Description
a collection of over 120 leaves and fragments, comprising (a) fragment of a leaf from Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, book 9, II:33-37 (on the Ages of Man) and III:5-7 (de Portensis), 210mm. by 102mm., remains of single column, 12 lines in a pointed Anglo-Saxon majuscule, initials touched in red, eleventh-century marginalia, Germany (Insular scribe or community), c.800 (Schøyen MS 1816), and in the later Middle Ages most probably in the library of the Praemonstratensian abbey of Arnstein (founded 1139); two further leaves of this manuscript are Berlin, Staatsbibl., Lat.fol.445, and they are most probably the earliest German copies of this fundamental encyclopaedic text to survive (published in Codices Latini Antiquiores, Supplement no.1674, with the illustration there taken from the present leaf, also by S. Krämer, Handschriftenerbe des Deutschen Mittelalters, 1989, p.26, and in Aevum, Rassegna de Scienze storiche linguistiche e filologie 81, 2007, p.627); (b) small fragment containing Medical charms using 'pepper and other dry remedies for the body' from an otherwise unrecorded medical text, 90mm. by 20mm., written by an Insular scribe in a Continental scriptorium (perhaps Echternach), remains of 2 lines in an early Anglo-Saxon majuscule, late eighth century or c.800 (Schøyen MS 1817); two further tiny pieces of the same manuscript are in the Marian Library, University of Dayton, Ohio; (c) leaf from the Cundpato Legendary (Passio S. Theodori martyris Amaseae), 205mm. by 155mm., single column, remains of 15 lines in the distinctive hand of the Freising scribe Cundpato (fl. first half of ninth century), who signs his name in in Greek and Runic characters in a manuscript of Isidore's Etymologies (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm.6250; Bischoff, Die Südostdeutschen Schreibschulen, I, no.34, pp.98-99, pl.III.d), and who was most probably a member of the ruling dynasty of Carinthia, who held sway over the region before 763 when Charlemagne suppressed Duke Tassilo III, the last king of Bavaria in the Agilolfing line (cf. the leaf sold in our rooms, 5 July 2011, lot 28), Freising, Bavaria, first half of ninth century, cut up in the fifteenth century in the monastery of Eberhardsklausen, near Trier (Schøyen MS 1819); also published by Krämer in Aevum; (d) Osbern of Gloucester (1123-1200), Panormia (on derivations of words), 190mm. by 148mm., 2 columns, 42 lines, 5 red initials, England, c.1200 (and thus perhaps within the lifetime of the author) (Schøyen MS 1818); (e) Peter Lombard, Commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Romans (Migne, Pat.Lat 191, cols.1317-21), 280mm. by 195mm., commentary set in smaller script within main text block, northern France, c.1200 (Schøyen MS 1821); (f) leaf from a commentary on John (end of XX and opening of XXI), 262mm. by 200mm., 2 columns, 54 lines, biblical quotations underlined in red, probably Germany, thirteenth century (Schøyen MS 1828); (g) Aristotle, Metaphysica, book VIII, 225mm. by 180mm., 2 columns, 32 lines, initials and paragraph marks in red and blue, Italy, fourteenth century (Schøyen MS 1829); (h) bifolium from a treatise on virtues and vices, each leaf 245mm. by 179mm., 2 columns, 46 lines, initials and paragraph marks as in previous item, the text on pride and anger drawing on moral stories about animals (including the peacock, bat, crab, basilisk, mad dogs, bear, toad, as well as the story about an eagle dropping a tortoise on the head of the poet Aeschylus, killing him [here misidentified as Achilles], citing Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero and Valerius Maximus), Italy, fourteenth century (Schøyen MS 1823); (i) 2 leaves from Boniface VIII, Liber Sextus Decretalium, with the gloss of Accursius (book VI, III:7.6-7.8), 470mm. by 300mm., 2 columns, initials in blue and red, one illuminated (4-line) enclosing an otter-like animal's head, Bologna, fourteenth century (Schøyen MS 1822); (j) leaf from a theological tractate based on Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita, De Coelesti Hierachia, 188mm. by 155mm., 2 columns, 30 lines, capitals touched in red, Germany, late fourteenth century (Schøyen MS 1827); (k) Augustine, In Iohannis Evangelium Tractatus 124, no.40, 353mm. by 245mm., 2 columns, 49 lines, Netherlands, fifteenth century; (l) leaf from a breviary with readings for the Ascension, 232mm. by 165mm., 2 columns, 34 lines, initials in red and blue, southern Germany, fifteenth century (Schøyen MS 1826); plus (m) 14 paper leaves from a treatise on the Calendar, discussing the liturgical year, intercalcery days, the seasons and months and the etymologies of their names and the Olympiads, 255mm. by 190mm., 2 columns, 36 lines in a cursive hand, probably Germany, late fifteenth century; and another 49 manuscript fragments on vellum and paper from the eleventh to the late sixteenth century, and 47 early printed fragments all apart from one on paper, and a blank sixteenth-century paper leaf used to illustrate watermarks (many of these with accompanying academic notes); almost all recovered from bindings and with some spots, stains and trimming, overall fair condition, items (a) to (c) and (h) in hessian bindings; with a quantity of Bischoff's notes and papers
Provenance
provenance
Stephan Beissel (1841-1915), Jesuit scholar; Antiquariat Wöfle, Munich, given to Bernhard Bischoff (1906-91), for his teaching collection. Bischoff was the supreme scholar of Carolingian palaeography, who mastered Carolingian minuscule in a depth unmatched since the eleventh century. Even before attaining his doctorate in 1933, he was recruited by the paleographer E. A. Lowe to work on the Codices Latini Antiquiores series, and in 1947 succeeded the great Ludwig Traube in the chair of Medieval Latin Philology at Munich. In 1953 he was elected to the general editorship of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, and spent the last years of his life cataloging nearly 7,000 Carolingian manuscripts. He was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Irish Academy, the American Medieval Academy, and the German Archeological Institute, and received honorary degrees from the universities of Dublin, Oxford, Cambridge, and Milan. His Die südostdeutschen Schreibschulen und Bibliotheken in der Karolingerzeit, 1940 (reprinted in 1960 and 1974), and Mittelalterliche Studien, 1966-1981, remain benchmarks of academic research, and his survey of medieval Western script, Paläographie des römischen Altertums und des abendländischen Mittelalters, 1986 – the standard in the field – has been translated into English by D. Ó Cróinín and D. Ganz, and into French by J. Vezin and H. Atsma. Acquired after Bischoff's death by Bernard Rosenthal; hence to Quaritch; Schøyen MSS 1816-1832/7 (plus a quantity of unnumbered fragments).
