Part of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great
Book III, Chapters 12,3.23 (intra eandem) ‒ 14,6.60 (in ortum), plus catchword
Produced probably in Flanders, perhaps circa 1450
Mildred Budny reports on a stray leaf and its former manuscript, as part of a series including
The Foundling Hospital and Lost & Foundlings among Manuscript Fragments.
[Published on 7 July 2015, with updates. The announcement that (after earlier sales from that collection), the residue of manuscript materials in the possession of Otto F. Ege’s family has been purchased by the Beinecke Library at Yale University encourages the anticipation of more revelations about surviving leaves from the dispersed manuscripts, perhaps also this one. Reports on that collection figured in our 2016 Symposium on ‘Words & Deeds’. Also, we can include the specimen from this manuscript now at The Newark Public Library.]
With permission, we illustrate a detached leaf, now in a private collection, from one of the manuscripts which the notorious bibliophile and self-styled ‘biblioclast’ Otto F. Ege (1888‒1951) dismantled for dispersal, mostly by sale, among different collectors and collections far and wide. Our recent post reflected on the conditions of dispersal and partial recovery for some of those fragments.
The leaf, seen here on both recto and verso, was purchased on its own several years ago in Boston. Its seller had little information about the leaf, whose identity awaited recognition. The present owner, having identified the Ege connection, told me about the leaf when I mentioned my work on some dispersed Ege leaves in other connections, and generously allowed me to study the specimen and report further findings.
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