A “Beatus Manuscripts” Project

May 10, 2025 in International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Manuscript Studies

“The Methodology of Credulity:
Assessing the Manuscript Witnesses
to Beatus of Líebana, On the Apocalypse“

Reflections on
A Project Proposal

[Posted on 9 May 2025, with updates]

In honor of the session sponsored by the RGME at the 2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies and proposed and co-organized by our Associate Vajra Regan, I reflect with hindsight on the proposal years ago for a collaborative research project about the surviving “Manuscript Witnesses” to the influential medieval Latin Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Líebana (circa 730 – circa 735).

Proposed with a distinguished colleague circa 1999, that ambitious collaborative project did not come to fruition, so I turned to other ones claiming attention. For years its subject (rather than project) lay in the background, waiting, for a return to attention, amidst other projects and activities of the Research Group on Manuscript [and Other] Evidence (RGME) which advanced as this organization has continued on its path.

The 2025 RGME Session
on Beatus Manuscripts

The RGME Session on 10 May 2025 at the ICMS presents its focus thus:

“Rending the Veil:
The Rupture of Image and Text
in Medieval Apocalypse Commentaries”

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS Vitrina 14-2, fol. 287r. Facundus Beatus. Image via Biblioteca Digital Hispánica via https://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000051522.

The title and approach were proposed by Vajra Regan, who deserves credit for the inspired approach to the genre. Responses to the Call for Papers for this session focused on specific aspects or case studies. Their approaches are reported in our Home Page for our events at the 2025 Congress and in the Abstracts for the presentations in the Program of the Session. See:

We give thanks to the co-organizers and contributors to this session and to the helpers behind the scenes for its preparations and accomplishment. We admire the participants’ choices of subjects for their presentations, which focus respectively on a specific manuscript as case-study or on different manuscripts’ approaches to a specific illustration across the corpus of Beatus Manuscripts.

The Once-Upon-A-Time
Project Proposal on Beatus Manuscripts

It is this multi-tiered exploratory experience — with manuscripts containing Beatus’ Commentary on the Book of the Apocalypse in the New Testament and the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament, with studies about these manuscripts, their group, and their context, and with a developing awareness of a wealth of manuscript witnesses across time as my own research and that of the RGME — that leads me now to offer reflections with hindsight about an eager preparatory exploration of the manuscripts and their power as witnesses which generated a proposal for a major project.

The proposal envisioned an extended, several-year, multi-disciplinary study of the manuscripts themselves (where permitted), along with an international symposium to gather a range of relevant perspectives and approaches to them and their context, both individually and collectively as a genre attesting to the transmission and sometimes creative transformation of a compelling text which often traveled with resonant, sometimes disturbing, often challenging, images.

The details and aims for the plan are set out in the six-page proposal. Using Adobe Garamond for its font (in keeping with our preferred font before RGME Bembino, it has a title page and five pages of text outlining the “Project Proposal,” set out in sections:

The Material
The Nature of the Problem
The Scope and Aims of the Project
The Collaborative Process
The Stage of Development of the Project
Institutional Resources to be Consulted and Travel Plans
Results

With its strengths and weaknesses, the proposal can be viewed here.

It makes a statement about our reflective views on the subject of Beatus Manuscripts as a body of evidence, their challenges for research and comprehension, and possible approaches bringing a combination of perspectives and expertise in the pursuit of further knowledge about their potential as witnesses. In a way, it represents a statement of intention about a long-term project bringing together many fiends, centers, fields of expertise, and dedication.

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS Vitrina 14-2, fol. 6v. Facundus Beatus. Image via Biblioteca Digital Hispánica via https://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000051522.

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS Vitrina 14-2, fol. 7r. Facundus Beatus. Image via Biblioteca Digital Hispánica via https://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000051522.

AfterLife and Renewal

The proposal was not accepted, so its text has been set aside. It was said, whether accurate or not, by my collaborator that a reason, or the reason, for the rejection had to do with the choice of reviewer (an obvious choice), who had long expressed disagreement with my collaborator’s approach to the manuscripts, of which he had made a long-term study bringing a series of volumes on them as individuals and as a whole body of material.

The issues between those two scholars were not my concern. Both individuals (now dead) were RGME Associates; both contributed to various RGME Symposia in their own time and on different occasions.

With hindsight, I observe that it may well have been fortunate that the project did not go forward. Aside from the complex logistics across countries and disciplines outlined in the proposal, which may have proved unwieldy or intractable, there emerged other, more fundamental concerns. Unexpected arduous difficulties imposed in working with the same collaborator at her request to move her library from one state to another in 2002–2003, leading to months of ill health for me, taught that the responsibilities for such a project as the one which we proposed several years earlier would have placed most of the work upon me unaided. Meanwhile, I can be glad that the discussions and planning which led to the proposal brought me into contact more closely with the subject of the Beatus Manuscripts and its witnesses.

The occasion of the RGME’s Session on Apocalypse Commentaries in 2025 brings it forward as a record of our long-term interest in and commitment to the study of the manuscript witnesses. The renewal brings the chance to look afresh at the manuscripts, their scripts, their images, and their histories, especially as the arrival of digitization and online facsimiles for many of the witnesses has granted the ability to observe, compare, contrast, and learn ever more from their pages.

Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS Vitrina 14-2, fol. 6r. Facundus Beatus. Image via Biblioteca Digital Hispánica via https://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000051522.

A Treasured Memory

The process of planning a collaborative project involved learning from each other about our different, but overlapping, approaches to the study of manuscripts and their contexts from fields ranging from history and art history, through codicology, palaeography, and book history, to textual and linguistic studies and the transmission of text, scripts, and illustrations from exemplar to exemplar, place to place, and time to time. The quest was exhilarating.

Especially worthwhile was the opportunity which I could arrange, with the approval of the then-Curator at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City, William Voelkle (now a RGME Associate), to see two Beatus manuscripts side by side. We traveled to New York for the day from Princeton, New Jersey, for this purpose. In the old Reading Room, as he turned the pages, we two collaborators could examine the two books at the same time, observing, conversing, and consulting with each other, all three of us. In decades of examining manuscripts at close hand, this experience remains one of the most memorable.

Thus we had the privilege of looking together at the Morgan Beatus (M. 644) of circa 940–945 and Las Huelgas Beatus (M. 429) dated by colophon to September 1220. I had seen one and other before, in the flesh, as part of my decades’ long study of manuscripts, but looking at both of them together, and with a colleague as well, represented a step forward for our collaborative work. Before digitization, long before online digital facsimiles of manuscripts, this opportunity was a rare treat.

While we were engaged with this opportunity, standing over the manuscripts and talking softly (but excitedly), another reader in the room walked by, exclaimed with delight, and asked if she might look over our shoulders as well. Welcoming her, we described something about the manuscripts, their significance, and our plans to study their group in greater depth. Her interest as a newcomer, happy that she had chanced upon and been welcomed into the exceptional encounter with the manuscripts, in our company, remains a happy part of the memory.

I rejoice that the occasion of the 2025 RGME Session on Beatus Manuscripts, with their complex interworking and/or interplay between text and images, brings to the fore my long-standing interest in their characteristics. Preparing for the session, I can return to the books about them which helped to inform and guide the proposal of yesteryear. These books include a bilingual Latin–Spanish edition of the complete works of Beatus lent by my collaborator and the majesterial multi-volume set on The Illustrated Beatus by the expert who had (it would seem) reviewed and declined our proposal. Over the years since the work to complete the proposal for submission, I have consulted each of these works for various reasons, but now they come out together to join in the renewal of exploration about Beatus Manuscripts, with more to discover.

For example, with this digital image of an opening of the Morgan Beatus, MS M. 644, as an example, we might imagine the living process of beholding the opened book directly, while the pages might (with permission) be turned to reveal another and another, at a given moment in time and space.

Beatus, Saint, Presbyter of Liebana, -798. Commentary on the Apocalypse (MS M.644). Spain, San Salvador de Tabara, ca. 945. fol. 222v. MS M.644.

Tags: Beatus Manuscripts, Facundus Beatus, Las Huelgas Beatus, Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts, Morgan Beatus
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Two Leaves in the Book of Numbers from the Chudleigh Bible

April 22, 2025 in Uncategorized

Two Leaves
in the Book of Numbers
from the Chudleigh Bible

Latin Vulgate Bible
Northern France
Sant-Vaast Abbey?
Circa 1220–1230

Text written in Gothic Bookhand
Laid out in Double Columns of 56 lines
with Running Titles, Rubrication,
Text-Initials in Red and Blue,
and Marginalia within Frames

[Posted on 17 April 2025]

Continuing our series of posts describing discoveries for the study of manuscript fragments, we introduce two leaves which belonged to the Book of Numbers in the medium-format Latin Vulgate Bible now known as the Chudleigh Bible. The name derives from one of its former owners, the eleventh Baron Clifford of Chudleigh.

Charles Oswald Hugh Clifford (1887–1962), Lord Clifford of Chudleigh (Devon, England)
See also:
“We Remember Charles Oswald Hugh Clifford”

The place Chudleigh itself is an ancient wool town in Devon.

First we introduce the two leaves, then describe the original manuscript, insofar as it is known from surviving fragments and the descriptions in catalogues (of sales, collections, and genres of medieval French manuscript production). Further blogposts will offer more information about both forms of experience for the manuscript and its identifiable fragments.

I. Two Leaves from the Book of Numbers

These two leaves come to the RGME as a donation by our Associate, Richard Weber. Previous blogposts have reported portions of his collection of manuscript fragments, starting with Set 93 of the Portfolio of Famous Books assembled by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951).

1. That first post has set in motion a continuing study of that portfolio and its different components representing manuscript and printed materials alike. One development recently focuses upon a collaborative study of the dismembered volume of Dante as we prepare for the 2025 Autumn Colloquium on “Break-Up Books and Make-Up Books: Encountering and Reconstructing the Legacy of Otto F. Ege and Other Biblioclasts”. Richard has generously agreed to speak about his collecting interests for that event.

