A fragment from a Spanish Gospel book - photo 1
A fragment from a Spanish Gospel book - photo 2

A fragment from a Spanish Gospel book

Lot 29
12.12.2022 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 1 008
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 869423
Lot 29 | A fragment from a Spanish Gospel book
Estimate value
£ 2 000 – 3 000
A fragment from a Spanish Gospel book
Fragment of a bifolium from the Gospels, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Spain, 12th century].
A fragment from a 12th-century Spanish manuscript with unusual use of red capitals.

c.265 × 230mm. 2 columns of 33 lines, in a protogothic bookhand, capitals in the gospels in red, the text comprising the end of Mark (15:36–16:20) followed by a prologue to Luke, '[despon]dum eum […] Explicit evangelium secundum Marcum. Incipit prologus in evvangelio secundum Lucam. Lucas Sirus Antiocensis arte medicus […] extra ea quę ordo’; (probably the usual one, Stegmüller, Repertorium biblicum, no 620, but perhaps no 615) and Chapters 16–21 of the Capitula followed by Luke 1:1–12 (‘unus reversus […] Expliciunt Capitula. Incipit evangelium secundum Lucam. Quoniam quidem […] irruit super eum’), numerous marginal cross-references to the other gospels, decorated with one decorative pen-drawn initial in red and green and another in red (recovered from use as a wrapper, with some consequent damage, one line lacking at lower edge due to cropping, the outer face dirty).

Provenance:
(1) Inscribed with the dates ‘1607’ and ‘1607, 1608’, and title(?) ‘Constitutor(um?)’.
(2) Bernard Quaritch, Catalogue 1036: Medieval Manuscript Leaves, Principally from a Collection Formed in the 19th Century, Bookhands of the Middle Ages [I] (London, 1984), no. 61.
(3) Colker MS 389; acquired in 1987–88 from Quaritch.

The use of red capitals in the text of the gospels for the first letter of sentences for which there are marginal cross-references is extremely unusual: normally a scribe would write the whole text in brown ink, and then subsequently add a red stroke to capitals. We might imagine that the scribe worked with two pens and two ink-pots (as if often shown in medieval depictions of scribes at work), especially as there do not seem to be any marginal guides-letters, except for the fact that one capital has been omitted: at Mark 16:2 the opening ‘E’ is missing: ‘[E]t valde mane una Sabbatorum […]’.

The lack of guide-letters for the capital letters in the main text is even more curious because guide-letters are provided for the marginal cross-references: where a passage of text can be paralleled in all four gospels (i.e. the first of the Eusebian Canon Tables), the references are written around a red number ‘i’; where a passage occurs in three gospels, there is a red number ‘ii’, and so on, up to ‘x’, for passages paralleled only in Matthew.
Genre:Religious genre
Place of origin:Spain
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
28.11.2022 – 12.12.2022
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

Related terms

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.