and exegete, Haimo of Auxerre, who died c.855 (fols.1v, 9v, 17r, 18v, 59v, 72v, 166r, 181v: Pat.Lat.117:362-3, 827-31, 701-03, 1104-07, 723-6, 759, 748-51).