2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium at the University of Waterloo

2. The Weber Leaf from Otto Ege Manuscript 22 inspired us to examine closely the evidence of origin, provenance, and genre of book for this leaf and other survivors of the same volume, set against Otto Ege’s labels of attribution based upon incomplete and misrepresented knowledge. The resulting Research Booklet, freely available, presents the evidence. You can find it here:

The Weber Leaf from the Warburg Missal: Otto Ege Manuscript 22

3. Richard shared photographs of his leaf from the Saint Albans Bible in response to our new series of Workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”, which took inspiration from the loan of a leaf from that Bible from the Collection of Jennah Farrell to the RGME for photography, study, and publication. We decided to turn to crowd-sourcing and mentoring in these workshops as a collaborative, collective way to learn about manuscripts together, including beginners, experts, and others in between. It was a good choice.

RGME Workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”

As the Workshops developed, they considered fragments from different Latin Bible manuscripts pertaining to similar periods, styles of production, and various sizes or formats. By Workshop 5, we could survey their range and the progress which the workshops and their collaborative approach had attained.

Workshop 5. “Identifying Medieval Latin Bible Manuscript Fragments”

At this Workshop, Richard Weber generously offered to give a couple of medieval Latin Bible leaves to the RGME for our Research Library & Archives.

Soon, the leaves arrived, which Richard had had beautifully framed in a pair of matching frames with windowed mats and easily removable backs. Protecting the leaves, these frames both showed each leaf to advantage and allowed for access from the back of the frame to allow us to see the other side of the leaf and its full extent.

Companion sheets of paper report details of the leaves, their seller, and the original manuscript, the Chudleigh Bible.

For this gift, we created a bookplate recording Richard’s donation. We give thanks for his characteristic generosity and thoughtfulness.

The Two Leaves

And so, we introduce a pair of non-consecutive leaves from the Book of Numbers in the Chudleigh Bible. The modern Arabic numbers written in pencil at the center directly below the columns of text label them as “38” and “43” respectively. Presumably they designate the folio numbers for them in a consecutive sequence entered before the separation of the leaves from each other.

So far we have not identified any surviving leaves which formerly stood between them or adjacent to them within the same Biblical Book.

Leaf 1: Folio 38

This leaf must have directly followed the opening leaf of the Book, as it starts partway within Chapter 1. That leaf would have carried the opening initial for the Book, with L for Locutusque. Its present location is unknown, but the contents of its illustrated initial have been recorded to indicate a depiction of the figures of God, Moses, and Joshua at an altar. (p. 69 and 72 note 8)

Recto

Formerly Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf 1 from the Chudleigh Bible: Recto.

Verso

Formerly Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf 1 from the Chudleigh Bible: Verso.

Leaf 2: Folio 43

Recto

Formerly Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf 2 from the Chudleigh Bible: Recto.

Verso

Formerly Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf 2 from the Chudleigh Bible: Verso.

Note that there has been some correction/adjustment in the Chapter Numbering. In the intercolumn for the left-hand column there stands a second XVI on the verso, duplicating the same number on the recto. It has been crossed out with a horizontal stroke. The numbering continues below with XVII and XVIII for the left- and right-hand columns respectively.

Contents: Text

Leaf 1 (recto and verso)

Numbers 1 36 [De filiis Benjamin per generationes et familias ac domos] cognationum suarum recensiti sunt nominibus singulorum a vigesimo anno et supra, omnes qui poterant ad bella procedere, 37triginta quinque millia quadringenti.

Numbers 2 1 Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen et Aaron, dicens

Numbers 3 1 Hæ sunt generationes Aaron et Moysi in die qua locutus est Dominus ad Moysen in monte Sinai.

7 et observent quidquid ad cultum pertinet multitudinis coram taberna // culo testimonii,

Numbers 4 1 Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen et Aaron, dicens

14 ponentque cum eo omnia vasa, quibus in ministerio ejus utuntur, id est, ignium receptacula[, fuscinulas ac tridentes, uncinos et batilla.]

Leaf 2 (recto and verso)

Numbers 15 9 [dabis per singulos boves similæ tres decimas consper]sæ oleo, quod habeat medium mensuræ hin

Numbers 16 1 Ecce autem Core filius Isaar, filii Caath, filii Levi, et Dathan atque Abiron filii Eliab,

28 Et ait Moyses : In //hoc scietis quod Dominus miserit me ut facerem universa quæ cernitis, et non ex proprio ea corde protulerim :

[Possibly struck through incorrect marking for chapter 16 at]

Numbers 16 36 Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen, dicens

Numbers 17 1 Et locutus est Dominus ad Moysen, dicens

Numbers 18 1 Dixitque Dominus ad Aaron

11 Primitias autem, quas voverint et obtulerint filii Israël, tibi dedi, et filiis tuis, ac filiabus tuis, jure perpetuo : qui mundus est [in domo tua, vescetur eis. ]

*****

As part of the RGME’s Research Library & Archives and our ongoing project on medieval manuscript fragments, we begin the study of this leaf and its context, as part of the quest to identify and virtually reconstruct its former volume. Another blogpost will report more information about these two leaves.

Now we survey reports about the original volume and some of its identified survivors.

II. Once Upon a Time:
A Single-Volume Vulgate Bible

Formerly, as described in its sales catalogue descriptions while still intact, the manuscript comprised a single volume of 411 vellum leaves, with its text laid out in double columns of 56 lines each. Initials opening Books of the Bible contained historiated scenes and decorative elements; some 90 or 91 of them were historiated.

The volume as such was sold at auction in London several times first by Sotheby & Co and then by Christie’s. Its appearance on the market began at the hands of its former owner, Charles Oswald Hugh Clifford, the eleventh Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. By that ownership it acquired its modern name.

I. As a Single Volume

For an overview of the former “Parent Volume” from which came dispersed leaves, see Peter Kidd, McCarthy Collection, Volume III: French Miniatures (London, 2021), No. 17 (pp. 69–73).

Notice of the manuscript, with some black-and-white images of its illustrated elements, appeared in print three times, corresponding with its sale by successive owners, starting with Lord Clifford of Chudleigh himself.

1) Sold by Sotheby & Co, London,
7 December 1953, lot 51 (pp. 00 in catalogue)

Catalogue of fine Western and Oriental manuscripts and miniatures . . . : which will be sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby & Co. . . . at their large galleries 34 & 35 New Bond Street, W.1

Bought by Maggs Bros., London, for £680.

2) Sold by Sotheby & Co, London,
Wednesday, 8th July 1970 as Lot 104 (pp. 78–79 in catalogue)

Catalogue of important Western manuscripts and miniatures . . . : which will be sold by auction by Sotheby & Co. . . . at their large galleries, 34 and 35 New Bond Street, W.1 . . . ; day of sale: Wednesday, 8th July, 1970

The entry cites 139 illuminated initials, some of which are historiated. It mentions some defects, including many margins “to some extent stained” and damage to some initials, of which “5 are badly damaged and 15 slightly damaged.” Some losses were discernible, with “the first two leaves largely defective” and “a few leaves missing at the end of the Interpretations [of Hebrew Names]”.

Facing the catalogue entry, the companion page of “Illustration” shows 8 cropped images with historiated initials (sometimes two in succession on the same page), encompassing 10 initials altogether. Their locations in the manuscript are not indicated.

“The text is the normal text of a thirteenth-century Bible, i.e. the modern Vulgate with the addition of Esdras III, which is called Esdras II, the modern Estras II being called Nehemiah. Acts follows the Pauline Epistles. . . . Marginal annotations in red and plummet are fairly numerous. Many are enclosed in red cartouches.”

3) Sold by Christie’s, London,
Thursday, July 11, 1974, lot 18 (pp. 00 in catalogue)

Important Western manuscripts and miniatures from various sources: which will be sold at auction by Christie, Manson & Woods Ltd. . . . 8 King Street, St. James’s, London, SW1Y 6QT . . . on Thursday, July 11, 1974.

While still intact, the codex was reported in print:

Robert Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris: A Study of Styles. California Studies in the History of Art (1997), as Number 17 (page 30), described as made in Northern France and related to Parisian examples.

II. As Individual Leaves or Groups of Leaves

Thereafter leaves appeared in various catalogues, including these (which I have not yet seen):

Quaritch cat. 1147 (1991), no. 15
Maggs Bros, Fine Books and manuscripts, cat. 1167 (1993), no. 2
Sotheby’s, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, 6 December 2005, lot 16

For some others, see below.

Sometimes the manuscript might receive notice on its own account. For example:

Christopher de Hamel, Scribes and Illuminators. Medieval Craftsman Series (Toronto, 1992), page 43 and plate 36.

The Collection of Robert McCarthy
(No. 17)

A set of leaves assembled from different sources belong to the McCarthy Collection in London. They have been described by Peter Kidd in his catalogue of the French Miniatures in the collection, with color illustrations from them (initials or their pages only).

Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, III: French Miniatures (London, 2021), no. 17 (pp. 69–73)

Leaf 17a. End of Exodus and beginning of Leviticus (initial on recto)

Leaf 17b. End of Nehemiah and beginning of I Esdras (initial on verso)

Leaf 1c. End of Psalm 25 and beginning of Psalm 26 (initial on recto)

In his blog, Peter Kidd listed more leaves, with their sources:

Manuscript Provenance: McCarthy Catalogue, Volume III (French Illuminations).

The list comprises the opening leaves from Joshua, Sapientia/Wisdom, II Samuel, Ecclesiastes, and the Epistle to the Philippians. See below.

