Flos evangeliorum, homiliary, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Spain, second half of the twelfth century]

125 leaves, 242mm. by 172mm., apparently wanting upwards of 30 leaves at various points, else complete, collation: i^{5 (of 8, first 3 wanting), ii7 (vi a singleton), iii-viii8, ix7 (vi probably a singleton), x6, xi3 (first leaf a singleton), xii8, xiii7 (last a singleton), xiv6, xv9 (first probably a singleton), xvi8, xvii3 (first a singleton), xviii6, xix2, single column, 20-21 lines in light brown ink in at least two early gothic bookhands, capitals touched in red, numerous one- to 8-line simple red initials, some small stains and wear to first and last leaves, else good condition, modern red blind-tooled leather over wooden boards (perhaps early), two clasps}

provenance

1. Probably produced for a Cistercian community in northern Spain in the second half of the twelfth century. The script compares closely to a volume of saints' lives ascribed to the region of Toledo, illustrated in Witten, cat.10 (1979), no.88.

2. Subsequently in the library of the Confrérie du Saint Esprit "du Grians" in the second half of the seventeenth century: their inscriptions in French and Latin on fols.1r, 6r, 8r, 22r, 52v, 65v-66r, 67v, 74v and 115r; that on fol.22r naming the society and enumerating its members in 1671, and that on fol.6r containing a shorter list of names, one of whom, "Cabrol Prieur" reappears on fol.67v.

3. Bergendal MS.84; bought by Joseph Pope in our rooms, 23 June 1987, lot 73: Bergendal catalogue no.84; Stoneman, 'Guide', p.198.

text

This is the Flos evangeliorum in circulo anni, a Homiliary on the Gospels for the entire liturgical year, which was perhaps composed in Milan in the early Middle Ages. Barré notes some nine manuscripts of the work (Les Homéliaires Carolingiens de l'Ecole d'Auxerre, 1962, pp.25-30), and Raymond Etaix of the Institut Catholique in Lyons has recorded another thirty; none of which predates the twelfth century.