Augustine, Ps-Augustine, Jerome, Chrysostom, et al.
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S| Auctioneer | CHRISTIE'S |
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| Место проведения | Великобритания, London |
| Комиссия | see on Website% |
ID 1514359
Лот 17 | Augustine, Ps-Augustine, Jerome, Chrysostom, et al.
Оценочная стоимость
12000GBP £ 12 000 – 15 000
Miscellaneous works, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Austria, Melk, early 15th century]
A very large, elegantly written, and illuminated compendium of unusual texts, from one of the greatest Austrian monastic libraries.
c. 350 x 250mm, i + 303 + i leaves, complete, foliated in medieval arabic numerals, collation: 110, 28, 3–3010 315 (of 6, last blank cancelled), catchwords, leaf signatures throughout, 44 lines written in a fine gothic script, ruled space: c. 240 x 175 mm; capitals stroked with yellow wash, rubrics in red, guides to the rubricator sometimes present at the edges of leaves, illuminated with ten 5- to 11-line painted foliate initials, ff.1v, 19, 11v, 135v, 216 (× 2), 244v, 255, 264, 275v, the backgrounds of the first two with tooled gold, the second with partial borders; 1-, 2-, and 3-line initials alternately red or blue, many of the 1- and 2-line initials with what appear to be small colour-notes in leadpoint, yet they are counter-intuitively ‘p’ next to blue initials and ‘v’ next to red ones (f.223 with a large natural flaw, avoided by the scribe and repaired with green thread sewing, a few leaves with their blank lower margin cropped, a few water-stains e.g. f.263). Melk binding: sewn on five bands and bound in half diced brown leather and marbled paper with the appearance of walnut burr, over pasteboards, the spine lettered in gilt capitals ‘Augustini et aliorum opuscula Saec. XV.’, with the crossed keys of St Peter and Melk (see Provenance), and foliate motifs in the other compartments, inscribed ‘324.’ at the head (the corners bumped and frayed).
Provenance:
(1) Perhaps written at, and certainly owned by, the Benedictine Abbey of Sts Peter & Paul, Melk, Austria: recorded in their 1483 catalogue (ed. Gottlieb, 1915, p. 168) as no ‘B. 34’ (Class ‘A’ is biblical texts, ‘B’ is patristics, and so on); inscribed in the 17th century ‘Monasterij Mellicensis B. 35 [sic]’, and with their 19th- or early 20th-century circular ink-stamp, ‘Bibliothek des Stiftes Melk’ in capitals, on the first and last pages (ff.1, 303v); one of many manuscripts from the library at Melk acquired and sold in the 1930s by:
(2) Ernst Philip Goldschmidt (1887-1954); with his pencil price and code ‘£180 RNN’ on front pastedown and his stock number ‘18071’ on back pastedown. In March 1937 E. P. Goldschmidt wrote to the book-collector and Yale donor Dr Harvey Cushing, to explain why so many manuscripts from Melk (and other Austrian monasteries) had come on the market. In summary, their sources of income were decimated by inflation resulting from the First World War, and by the collapse of small banks that had previously provided loans during times of temporary financial hardship: ‘That is why a rich abbey like Melk with all its endowments intact and unimpaired does find itself compelled to sell something every now and then to raise a few thousand dollars easily. They naturally do not sell anything that does or might bring actual money revenue; so they sell some pictures, some tapestries, some books or manuscripts, having found out that these dormant luxury assets can under certain circumstances suffice to raise the sum required. They have to obtain consent for every such transaction both from the ecclesiastical and from the state authorities.’ Acquired in November 1936 by:
(3) Howard Lehman Goodhart (1884-1951), stockbroker and bibliophile: his leather book label inside upper cover. By descent to his daughter:
(4) Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913-1994): her leather book label inside upper cover, MS 43. On deposit at Bryn Mawr, BMC 36. Published in De Ricci, Census, II, p.2340, no 43.
Content:
‘Contenta in hoc volumine. Liber sancti Augustini contra mendacium [f.] 1 Idem contra Felicianum [f.] 12 Gentilis super apokalipsim opus subtile [f.] 19 [...] ’, f.1; Augustine, Contra mendacium ad Consentium, preceded on f.1 by an extract from his Retractiones, ff.1v–11v; Vigilius Tapsensis, Contra Felicianum, ff.11v–18; blank, 18v; ‘Gentilis’, Expositio super Apocalypsim, ff.19–135; John Chrysostom, In Epistolam Pauli ad Hebreos, ff.135–215v; Ps-Philo, Liber antiquitatum biblicarum, ff.216–244v; Jerome, Epistolae ad Algasiam, ad Edibiam, etc., ff.244v–264; Ps-Jerome, Epistola I Pelagii ad Demetriadem, ff.264–275v; Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus, ff.275v–303v.
The extremely rare text beginning on f.19, ‘Legimus in ecclesiasticis historiis beatum Johannem evangelistam, Christi apostolum et consanguineum [...]’, is recorded by Stegmüller in only two manuscripts (Casale Monferrato, Seminario B 13, and Palermo, Biblioteca Nazionale, IV. H. 6: Stegmüller, Repertorium biblicum, nos. 9040, 10228), in both of which it is anonymous; the author and title are named, however, in the final rubric of the present manuscript: ‘Finit exposicio Gentilis super Apokalipsim’.
This is a very miscellaneous compilation of texts, including commentaries on St Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse, selected letters of St Jerome, and St Augustine on eighty-three miscellaneous issues. It thus has the appearance of a volume put together from a variety of disparate sources that became available to the copyist.
Literature
Theodor Gottlieb, Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Österreichs, I: Niederösterreich, 1915, p.168.
Erwin R. Goodenough and Howard L. Goodhart, The Politics of Philo Judaeus: Practice and Theory, 1938, p.179 no 321a.
Guido Kisch, Pseudo-Philo’s Liber antiquitatum biblicarum, Publications in Mediaeval Studies, 10, 1949, p.71.
S. De Ricci, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, II, 1961, p.2340, no 43.
| Место происхождения: | Австрия, Западная Европа, Европа |
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| Категория аукционного дома: | Манускрипты Средневековья и Ренессанса, Книги и рукописи |
| Место происхождения: | Австрия, Западная Европа, Европа |
|---|---|
| Категория аукционного дома: | Манускрипты Средневековья и Ренессанса, Книги и рукописи |
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