No. 17. The Chudleigh Bible:

The Joshua leaf was Pirages, Catalogue 78: New Acquisitions (2021), no. 11 (pages 12–13, with color illustration of recto).
(See An Illuminated Vellum Manuscript Leaf from the Chudleigh Bible)
Prologue and Beginning of Joshua; initial on recto
The Wisdom leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, Wertvollebücher, Manuskripte, Autographen, Grafik. Auction 150, 2 November 2021, lot 19 (page 15, with color illustration of recto).
(See http://www.mdcom.de/Hartung/PDF/HH_A150_locked.pdf)
Prologue and Beginning of Ecclesiastes; initial on recto
The Joshua leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, Auktion 148, 3 November 2020, lot 8 (page 9 and color illustration of recto.)
(See http://www.mdcom.de/Hartung/PDF/HH_A148_locked.pdf)
Beginning of Joshua on recto
The II Samuel leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, Auktion 146, 5 November 2019, lot 22 (pages 16–17, with color illustration of verso)
(See http://www.mdcom.de/Hartung/PDF/HH_A146_locked.pdf.)
Beginning of II Samuel; presumably End of I Samuel on verso
The Ecclesiastes leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, Auktion 152, 8 November 2022, lot 5 (page 9, with color illustration of verso)
(See http://www.mdcom.de/Hartung/PDF/HH_A152_locked.pdf)
Beginning of Ecclesiastes on verso; presumably End of Psalms on recto
‘The Philippians leaf was in the collection of John Feldman [1957–2021] in 1989, “depicting Paul preaching in the Synagogue at Damascus” ‘
Beginning of Epistle to the Philippians (recto or verso?)

Some Specimens

We gather a list of specimen leaves which have circulated through the marketplace on their own or in groups. To some extent, this list follows the order of the Books in the Vulgate manuscript; sometimes a catalogue listing groups into one entry a set of several leaves from the manuscript.

In time, in combination with other resources such as the list of illuminated leaves by Peter Kidd (see above), this list might aid a full virtual reconstruction of the manuscript, not only of its illustrated leaves, but also leaves of text like the Weber/RGME leaves from within the text of the Book of Numbers.

Old Testament

Leaves of Text from the Book of Numbers (Folios 38 and 43)

See above, with images of both recto and verso for two leaves, bearing the pencil numbers 38 and 43 on their rectos.

Currently on Sale: A Leaf from Ezekiel 41–44 (Folio 269)

https://www.abebooks.com/paper-collectibles/Leaf-Chudleigh-Bible-Latin-manuscript-parchment/31517694881/bd#&gid=1&pid=1 (Seller Inventory # ABE-1685363877355)
— for sale for $1,022.24 from the United Kingdom

Highlights of the seller’s description, wrongly identifying the text as I Samuel:

Single leaf with three columns of 53 lines of a delicate French university bookhand, small initials in red or blue with undulating lines in same forming line-fillers, larger initials in same with contrasting penwork, running titles a or b in red with blue penwork twirls at their sides, slight cockling and discolouration at edges from use, small holes in corner of one leaf, else excellent condition, 285mm x 190 mm. (written space: 187 by 125 mm.) Text is 1 Samuel 2-3.

Openings of Prologue and Book of Joshua

These two openings stand on the recto.

Hartung & Hartung, Munich, Auktion 148, 3 November 2020, lot 8 (page 9 and color illustration of recto.)
(See http://www.mdcom.de/Hartung/PDF/HH_A148_locked.pdf)
Pirages, Catalogue 78: New Acquisitions (2021), no. 11 (pages 12–13, with color illustration of recto).
(See An Illuminated Vellum Manuscript Leaf from the Chudleigh Bible)

Opening of the Book of Esdras

Sold at Sotheby’s, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts, 8 July 2014, lot 13

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/medieval-renaissance-manuscripts-l14240/lot.13.html

. . . with a 12-line historiated initial ‘E’ in light pink and blue with white penwork decoration on contrasting grounds, enclosing Josias celebrating the Passover with the inhabitants of Jerusalem against a burnished gold ground (for the opening of the Book of Esdras), . . . capitals stroked in red, rubrics in red, running headers and chapter numbers alternately in red and blue, 2-line initials in red or blue with contrasting pen-flourishing, with wide margins, small stains, else in excellent condition. . . .

This is an appealing leaf from the profusely decorated Chudleigh Bible, sold by Baron Clifford of Chudleigh in our rooms, 7 December 1953, lot 51, reappearing again, 8 July 1970, lot 104. . . .

The Bible fits into a group of illuminated manuscripts associated with the abbey of St.-Vaast in Arras and was perhaps made there, although cross-references with the Alexander atelier in Paris are also apparent [citing Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris, p.30, n.17; see also L.M.C. Randall, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, I, 1989, p. 43].

The monumental size and the abundant use of burnished gold attest the high prestige of a grand commission.

Opening of Prologue for the Book of Malachi

Sold at Sotheby’s, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts, 8 July 2014, lot 14 (see previous item from Esdras)

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/medieval-renaissance-manuscripts-l14240/lot.14.html?locale=en

Three Leaves with Historiated Initials:
Openings of Prologues for the
Books of Tobit, Zephaniah, and I Samuel

Sold at Christie’s sale of Script and Illumination: Leaves from Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, 3 December 2019 (Online Sale 12584), lot 9.

https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/script-illumination-leaves-medieval-renaissance-manuscripts/three-leaves-3-historiated-initials-chudleigh-bible-north-eastern-8/22915

Highlights of the seller’s description:

Three leaves from what would doubtless have been a monumental and prestigious 13th-century illuminated Bible. The style of illumination is derived from that of the early Parisian Moralised Bible ateliers, and particularly the Alexander atelier, which takes its name from the inscription at the top of a Bible, now Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. lat. 11930–11931. That said, this particular production fits into a group of illuminated manuscripts associated with the abbey of St-Vaast in Arras and was perhaps made there: a testament to early regional collaboration in manuscript illumination.

The illuminated initials are:

(i) ‘C’ opening the prologue to the book of Tobit; historiated initial ‘T’ with Tobias plucking the white spots out of Tobit’s eyes, relieving him of his blindness (surely one of the earliest depictions of cataract surgery?), opening the book of Tobit;

(ii) ‘T’ opening the prologue to the book of Zephaniah; historiated initial ‘U’ with Zephaniah, opening his book;

(iii) ‘U’ opening the prologue to the first book of Kings (I Samuel); historiated initial ‘F’ with Hannah, kneeling in prayer before the priest Eli, her husband Elkanah standing behind her, opening 1 Samuel (or 1 Kings).

Opening of II Samuel

Hartung & Hartung, Munich, Auktion 146, 5 November 2019, lot 22 (pages 16–17, with color illustration of verso)
(See http://www.mdcom.de/Hartung/PDF/HH_A146_locked.pdf.)
Beginning of II Samuel; presumably End of I Samuel on recto

Prologue and Opening of Sapientia/Wisdom

Initials on recto.

Hartung & Hartung, Munich, Wertvollebücher, Manuskripte, Autographen, Grafik. Auction 150, 2 November 2021, lot 19 (page 15, with color illustration of recto).
(See http://www.mdcom.de/Hartung/PDF/HH_A150_locked.pdf)

Opening of Ecclesiastes

Beginning of Ecclesiastes on verso; presumably End of Sapientia/Wisdom on recto.

The Ecclesiastes leaf was Hartung & Hartung, Munich, Auktion 152, 8 November 2022, lot 5 (page 9, with color illustration of verso)
(See http://www.mdcom.de/Hartung/PDF/HH_A152_locked.pdf)

New Testament

Opening of Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians

Sold at Sotheby’s, Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern, 19 July 2022, lot 3

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/books-manuscripts-from-medieval-to-modern/st-paul-giving-his-letter-to-the-ephesians

Opening of the Epistle to the Philippians

Initial on recto or verso?

The Philippians leaf was in the collection of John Feldman [1957–2021] in 1989, “depicting Paul preaching in the Synagogue at Damascus” ‘ See Kidd, Medieval Manuscripts Provenance (above).

Epistle to the Hebrews 8–18

Sold at Sotheby’s, Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern, 19 July 2022, lot 4

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/books-manuscripts-from-medieval-to-modern/part-of-hebrews-8-11-on-a-leaf-from-the-chudleigh

Companion Textual Apparatus

Interpretation of Hebrew Names
(Leaf with Glossary for Da–Du Entries)

Sold at Addison & Sarova, Auctioneers (Macon, Georgia), 2017-11-18, lot 1

https://addisonsauction.hibid.com/lot/35711434/chudleigh-bible-leaf–manuscript-on-vellum?ref=catalog

*****

Watch for another blogpost with more information about this research.

Do you know of other leaves from this manuscript? Do you know of other work by its scribal hands?

We look forward to hearing from you.

*****

Questions? Suggestions?

Leave your comments or questions below
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Tags: Chudleigh Bible, Collection of Richard Weber, Latin Vulgate Bibles, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, RGME Research Library & Archives
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Workshop 6. “What’s In a Name?”

April 16, 2025 in Announcements, Manuscript Studies, Research Group Workshops

RGME Workshops
on
“The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”

Workshop 6
“What’s In a Name?
Guides to Nomenclature
for Manuscript Studies”
Sunday 27 April 2025

Jan Van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, 1434–36, Bruges, Groeningemuseum (detail), image from the Closer to Van Eyck project (https://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/)

[Posted on 16 April 2025]

Continuing our series of RGME Workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”, we move from the first series, Workshops 1–5 devoted principally to identifying selected Medieval Latin Vulgate Bible Manuscript Fragments.

The Name ‘Game’

By request, for Workshop 6 we will consider ‘best practices’ with regard to the use of Nomenclature for Manuscript Studies.

We explore the range of terms in use (in English and other languages) for different parts of books, from the outside in. In this way, we consider the merits — or otherwise — of terms in use for different parts of manuscripts, books, bindings, and other features of the material evidence of written sources. How helpful and comprehensible are the systems of terminology?

