Bedae, Historia, etc. (Latin MS 182)
Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, with the Continuo Bedae and two miracle stories, formerly owned by - and possibly produced at - the Benedictine Abbey of (Mönchen-)Gladbach, Germany in the twelfth century.
Latin MS 182 by The John Rylands Research Institute and Library on Sketchfab
Information about this document
- Physical Location: The John Rylands Library
- Classmark: Latin MS 182
- Subject(s): Church history; Eighth century
- Date of Creation: 12th century
- Former Owner(s): Phillips, Thomas, 1792-1872; Quaritch, Bernard, 1819-1899
- Format: Codex
- Material(s): Parchment
- Extent: ff. 168 Leaf height: 280 mm, width: 190 mm.
- Collation:Quires 1-128
Quire 138, wants 4 and 5
Quires 14-208
Quire 218, wants 8
Quire 228, wants 2, 3, 6, 7: 8 stuck to cover - Layout:
Two columns, 31 lines per page.
- Script:Written in an upright miniscule
- Binding:
The sewing consists of a herringbone stitch along three equally-spaced sewing stations, which might suggest the use of a sewing frame. The binding is in essence original, including the wooden boards and their heavily-worn covering in tawed (or alum-tawed) skin, both of which have been affected by bookworms in places identical to the damage exhibited on the internal sheets of parchment. The skin has been stretched tightly around the wooden boards and sewn together on the inside (stitched mitred corners). Judging by a series of nail holes, each board once had a round centre boss and four corner bosses. The remains of two fastening clasps or straps survive on the back board, consisting of square brass fittings (16x16 mm) that have been fixed with copper nails and decorated with a punched cross in the centre and a dotted line along the edges. Rather than being fixed on the front of the board, these fastenings sat on the edge. All known examples of such Romanesque edge fastenings originate in Germany, which is consistent with the other evidence for the manuscript' early ownership history. The corresponding fittings on the front board are missing. Underneath the rear fittings survive the remains of the two straps. These are constructed from parchment that has been rolled tightly and flatted/compressed before being wrapped with a piece of alum-tawed skin. The wrapping shows traces of pink pigment, probably cochineal. The same combination of alum-tawed skin and cochineal dye can also be found on the endband of MS Latin 182, which shows both primary and secondary sewing. For the primary sewing, linen thread was used around a core of rolled parchment (similar to the straps), followed by a secondary sewing using pink alum-tawed skin in a technique that is representative of a sizeable corpus of similar braided endbands from twelfth-century Germany
Underwent several stages of restoration and repair (completed before James's examination in 1921), as is still visible on the book boards, the binding and, in particular, along the spine.
Twelfth century
- Origin:
The Benedictine abbey of (Mönchen-)Gladbach, founded 974, Germany, 12th century.
- Provenance:
Housed at the monastery of Gladbach until its dissolution in 1802.
Bought at auction by Sir Thomas Phillips (b. 1792, d. 1872), antiquarian and bibliophile
- Acquisition:
Purchased for the John Rylands Library by Bernard Quaritch (b. 1819, d. 1899), bookseller and publisher at the Phillipps Sale on 6 June 1910.
- Date of Acquisition: 6 June 1910
- Data Source(s): Description based on M.R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Latin Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library at Manchester (Manchester, 1921), reprinted with an introduction and additional notes and corrections by F. Taylor (München, 1980), and Benjamin Pohl, (Re-)Framing Bede's Historia ecclesiastica in twelfth-century Germany: John Rylands Library, MS Latin 182, in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 93:1 (2017),pp. 67-119, revised and expanded by Joanne Edge.
- Author(s) of the Record: Joanne Edge
- Bibliography:
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- Physical Location: The John Rylands Library
- Classmark: Latin MS 182
- Subject(s): Church history; Eighth century
- Date of Creation: 12th century
- Former Owner(s): Phillips, Thomas, 1792-1872; Quaritch, Bernard, 1819-1899
- Format: Codex
- Material(s): Parchment
- Extent: ff. 168 Leaf height: 280 mm, width: 190 mm.
- Collation:Quires 1-128
Quire 138, wants 4 and 5
Quires 14-208
Quire 218, wants 8
Quire 228, wants 2, 3, 6, 7: 8 stuck to cover - Layout:
Two columns, 31 lines per page.
- Script:Written in an upright miniscule
- Binding:
The sewing consists of a herringbone stitch along three equally-spaced sewing stations, which might suggest the use of a sewing frame. The binding is in essence original, including the wooden boards and their heavily-worn covering in tawed (or alum-tawed) skin, both of which have been affected by bookworms in places identical to the damage exhibited on the internal sheets of parchment. The skin has been stretched tightly around the wooden boards and sewn together on the inside (stitched mitred corners). Judging by a series of nail holes, each board once had a round centre boss and four corner bosses. The remains of two fastening clasps or straps survive on the back board, consisting of square brass fittings (16x16 mm) that have been fixed with copper nails and decorated with a punched cross in the centre and a dotted line along the edges. Rather than being fixed on the front of the board, these fastenings sat on the edge. All known examples of such Romanesque edge fastenings originate in Germany, which is consistent with the other evidence for the manuscript' early ownership history. The corresponding fittings on the front board are missing. Underneath the rear fittings survive the remains of the two straps. These are constructed from parchment that has been rolled tightly and flatted/compressed before being wrapped with a piece of alum-tawed skin. The wrapping shows traces of pink pigment, probably cochineal. The same combination of alum-tawed skin and cochineal dye can also be found on the endband of MS Latin 182, which shows both primary and secondary sewing. For the primary sewing, linen thread was used around a core of rolled parchment (similar to the straps), followed by a secondary sewing using pink alum-tawed skin in a technique that is representative of a sizeable corpus of similar braided endbands from twelfth-century Germany
Underwent several stages of restoration and repair (completed before James's examination in 1921), as is still visible on the book boards, the binding and, in particular, along the spine.
Twelfth century
- Origin:
The Benedictine abbey of (Mönchen-)Gladbach, founded 974, Germany, 12th century.
- Provenance:
Housed at the monastery of Gladbach until its dissolution in 1802.
Bought at auction by Sir Thomas Phillips (b. 1792, d. 1872), antiquarian and bibliophile
- Acquisition:
Purchased for the John Rylands Library by Bernard Quaritch (b. 1819, d. 1899), bookseller and publisher at the Phillipps Sale on 6 June 1910.
- Date of Acquisition: 6 June 1910
- Data Source(s): Description based on M.R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Latin Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library at Manchester (Manchester, 1921), reprinted with an introduction and additional notes and corrections by F. Taylor (München, 1980), and Benjamin Pohl, (Re-)Framing Bede's Historia ecclesiastica in twelfth-century Germany: John Rylands Library, MS Latin 182, in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 93:1 (2017),pp. 67-119, revised and expanded by Joanne Edge.
- Author(s) of the Record: Joanne Edge
- Bibliography:
- Title: Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
- Language(s): Latin
- Author(s): Bede, the Venerable, Saint 673-735
- Title: Bede's Annals and the Continuatio Bedae
- Language(s): Latin
- Author(s): Bede, the Venerable, Saint 673-735
- Title: Visio Wettini (fragment)
- Language(s): Latin
- Author(s): Haito, 763-826
- Title: De duobus clericis (fragment)
- Language(s): Latin
