Sulpicius Severus (c.363 - c.425) - photo 1
Sulpicius Severus (c.363 - c.425) - photo 2

Sulpicius Severus (c.363 - c.425)

Lot 17
12.12.2022 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 1 008
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 869410
Lot 17 | Sulpicius Severus (c.363 - c.425)
Estimate value
£ 700 – 1 000
Sulpicius Severus (c.363 - c.425)
A fragment from his Dialogues, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [France, first half 11th century].
A Carolingian fragment of Sulpicius Severus’s popular Dialogues, extolling the virtues of the coenobites and solitaries living in the deserts of Egypt.

c.166 x 191mm. 22 visible lines of text in two columns, written in a neat Caroline minuscule, the text beginning: ‘[abbate di]scedunt. Hec illoru[m] prima virtus e[st]’ and ending ‘Adquendam igitur hoc ritu atque hac l[ege]’ (Migne, PCC, XX (1845), 190-193), one initial touched in red (a fragment, recovered from a binding, with some browning and soiling).

Provenance:
(1) An annotation in modern pencil indicates that this fragment may have been recovered from an early 16th-century Venetian Bible
(2) Colker MS 315; acquired in 1983 from Maggs.

Severus’s Dialogues and letters, along with his Life of St Martin, were very popular throughout the Middle Ages, cementing the reputation of Martin as a miracle-worker. The present fragment is from the first of Severus’s Dialogues, in which, via an interlocutor (Posthumianus), Severus presents a vivid description of the life and virtues of coenobites and solitaries in the deserts bordering Egypt. The text in the present fragment recounts the story of two boys who were sent by the abbot to bring food to a solitary who had set up tent in the desert six miles from the monastery. On their journey, they encountered an asp, and rather than be afraid of it, the younger of the boys wrapped it in his dress, whereupon both returned to the monastery with an air of boastfulness (‘quasi victor ingressus’). The abbot, to prevent them at such a young age from being too puffed up with pride, subjected both to punishment. Upon hearing that the boys had encountered danger and suffered a beating, the solitary implored the abbot that no bread or food of any kind should be sent to him. The abbot was curious as to how the solitary could continue to live without sustenance, and so decided to visit him, and while the recluse was taking the abbot back to his cell, freshly-baked heaven-sent bread appeared to them both.
Genre:Religious genre
Place of origin:France
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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28.11.2022 – 12.12.2022
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