Examples of reference works online and in print will be examined, with observations on their usefulness for various purposes, types of books, problems, and approaches.

Do you have specific questions? We can help.

Add-On

Since Workshop 5, a new discovery of a medieval Latin Bible leaf has come to light, so that we might briefly introduce it to our ongoing project on those materials.

The owner contacted us because of our blog on Manuscript Studies, which featured some leaves from the same Bible manuscript despoiled and distributed by Otto F. Ege, biblioclast. His work, its widespread legacy, and multiple projects dedicated to identifying and reconstructing (at least virtually) the fragments of manuscripts inspired us to prepare our 2025 Autumn Colloquium on “Break-Up Books and Make-Up Books”.

2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium at the University of Waterloo

Can you guess which manuscript this fragment came from?

We show one side, as it stands in the glass frame which at present contains it. Visible within the window of the mat is the leaf with part of the running title (MA-) and the text laid out in two columns of thirty-two lines. In the intercolumn, a segmented frieze-like vertical series of J– or reverse L-shaped bar motifs in alternating red and blue pigment extends above and below the 2-line inset initial A (for Anno) for Chapter VII.

Private Collection. Leaf from a Medieval Latin Vulgate Bible, Manuscript, ‘Verso’.

Registration

Workshop 6. “What’s In a Name?” Tickets

After registration, we will send the Zoom Link shortly before the event. The Link will come from the RGME, not Eventbrite or Zoom.

With registration, we invite you to make a Voluntary Donation in support of our nonprofit educational organization powered principally by volunteers. Your donation for our Section 509(c)(3) nonprofit organization might be tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.

We thank you for your support for our organization and interest in our activities.

We hope to see you there.

*****

Jan Van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, 1434–36, Bruges, Groeningemuseum (detail), image from the Closer to Van Eyck project (https://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/)

Tags: Manuscript studies, Nomenclature for Manuscript Studies, RGME Workshops on the Evidence of MSS Etc.
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2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program

April 16, 2025 in Conference, Conference Announcement, ICMS, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Manuscript Studies, POMONA, Postal History at Kalamazoo, Societas Magica

2025 International Congress
on Medieval Studies:
Program of RGME Activities

60th ICMS
Thursday through Saturday, 8–10 May 2025
(with Sessions variously
in Person, Online, or Hybrid)

[Posted on 16 January 2025, with updates]

With the shaping of the Program as a whole for the 2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies (ICMS), we announce the Program for the Activities sponsored and co-sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence. They comprise sponsored and co-sponsored Sessions of Papers; and our Annual Open Business Meeting at the Congress.

For information about the 2025 Congress overall, see its website.

Los Angeles, Getty Center, Ms. Ludwig XV 7 (83.MR.177), fol. 1. Scipio and Guillaume de Loris Lying in Their Beds Dreaming. Image Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Building upon our successful activities at the 2024 ICMS (see our 2024 International Congress on Medieval Studies Report), we prepared for the 2025 ICMS. First we proposed a set of sessions, sponsored and co-sponsored. Then, when they had been accepted by the Congress Committee, we issued the Call for Papers (CFP) for our proposed Sessions. The strength and number of the responses by the due date (15 September 2024) led us to seek, in some cases, two sessions in place of the one which we had proposed.

Now that the Congress Program itself has been scheduled, we can present the Program of our activities, both sponsored and co-sponsored.

We give thanks to our organizers, co-organizers, presenters, respondents, advisors, and the Congress.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Almandal, Apocalypse Commentaries, Authorship, Beatus Manuscripts, Beatus of Saint-Sever, Divination, Dream Books, Grimoires, History of Magic, International Congress on Medieval Studies, Lapidario, Ludic Marginalia, Magic, Mail Delivery Networks, Manuscript studies, Old English Psychomacnia, Papal Prophecies, Petites Heures de Jean de Berry, Picatrix, Postal History, Postal History at Kalamazoo, Psychomachia, René d'Anjou, Sanas Cormaic, Societas Magica, Solomonic Magic, Women in Manuscripts
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A Latin Kalendar Leaf for February from Northern France

April 7, 2025 in DRAGEN Lab, Manuscript Studies, University of Waterloo

Medieval Manuscript Fragments
at the DRAGEN Lab

Part 1:

Leaf of Latin Chants

Part 1:
Latin Kalendar Leaf for February
from Northern France

Mildred Budny

[Posted on 5 April 2025]

Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Saint Jerome’s University, Latin Kalendar Leaf for February, Recto, Top.

To accompany preparations for the 2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium at the University of Waterloo in November, we explore some manuscript and printed treasures at the University’s Medieval DRAGEN Lab (Digital Research Arts for Graphic and Environmental Networks). We thank the staff of the DRAGEN Lab and its director, Steven Bednarski, for permission to examine these materials and share the findings with you.

For information about the Colloquium and registration for it, please visit

2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium at the University of Waterloo

In a series, first we examine leaves from two different medieval manuscripts in Latin.

Standing on its own, without identifying inscriptions or other marks to indicate its origin, date and place of production, early and subsequent ownership, or other features of its transmission, the leaf must or can speak for itself. They are:

I. A single leaf, perhaps from a Book of Hours, carries the portion for the month of February of the liturgical Kalendar (or Calendar) which would have contained all twelve months, with the lists of days designated for veneration of particular saints or occasions within the cycle of the liturgical year.

II. A single leaf from a liturgical manuscript carries a set of chants in a trimmed single column of six lines of text per page. These lines appear below lines of square musical notation on four-line staves drawn in red.

We examine each in its own right, with some observations about their texts and other features.

This post considers the Kalendar leaf. For the musical leaf, see the next post.

I. Kalendar Leaf for February

Recto

Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Saint Jerome’s University, Latin Kalendar Leaf for February, Recto.

Verso

Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Saint Jerome’s University, Latin Kalendar Leaf for February, Verso.

*****

The Feast Days

The list of feasts to commemorate cite these saints and occasions, in calendar order:

1) Serenicus (French: Céneri or Sérène) c. 620 – c. 669.

The manuscript list cites the Italian Céneri (born in Spoleto northern Italy, circa 620; died in 670), said to be a bishop in this calendar. A church dedicated to him survives at Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei, with this tradition:

The church was founded by Saint Céneri, who was born in Spoleto north of Rome around 620 and was a cardinal-deacon in the service of the Pope before moving to north-west France. He led a hermit’s life and settled on the banks of the [River] Sarthe, where he founded a community and built a wooden church dedicated to Saint Martin. He died in 670 and his abbey was destroyed during the Norman invasions in 903.

— Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei,

According to Wikipedia, some facts or surmises about this saint might be known.

Serenicus (French: Céneri or Sérène; c. 620 – c. 669) was an Italian Benedictine monk. He was an early evangelist in Normandy, and founded a monastery and a chapel in a village in Orne that later took the name of Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei.

Born into a noble family in Umbria around 620, Serenicus travelled to the province of Maine in 649 during the reign of the Merovingian king Clovis II with his brother, Serenidus, to live a life of contemplation and penance.^[2] At first, he lived with Serenidus as a hermit and an ascetic near Saulges in the diocese of Le Mans.^[3]

At some point, Serenicus departed Saulges and began to live near a village in Orne near the Sarthe river. He started accepting disciples and found a church dedicated to Martin of Tours and an accompanying monastery. He ended up accepting a few disciples and built a church dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours and a monastic establishment.^[3] The church was completed by Bishop, and saint, Milehard de Sées.^[1]

It is said that after a long journey Serenicus settled in Orne, where he experienced a miracle in answer to his prayer for water to quench his thirst. According to legend a spring, located near the banks of the Sarthe, sprang up in answer to his prayer. It is believed that the water from the spring has the ability to cure eye problems.^[4]

This saint’s feast day is traditionally 7 May. Perhaps its position here at the beginning of February in the Kalendar represents an earlier or local tradition, if not a mistake of some kind.

Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei, Orme, France. Church of Saint Céneri le Gérei, seen from the back. Photograph by Ratachwa, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia.

2) the Purification of the Blessed Mary, that is, Mary, Mother of Jesus (born circa 18 BC– died after 33 AD), otherwise the Feast of Candlemas — 2 February

3) Bishop Blaise of Sebaste, physician and bishop of Sebastea in historical Lesser Armenia or modern Sivas, Turkey (martyred 316 AD) — 3 February

https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/a-part-leaf-from-the-life-of-saint-blaise/

4) Agatha of Sicily (circa 231 – circa 251) — 5 February

5) the Merovingian Ansbert of Rouen, for a time Archbishop of Rouen (683 or 684 to circa 680) before being deposed (died circa 695) — 9 February

Rouen Cathedral, Portrait of Bishop Ansbert in stained glass. Photograph (2012) by Giogo, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

6) the Merovingian Austreberta of Pavilly (circa 635 – 704) — 10 February

About this saint, see, for example:

Benedictine abbess; b. Thérouanne, Artois, France c. 635; d. Abbey of Pavilly, Normandy, France, Feb. 10, 704. Her father, Badefridus, was apparently a member of the Merovingian royal family; her mother, Framehilda (d. c. 680), of German royal blood, was later honored as a saint and had a feast celebrated on May 17 at the Abbey of Sainte-Austreberta at Montreuil-sur-Mer. While Austreberta (Eustreberta) was still a young girl, her parents contracted her marriage, but she secretly took the veil in 655–656 under the spiritual direction of Omer, Bishop of Thérouanne. Shortly thereafter, with parental permission, she entered the abbey of Port-le-Grand in Ponthieu. She was prioress there for 14 years until Philibert, founder of Jumièges, persuaded her to become abbess of his foundation at Pavilly. Her relics were transferred to Montreuil-sur-Mer in the ninth century and were venerated also at the cathedral of Saint-Omer, but they were burned in 1793.

via Encyclopedia.com: Austreberta, St.

Austrebertha (Austreberta, Eustreberta, Austreberta of Pavilly; French: Austreberthe) (630–February 10, 704) was a French nun of the Middle Ages, who took the veil very young, and became a nun at the Port Monastery in the Ponthieu. She became abbess to the foundation of Pavilly, where she died at the beginning of the eighth century, at 74. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Her feast day is February 10.

The daughter of Saint Framechildis and the Count Palatine Badefrid, she was born about 630 in Thérouanne, Pas-de-Calais. She refused to be part of an arranged marriage and in around 656 entered the Port-le-Grand Monastery in Ponthieu. She received the veil from Saint Omer [died circa 670] before founding another monastery in Marconne in Artois in the house of her parents. She later established a monastery at Pavilly.

via Wikipedia

7) Saint Valentine (circa 226 – circa 269) — 14 February

8) Juliana of Nicomedia (circa 285 – circa 304) — 16 February

9) the Cathedra (Chair) of Saint Peter (died AD 64–68), Apostle and first Pope or Bishop of Rome — 22 February

Vatican City, Basilica of Saint Peter, The Chair of St. Peter in 2024, exposed for the first time since 1867. Photograph by INFOWeather1 (2024) via Wikimedia Commons.

10) Policarp, Bishop of Smyrna (69—155) — 23 February

2) Matthew, Apostle (active 1st century AD) — 00? February [Although his feast day is customarily 21 September]

*****

Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Saint Jerome’s University, Latin Kalendar Leaf for February, Recto, Top.

*****

Do you recognize these leaves? Do you know of other leaves from the same manuscripts?

We would be glad to hear.

Please leave your notes in the Comments here or Contact Us.

Look for Part 2 in this series.

A Leaf with Latin Liturgical Chants at the DRAGEN Lab

*****

Tags: DRAGEN Lab, Latin liturgical chants, Manuscript studies, Medieval Latin Kalendars, University of Waterloo
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A Leaf with Latin Liturgical Chants at the DRAGEN Lab

April 7, 2025 in CANTUS Database, DRAGEN Lab, Manuscript Studies, Reports, University of Waterloo

Manuscript Fragments
at the DRAGEN Lab

Part 2:
Leaf of Latin Liturgical Chants

[Posted on 7 April 2025]

Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Vellum Leaf with music and notation for liturgical chants: Verso: Bottom.

For information about the Colloquium and registration for it, please visit

2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium at the University of Waterloo

In a series, first we examine leaves from two different medieval manuscripts in Latin. Part 1 in this series exhibited a leaf for the month of February in an unknown Book of Hours. See

A Latin Kalendar Leaf for February from Northern France at the DRAGEN Lab.

Now in Part 2 we consider a leaf with musical chants from a liturgical book so far unknown.

II. Leaf with Liturgical Chants

On the recto, the chants open with Scitis quia post buduum Pascha fiet, from the text of Matthew 26:2. The enlarged initial for this text is written in black ink like the text; other enlarged initials for other chants are in red.

The verso finishes mid-word at the beginning of a chant, Si[. . . ]tio Con-.

The first chant corresponds with an item in the Cantus Database, for which only one other source is cited, also preserved in Ontario albeit in a different university’s collection.

Number 1002741

= St. Catharines (ON), Brock University Library – Archives and Special Collections, RG 394 (fragment).

St. Catharines (ON), Brock University Library – Archives and Special Collections (CDN-STCbul)

“A single parchment leaf from a liturgical manuscript. Square notation in black ink on five-line red staves with F clefs. 5 staves per folio side with humanistic, rounded script in the intervening spaces. 264 mm tall x 185 mm.”

Recto

Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Saint Jerome’s University, Latin Manuscript Fragment with Chants, Recto.

The Text:

Quid molesti estis huic mulieri? Opus enim bonum operata est in me.

Nam semper pauperes habebitis vobiscum me autem non semper

/ [om. habetis in page-turn?] (Matthew 26:10–11)

[VARIANT? of Cantus

quid molesti estis huic mulieri bonum opus operata est in me ]

Bonum opus operata est in me

nam semper pauperes habebitis vobiscum me autem non semper habebitis

Compare:

https://cantusdatabase.org/chant/671141, with one manuscript source.

Verso

Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Saint Jerome’s University, Latin Manuscript Fragment with Chants, Verso.

/ qui est ex ueritate audit uocem meam (John 18:38)

Non haberes potestatem adversum me ullam nisi tibi datum esset desuper propterea qui me tradidit tibi maius peccatum habet (John 19:11).

Mulier; ecce filius tuus. Ecce mater tua. (John 19:26 and 27)

Si tio Con-

*****

Do you recognize this leaf? Do you know of other leaves from the same manuscript or by the same scribe and workshop?

Please leave your Comments here or Contact Us.

We look forward to hearing from you.

*****

Tags: CANTUS Database, DRAGEN Lab, Latin chants, liturgical manuscripts, Manuscript studies, Medieval manuscripts, Musical Manuscripts, University of Waterloo
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2025 Spring Symposium: “Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books”

March 12, 2025 in Conference, Conference Announcement, Event Registration, Manuscript Studies, RGME Symposia

2025 RGME Spring Symposium

“Makers, Producers,
and Collectors of Books:
From Author/Artist/Artisan
to Library”

Friday to Sunday, 28–30 March 2025

(Online by Zoom)

Part 1 of 2 in the Pair of
2025 Spring & Autumn Symposia
dedicated to “Agents and Agencies”

London, Welcome Collection, 45097i, image via Public Domain Mark https://wellcomecollection.org/works/g7kj7b2f/images?id=kkakxfdz

[Posted on 10 March 2025, with updates]

Following the extraordinary success of our 2024 Spring and Autumn Symposia, the central events during our 2024 Anniversary Year having the Theme of “Bridges”, we turn to our 2025 pair of symposia under this year’s Theme of “Thresholds and Communities”.

About the theme, see:

2025 Spring and Autumn Symposia:
“Agents and Agencies”
Parts 1 and 2

For the plan for the pair, see:

2025 Spring and Autumn Symposia “Agents and Agencies”

The 2025 Symposia explore the subject of Agents and Agencies regarding books.

As Part 1 of 2, the Spring Symposium (28–30 March 2025) addresses:

“Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books:
From Author/Artist/Artisan to Library”

Friday to Sunday, 28–30 March 2025

As Part 2 of 2, the Autumn Symposium (17–19 October 2025) considers:

“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books:
From Page to Marketplace and Beyond”

Friday to Sunday 17–19 October 2025

Making

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms-638 réserve, fol.17v. Image Public Domain via https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55008559f/f38.item.

For the two Symposia, we examine aspects of “Agents and Agencies” for books, mainly by human forces. These aspects can range from the processes whereby the initial inspiration comes to take shape on the pages of manuscripts or printed books, combining words as well as images (including the image of the words themselves). Once created, the books enter the world by various agents/agencies, then perhaps to experience or encounter additional ones which might transform them or re-create them decisively.

We propose to explore these factors, in multiple cases and approaches giving recognition to their variety, impact, and significance in the history of books as they pass through time to the present and beyond. Without being limited to a particular period, genre, or type of agent/agency, we might examine a wide range of phenomena, their challenges, and their delights.

RGME tradition produces illustrated Program Booklets for the Symposia, with participants’ abstracts and selected accompanying illustrations, to grant insider-glimpses for our audience (at the event and after) not necessarily familiar with the wide range of subjects and materials under discussion. A recent example can be downloaded from the RGME website:

2024 Autumn Symposium Booklet “At the Helm”

2025 Spring Symposium Poster 1

Posters

We offer posters for this event.

They are laid out in RGME Bembino, our own multi-lingual digital font. (See RGME Bembino.)

We circulate the printed version in both quarto (8 1/2″ × 11″) and larger size (11″×17″).

The poster can be downloaded in digital form. You are welcome to circulate them.

Spring Symposium Poster 1: Save-the-Date
Spring Symposium Poster 2: Announcement

2025 Spring Symposium Poster 2

Program

There are 7 Sessions. They will provide presentations, conversations, roundtable discussions, and the opportunity for interactive Q&A.

Program Overview

Edgar Allan Poe (1848) Daguerrotype taken by W.S. Hartshorn, Providence, Rhode Island, November, 1848. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Day 1. Friday 28 March 2025

Session 1
1:30 – 3:00 pm EDT (GMT-4)
“Books Come to Life, Part I: Authorship”

Break
3:00 to 3:30 pm EDT

Session 2.
3:30-5:00 pm EDT
“Books Come to Life, Part II: Artistry from the Creator’s Perspective”

Day 2. Saturday 29 March

Session 3
9:00-10:30 am EDT
“Life, Death, Afterlife, and Rebirth of Books”

Break
10:30 – 11:00 am

Session 4
11:00 am – 12:30 pm
“Picture This: Books into Being”

Lunch Break
12:30-1:30 pm

Session 5
1:30-3:00
“Books and Written Records as Repositories of Knowledge and Wonder”

Neuchâtel, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Neuchâtel, Les automates Jaquet-Droz Automata: The Writer. Photograph by Rama (2005), via the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license.

Break
3:00-3:30 pm

Session 6
3:30-5:00 pm
Roundtable Discussion
“Agents and Agents: Processes, Products, and Inspiration”

Day 3. Sunday 30 March

Session 7
10:30 am – 12:00 noon
“Writing Materials as Agents and Agencies”

Concluding Remarks
“From Spring Forward to Autumn Back Again:
A Preview of Part 2 on “Agents and Agencies”

Detailed Program

For details, with speakers and titles, see the 8-page illustrated Program Booklet.

It is available in 2 versions, according with your preferences for printing and viewing.

1) As consecutive pages (8 1/2 by 11 in. sheets)

2025 Spring Symposium: Program (Pages)

2) As a foldable booklet (11″ by 17″ sheets)

2025 Spring Symposium: Program (Foldable Booklet)

Soon we will issue the 2025 Spring Symposium Booklet with Abstracts.

For registration for the symposium, see below.

Participants

Speakers, Panelists, and Presiders include (in alphabetical order):

Phillip Bernhardt–House (Independent Scholar)
Mildred Budny (Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)
Hannah Goeselt (RGME and Massachusetts Historical Society)
Justin Hastings (Independent Scholar)
Antony Henk (University of Bochum)
Michael Ian Hensley (University of Hamburg)
Eve Kahn (Independent Scholar)
Michael Allman Conrad (University of Saint-Gallen)
Richard Kopley (Penn State University DuBois Emeritus)
Laura Morreale (Independent Scholar)
Beppy Landrum Owen (Rollins College)
Jaclyn Reed (Independent Scholar)
Anna Siebach–Larsen (University of Rochester)
David W. Sorenson (Allen G. Berman, Numismatist)
Maro Vandorou (Visual Artist)
N. Kıvılcım Yavuz (University of Leeds)

Subjects range from antiquity to the present day, as represented by manuscripts, printed books, and other media.

Examples include (in proposed program order):

Richard Kopley‘s introduction to his ground-breaking new book, published in March:
Edgar Allan Poe: A Life (University of Virginia Press, 2025)
Maro Vandorou, book-artist and visual artist, in conversation with Beppy Landrum Owen
about her projects, from the gleam in the eye to the words gleaming on the page (see her website: Atelier Vandorou)
Justin Hastings‘ cumulative reflections on the contested authorship of
“The Whitby Life of Gregory the Great“
Beppy Landrum Owen‘s haunting exploration of
“Life After Life: Tales from the Making of the Icones Anatomicae”
Eve Kahn‘s continuing discoveries about the life and work of “The Irish American Imagemaker:
Anna Frances Levins (1876-1941)”
Mildred Budny, “Last or Best Resort: When Authors Turn Publishers/Producers”
Michael Ian Hensley, “Sold and Traded, Dismembered and Hidden:
The Many Fates of Medieval Ethiopian and Eritrean Libraries”
Laura Morreale on her Pop-Up Exhibition on the Riant Collection at the Houghton Library:
The Crusades Come to Cambridge
Michael Allman Conrad, “Mechanized Inspiration from Raymond Lull to ChatGPT”
Hannah Goeselt, “Discoverability and the Pre-Modern Manuscripts of the Massachusetts Historical Society“
David W. Sorenson, “When Watermarks Tell Tall Tales:
Watermarks in Exotic Destinations and Why They Can Be Unreliable”

Registration

To register for the Symposium, please visit the RGME Eventbrite Collection.

2025 RGME Spring Symposium: Tickets

Advance registration for the Autumn Symposium (17–19 October 2025):

2025 Autumn Symposium: Tickets

Optional Donation

Registration with Optional Donation: Voluntary donations for the RGME are welcome. Your donations , which may be tax-deductible, support our mission, work, and activities, for our Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational corporation endowed with few few resources, but powered mainly by volunteers and by your volunteer donations or contributions in kind.
See RGME Contributions and Donations
2025 Annual Appeal

Images as Inspiration:
Agents and Agencies

As food for thought, we offer some images as reference points for the range of agents and agencies at work in the realms of books.

In the Study, Surrounded by Books

I. Evangelist as Scribe

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms-638 réserve, fol.17v. Evangelist Matthew as scribe. Book of Hours in Latin, 15th century. Image Public Domain via https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55008559f/f38.item.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms-638 réserve, fol.17v. Book of Hours in Latin, 15th century. Saint Matthew writing at his desk accompanied by his symbol the angel, in an illustration above the text of Matthew 2:1-3 (stellam eius) enclosed within a border containing branches, foliage, flowers, and birds. Image via https://iiif.biblissima.fr/collections/manifest/0418e3c989d996266c02656f7390b8283b440ead

II. Scholar/Practitioner/Alchemist as Scribe

In visual representations, the author or scribe seated at the task of writing may occupy a larger study than the previous illustration and have secular rather than divine assistants, as well as more and larger books. Such is the case in some early-modern views of an alchemist at work.

View 1

London, Welcome Collection, Painting by a follower of Thomas Wijck/Wyck (circa 1616 – 1677). Interior with an alchemist-type scholar seated at a large table and desk. Oil on canvas within frame. Wellcome Collection 45097i, image via Public Domain Mark https://wellcomecollection.org/works/g7kj7b2f/images?id=kkakxfdz

Note on the Image

London, Wellcome Collection. Oil on canvas within frame. Painting by a follower of Thomas Wijck/Wyck (circa 1616 – 1677). Interior with window and curtains at the left, drapery hanging at the top, and an alchemist-type scholar seated at work writing at a desk beside a central table piled with unrolled papers and large books opened and closed. Behind them is a globe; at the right another person sits at a table among chemical apparatus. In the foreground appear large books, a jar, and other apparatus. Given their size, central position, and the light shining upon them, the written materials on the table seem to be the principal subjects of attention.

Wellcome Collection 45097i, image via Public Domain Mark: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/g7kj7b2f/images?id=kkakxfdz . See also: Interior with an alchemist seated at a table, writing.

View 2

London, Wellcome Collection 36093i. An alchemist peacefully writing in a room strewn with papers. Engraving by V.A.L. Texier after F. Giani after T. Wyck. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection; Public Domain Mark.

Note on the Image

London, Wellcome Collection, Victor André Louis Texier (1777–1864) after Felice Giani (1760–1823) after Thomas Wijck/Wyck (ca. 1616–1677). “An alchemist peacefully writing in a room strewn with papers (L’alchymiste en méditation) (n.d.).” .

Intaglio on paper. Wellcome Collection 36093i, image via Public Domain Mark
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/y873ctep/images?id=wsxqstpc

**********

The Series of RGME Symposia

RGME Symposia: The Various Series.

1. “Structures of Knowledge”
2. “Supports for Knowledge” (Autumn)

2023 Spring and Autumn Symposia on “Materials and Access”

1. 2023 Spring Symposium “From the Ground Up”
2. 2023 Autumn Symposium “Between Earth and Sky”

2024 Anniversary Symposium in Thanks to Jesse Hurlbut
2024 Spring and Autumn Symposia on “Between Past and Future”

2024 Spring Symposium at Vassar College:
“Between Past and Future:
Building Bridges between Special Collections and Teaching for the Liberal Arts”
2024 Autumn Symposium
“At the Helm: Spotlight on Special Collections as Teaching Events”

In 2024, the RGME Symposia returned to the in-person format with our 2024 Spring Symposium, having online participation as well, in hybrid form.

Now we welcome you to the 2025 Spring and Autumn Symposia on “Agents and Agencies”

More Information

Watch this space for more information as it unfolds. This site serves as the ‘Home Page’ for the Symposium. Here you can find updates.

*****

2025 RGME Events, with the Theme of “Thresholds and Communities”

Other Events are planned for the Year. See:

2025 and 2026 Activities

2025 Annual Appeal

“The Research Group Speaks”: The Series

Suggestion Box

Please Contact Us or visit

our FaceBook Page
our Facebook Group
our Twitter Feed (@rgme_mss)
our Bluesky nest @rgmesocial.bluesky.social)
our Instagram Profile rgme94
our Blog on Manuscript Studies and its Contents List

Donations and contributions, in funds or in kind, are welcome and easy to give.

See Contributions and Donations.

We look forward to hearing from you.

*****

Neuchâtel, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Neuchâtel. Jaquet-Droz Automata: Draughtsman, Musician, and Writer. Photograph: Rama (2005) via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France.

*****

Tags: Agents and Agencies for Books, Anna Frances Levins, Atelier Vandorou, Book History, Booklists, ChatGPT, Edgar Allan Poe, Ethiopian Manuscripts, History of Paper, Icones Anatomar, Manuscript studies, Massachusetts Historical Society, Raymond Lull, RGME Spring Symposium, RGME Symposia, Riant Collection, Whitby Life of Gregory the Great
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Delibovi on Glassgold on Boethius: A Blogpost

March 5, 2025 in Guest Blogposts, Manuscript Studies, Translations

The Manuscript
as
Creative Undercurrent:

Reflections on the Reissue of
Glassgold’s “Englishings” of Poems by Boethius

Dana Delibovi

[Posted on 18 March 2025]

Editor’s Note
We welcome Dana Delibovi as Guest Blogger. We thank her for sharing her explorations on a subject dear to our hearts.

Imprisoned and awaiting execution, Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 480 – 524) wrote On the Consolation of Philosophy, a work of Latin prose often translated into prose and poetry. The original manuscript has not survived, but later manuscripts of the text have, including some important English translations.

These English manuscripts are a creative undercurrent to a volume reissued in the autumn of 2024, Boethius: Poems From On the Consolation of Philosophy, with the subtitle, “Translated Out of the Original Latin into Diverse Historical Englishings, Diligently Collaged” by Peter Glassgold.[1] Manuscripts — objects with a physical as well as a verbal aesthetic — indirectly lend pictorial, methodological, and ekphrastic inspiration to Glassgold’s work. Inspiration like this, I believe, may have implications for current appreciation of historical manuscripts.

Riffing on the English translators

In the introduction and afterword to his book, Glassgold mentions his debt to three important English translators of On the Consolation of Philosophy, whose “word-work” Glassgold explored to create “sound-collages” that chime with English in its many historical incarnations.[2] These translators, working in Old, Middle, and Early Modern English respectively, are:

King Alfred (848–899, ruled 871–899),
Geoffrey Chaucer (died 1400), and
Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603, ruled 1558–1603).

I recently interviewed Glassgold for the e-zine Cable Street, where he stated that, in any single line of the poetry, he “ranged through the whole known vocabulary of English, from Old to Modern. The making of [these] Boethius translations was not so much a process as an attitude ― improvisational, you might even say jazzy.”[3]

An example from a poem in Book I of Boethius’ work shows how Glassgold invents translations across the evolution of the spoken and written language, melding Old, Middle and Modern English.[4]

Now he lies of mindz light weakened
and nekke pressid by overheuy chaines,
his chere holding downcast for the weighte,
cumpeld, eala! to scan the dreary earth.

The avant-garde poet and literary scholar Charles Bernstein, writing in the book’s foreword, calls Glassgold’s approach “pataquerical” — spontaneous, playful, sometimes irascible, and imagined across multiple iterations of language. “The historical progression of English translations offers Glassgold stratified layers of linguistic sediment that he entangles in his palimpsestic composition.”[5.]

Part of the “linguistic sediment” of Boethius in English are manuscripts — including manuscripts of Alfred the Great, Chaucer, and Elizabeth I that survive today in some form (Figures 1–3; see below). One of these is a profoundly fire-damaged manuscript of the “Alfredian” Old English Boethius (Figure 1). This work was either translated by King Alfred the Great or anonymous translators assisting with the king’s efforts to revive learning.[6] Other manuscripts of note are a 1380 transcription by Adam Scrivener of the Middle English translation by Chaucer (Figure 2)[7] and the translation into early Modern English by Queen Elizabeth I (Figure 3).[8]

Undercurrents—
Pictorial, Methodological, and Ekphrastic

I believe that such English manuscripts of Boethius represent three creative undercurrents to Glassgold’s work. Two are fairly obvious. One is speculative.

1. Pictorial Inspiration

The first and probably most obvious is pictorial inspiration from manuscripts. The cover of Glassgold’s book, created by Andrew Bourne, uses typography bearing a family resemblance to the handwriting of manuscripts. Bourne creates the illusion of cut-up strips of handwriting to covey the collaging of manuscript text (Figure 4). This thoughtful cover design made Literary Hub’s list of The 167 Best Book Covers of 2024.

2. Methodological Inspiration

The second fairly obvious inspiration is methodological. As Glassgold describes his work process:

I was surrounded by books, De Consolatione and the various Consolations I’d gathered, set propped up on stands in chronological order from left to right, along with piles of dictionaries in, behind, and around them. I wrote slowly, by hand—as I always do my first drafts, though it felt especially appropriate in these circumstances.[9]

In creating his book, Glassgold worked with published, typeset versions of the translations of Alfred, Chaucer, Elizabeth, and other English translators. But writing his work by hand felt more appropriate than usual. This feeling might arise from the known existence of manuscripts — the emotional connection to handwritten physical objects.

The manuscript is not merely a vehicle for thought in the manner of mass-produced text, especially digital text. The manuscript has a material structure connected to the natural world through its parchments, papyri, chalks, and inks, as has been noted by Ittai Weinryb.[10] To write physically, in longhand, is to engage in a mimesis of the manuscript process, infinitely satisfying and emotionally resonant. In addition, Glassgold’s project of “collaging” other translations to make his own channels the painstaking work of manuscript creation, which involves copying, cutting, patching, and erasure.

3. Ekphrasis

The third creative undercurrent is ekphrasis — writing that describes or works of the plastic arts. This undercurrent is speculative — a concept I am exploring, rather than asserting. I believe that Glassgold’s finished work can be considered ekphrastic, manuscripts in their substance as works of bookbinding, illustration, calligraphy, and, in the case of Elizabeth’s text of Boethius’s poetry, a flamboyant personal hand. I believe this to be true even though Glassgold used typeset source materials and the publisher set the book using modern technologies.

My thesis stems from the shared idea of Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), and Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) that translation is the “afterlife” or “reincarnation” of prose or poetry.[11] Benjamin wrote that, in translations, “the life of the originals attains . . . its ever-renewed and most abundant flowering.” He thought the “afterlife” of literature was “a transformation and a renewal of something living” into a new, still living work.[12]

The literary ‘life’ of Boethius’s work includes an array of aesthetic, visual and tactile objects — manuscripts. The life of Glassgold’s work must encompass and take ekphrastic inspiration from those visual and tactile works.

Ekphrasis in such a case shines through the work in tonality and energy. For example, Elizabeth’s muscular handwritten lines from the start of Poem XII, Book III, slant powerfully upward at an increasing angle as she moves down the page; Glassgold’s translations of the same lines pick up steam as they go. Elizabeth and Glassgold both end this section with a akin to Anglo-Saxon prosody: “the hilly house went to” and “wente to the hous of helle.”[13] The physical work of art, the manuscript, reiterates the boldness of the text, and subliminally transmits the spark of the manuscript.

Looking Ahead

I am in the process of developing arguments against my thesis. No doubt, readers of this post will develop many more. But regardless of these particular arguments’ merits, I believe there is merit in approaching manuscripts — in all their robust materiality — as integral to the continued life of older texts. Surely, the power of a physical work we can see, hold, and even smell must push its way into later print and digital incarnations. Appreciating this may hold a key to rescuing literature from the current flimsiness of mass-market paperbacks and e-books.

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Illustrations

Figure 1

King Alfred’s Boethius

The burned 10^th-century manuscript of the old English translation of Boethius, On the Consolation of Philosophy, attributed to Alfred the Great (849–899). The fire that burned the manuscript occurred in 1731.

Photo from British Library Collection Care website: Cotton MS Otho A. VI., folio 32r, top:
Collection Care Fired Up for BBC Fourth Appearance (= https://blogs.bl.uk/collectioncare/2013/08/collection-care-fired-up-for-bbc-four-appearance.html); Accessed January 4, 2025.

Figure 2

Chaucer’s Boethius

A portion of folio 2v of the translation by Chaucer (c. 1340–1400) of On the Consolation of Philosophy into Middle English. The first segment shown is “The ferthe Metur” (fourth poem) of Book I.

In the first three lines, Chaucer writes:

“Who so it be þat is clere of vertue sad and wel ordinat of lyuyng. þat haþ put vnderfote þe prowed[e] wierdes and lokiþ vpryȝt vpon eyþer fortune.”

Glassgold renders this as:

Who serene in settled life
haþ put proud fate underfote
and rihtwis eyeing eyþer fortune.

The folios also contain marks, such as line breaks, by later hands.

Aberystwyth, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 393D, De consolatione Philosophiae, folio 2v, bottom; c. 1380. Image via Public Domain Mark from the online database for The National Library of Wales; Accessed February 17, 2025.

Text clarification by type from Project Gutenberg: Gutenberg.org; Accessed January 4, 2025.

Figure 3

Queen Elizabeth I’s Boethius

A section of On the Consolation of Philosophy, Poem XII, Book III, translated and in the handwriting of Elizabeth I (1533–1603). It is believed that Elizabeth translated and hand-wrote the poems from the work, but dictated the prose to her secretary.

London, Public Record Office, MS SP 12/289 folio 48r. Image from the British National Archives, October and November 1593 (SP 12/289 folio 48), via https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/elizabeth-monarchy/elizabeths-translation-of-the-consolation-of-philosophy/; Accessed January 4, 2025.

Figure 4

Peter Glassgold’s Boethius

Cover detail, showing motifs of handwriting and collage of text strips, for Peter Glassgold’s book. Designed by Andrew Bourne, 2024, World Poetry Books.

Notes

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[1] Boethius, Boethius: Poems From On the Consolation of Philosophy, trans. Peter Glassgold (New York: World Poetry Books, 2024), 136, 138.

[2] Boethius/Glassgold, 136, 138.

[3] Dana Delibovi, “The Deep Humanity of Boethius: An Interview with Peter Glassgold, creator of collaged “Englishings” of the poems from Boethius’ On the Consolation of Philosophy,” Cable Street 2, no. 7 (2024).

[4] Boethius/Glassgold, 9.

[5] Boethius/Glassgold, xi.

[6] As Mildred Budny has noted in a personal communication.

[7] “Adam Scrivener” as been identified by L.R. Mooney as the scribe Adam Pinkhurst, although other scholars have dissented. See:

Linne R Mooney, “Chaucer’s Scribe.” Speculum 81, no. 1 (2006): 97–138 (= https://www.jstor.org/stable/20463608); and

Jane Roberts, “On Giving Scribe B a Name and a Clutch of London Manuscripts From c. 1400.” Medium Ævum 80, no. 2 (2011): 247–70 (= https://www.jstor.org/stable/43632873).

[8] Benkert, Lysbeth. “Translation as Image-Making: Elizabeth I’s Translation of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy.” Early Modern Literary Studies 6.3 (January, 2001): 2.1–20, via http://purl.oclc.org/emls/06-3/benkboet.htm.

Queen Elizabeth’s Englishings of Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiae, A.D. 1593; Plutarch, De Curiositate, Horace, De Arte Poetica (part), A.D. 1598, edited from the unique MS, partly in the Queen’s Hand, in the Public Record Office, London, by Miss Caroline Pemberton. Early English Text Society, Original Series, 113 (London, 1899), via https://ia800504.us.archive.org/9/items/queenelizabethse00eliz/queenelizabethse00eliz.pdf.

Also The Consolation of Queen Elizabeth I: The Queen’s Translation of Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae. Public Record Office Manuscript SP 12/289, ed. Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., and Philip Edward Phillips. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Volume 366 (Tempe, Arizona, 2009).

[9] Boethius/Glassgold, 138.

[10] Ittai Weinryb, “Living Matter: Materiality, Maker, and Ornament in the Middle Ages,” Gesta 52, no. 2 (2013): 128 (= https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/672086).

[11] Walter Benjamin, “The Task of the Translator,” in Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2019), 11; Also “Walter Benjamin as Translator” (= https://www.konstfack.se/PageFiles/46686/Walter%20Benjamin%20-%20The%20task%20of%20the%20Translator.pdf).

Jacques Derrida, “What Is a Relevant Translation?” trans. Lawrence Venuti, Critical Inquiry 27, Winter (2001), 199–200 (= https://trad1y2ffyl.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/venuti31.pdf).

Subhas Dasgupta, “Tagore’s Concept of Translation: A Critical Study,” Indian Literature 56, no. 3 (2012), 139–140 (= https://www.jstor.org/stable/23345972).

[12] Benjamin/Arendt, 14–15.

[13] The National Archives, “Elizabeth’s Translation of The Consolation of Philosophy” (= https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/elizabeth-monarchy/elizabeths-translation-of-the-consolation-of-philosophy/); Boethius/Glassgold, 87.

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Tags: Adam Scrivener, Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, British Library Cotton MS Otho A.vi, Consolation of Philosophy, Early Modern English, Ekphrasis, Englishing, Geoffrey Chaucer, King Alfred, King Alfred's Boethius, London Public Record Offfice MS SP 12/289, Manuscript studies, Methodological Inspiration, Middle English, National Library of Wales Peniarth MS 393D, Old English, Peter Glassgold, Pictorial Inspiration, Queen Elizabeth I, Undercurrents
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2025 RGME Visit to Vassar College

March 2, 2025 in Uncategorized

2025 RGME Visit
to Vassar College

Medieval & Renaissance
Manuscripts & Cuttings
at
The Archives & Special Collections Library
and
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

Sunday 4 May 2025
4:00 – 6:00 pm
and
Monday 5 May 2025
11:00 am – 4:30 pm
In person and Online by Zoom

Approach to Main Library, Vassar College. Photograph by Mildred Budny.

[Posted on 1 March 2025, with updates]

Inspired by the 2024 RGME Spring Symposium at Vassar College, we return in May for a visit to its collections.

This time, we will see some of its Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts, fragments, and cuttings. These manuscript materials at Vassar are held in the

We will visit both, with lunch in between. An RGME Roundtable discussion will follow the afternoon visit.

In addition, at each location, undergraduate students or a new member of the faculty for the Art Department will speak about their work on some of the manuscript materials. They will present new discoveries, with the chance to see the original materials themselves.

Save-the-Date Poster for 2024 RGME Spring Symposium at Vassar College. Poster set in RGME Bembino.

Prequel:
Our 2024 Spring Symposium

Some of these materials were considered in presentations at the 2024 Spring Symposium; some were displayed at the special exhibition, where we could see them on view. See:

Books of the Middle Ages and and Renaissance (April 19–June 23, 2024)

At the first Reception of the Symposium, Vassar undergraduate students described their work on several of them to prepare for this exhibition.

Coinciding with the Symposium was the publication of the new catalogue of these materials.

Catalogue of Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts at Vassar College, Including the Nicholas B. Scheetz Collection and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, compiled by Peter Kidd (Vassar College, 2024)
ISBN 9798218363758

2025 RGME Visit to Vassar

Our 2025 RGME In-Person/Hybrid Visit will take place on Monday 5 May. There will be a preliminary session on Sunday 4 May.

We invite you to attend either:

in person (places are limited due to space) or
online.

The RGME will provide online and interactive access by Zoom, to allow a wider audience to join us for an interactive Zoom Meeting.

For Registration information, see below.

A Centerpoint for the RGME’s 2025 Activities

The plan for this visit connects with the RGME theme of collectors and collecting for our events this year, and also for our work on manuscript fragments.

For the various events, held online and in various locations as in-person/hybrid events, see:

RGME 2024 and 2025 Activities

2025 Spring and Autumn Symposia: “Agents and Agencies”

Spring (Part 1 of 2)
“Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books:
From Author/Artist/Artisan to Library” (28–30 March online)

Autumn (Part 2 of 2)
“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books:
From Page to Marketplace and Beyond” (17–19 October online or hybrid)

2025 Autumn Colloquium at the University of Waterloo. (21–23 November hybrid)
“Break-Up Books and Make-Up Books:
Encountering and Reconstructing the Legacy
of Otto F. Ege and Other Biblioclasts”

Plan/Program

Overview

Sunday 4 May

The afternoon before the full day’s visit, a preliminary session (hybrid) at 4:00–5:30 pm EDT offers the chance to gather at the Murphy Room of the Art Library for Martha Frish’s presentation on “The Symbols of Vassar Architecture”. This presentation gives an update from her Post-Symposium Presentation last year. (See 2024 Spring Symposium.)
For the location of the Murphy Room, see Maps and Call Numbers, Art Library

Monday 5 May

In the morning we will visit the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center (on its closed day), to see some of its manuscripts and manuscript cuttings.
Lunch will be held in its Sculpture Garden (or inside in case of inclement weather).
After lunch, we will visit the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library (Main Library), to see some of its manuscript materials held in the Archives & Special Collections Library.
Then we will move to the Seminar Room in Special Collections to hold a Roundtable discussion. We may continue conversation about the materials, compare notes, and reflect on the day.
For drinks and dinner, we would go to a local restaurant, for repasts at our own expense.

Speakers include:

John P. Murphy

Ronald D. Patkus

Rachel Wise

Benjamin Garrity (Vassar Class of 2027)

Tara Peterson (Vassar Class of 2025)

Both John P. Murphy and Ronald D. Patkus will speak about the materials in the Art Center.

Rachel Wise, Professor of Art, will speak about her study of one of the most important manuscripts in its collection.

Ronald Patkus will speak about provenance for materials in both the Art Center and Special Collections.

Two Vassar students will speak about the art of materials in Special Collections:

Benjamin Garrity (Class of ’27) will speak about the Loeb Book of Hours.
Tara Peterson (Class of ’25) will speak about the Spanish Forger.

The showcased items in the two collections comprise: an album of collected initials; selected Books of Hours; and a leaf illustrated in medieval style by the prolific and renowned Spanish Forger. On hand, by request, at the session on Special Collections, might be its leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, a dismembered manuscript being researched by the RGME because of a current loan. (See below.)

Program

1. Sunday 4 May

Afternoon: 4:00–5:30 pm EDT (GMT-4)

The hybrid RGME Visit opens with a presentation by Martha Frish on Sunday afternoon, when she will speak about

“Some Symbols in the Architecture at Vassar College.” Her illustrated presentation will highlight features of the campus which distinguish it from many American colleges. By examining many of the buildings in their architectural settings, both in their landscape and in their historical periods, demonstrates the ways in which Vassar represents a physical documentation of the architectural history of the United States.

As an introduction to the RGME Visit to the College all day on Monday 5 May, this ‘tour’ sets the scene by locating the visit within the physical space of the collections at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center and Special Collections of the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library. Martha’s invitation to examine the buildings and their own settings offers a companion to the ways in which readers, students, and beholders would at the manuscript sources in these collections, in order to discover more of their meanings and stories of their own.

This special presentation will take place in person in the

Murphy Room, Art Library

To register for this portion of the Visit, please use these links:

1) In Person:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunday-in-person-for-2025-rgme-vassar-visit-symbols-of-vassar-architecture-tickets-1347124799539

2) Online:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunday-online-2025-rgme-vassar-visit-symbols-of-vassar-architecture-tickets-1348928243689

“The Quad as Exterior Room”. Photograph of the Residential Quad by Martha Frish (2016).

2. Monday 5 May

Morning
10:30–11:30
Art Center, Seminar Room

We would meet by 10:30 am in the Entrance Lobby of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center . Note that the Art Center is otherwise closed on Mondays.

Our visit allows us to see some of its manuscripts and manuscript cuttings. They include materials not normally on show.

Both John P. Murphy and Ronald D. Patkus will speak about the materials. Rachel Wise, Professor of Art, will speak about her study of one of the most important manuscripts in the collection.

They will demonstrate 1) an album of cuttings of choice portions from manuscripts (such as illuminated initials) and 2) a Book of Hours. These monuments are:

1. Album of Cuttings, 15th century (Loeb 864.2.242-864.2.258)

Seventeen cuttings with illuminated initials, removed from an Alphabetical Index (so far unidentified). Germany, 15th century.

Other contents include drawings of architectural features, copies of paintings, and copies of manuscript illuminations and marginalia from medieval manuscripts now in Oxford, London, and Salisbury Cathedral. Some of those manuscripts have been the subjects of RGME seminars.

Catalogue, pp. 246–249 (with plate on p. 246)
See also Object: Manuscript

John Murphy will speak about the initials, Ronald Patkus about provenance, and then we will have discussion.

2. Book of Hours, 15th century (Loeb 1994.2.2)

Book of Hours of Jean Olivier, Bishop of Angers (bishop from 1532–1540), for the Use of Rome, in Latin and French. France: Paris? Circa 1510–1540 or 1510–1520.

Artist: Jean Pichore (French, active c. 1501–1520)
Catalogue, pp. 266–269 (with plate on p. 267)
See also The Melun-Epinoy Hours

Rachel Wise, Professor of Art, will speak about the art of the manuscript, Ronald Patkus about provenance, and then we will have discussion.

The Melun-Épinoy Hours, opened to Annunciation scene. c. 1501–1520. Image: Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College

12:00–1:00 pm
Lunch

Lunch will take place in the outdoor Sculpture Garden. In case of inclement weather, we will go inside.

Afternoon

After lunch we will move to the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library (Main Library).

The first afternoon session, showcasing materials in Special Collections, will take place in the Class of 1951 Reading Room.

The second afternoon session, featuring a RGME Roundtable discussion, will take place in the Seminar Room of Special Collections (which closes at 4:30 pm).

1:00–2:00 pm
Spotlight on Special Collections

Class of 1951 Reading Room

Selected materials from Special Collections will be available for examination and discussion.

Ronald D. Patkus will speak about the materials. Students of both Ronald and Rachel Wise will speak about their work 1) on a leaf by The Spanish Forger, a notorious and prolific producer active in the late-nineteenth and/or early twentieth century, probably in Paris; and 2) on the Loeb Book of Hours.

3. Leaf 42, 14th and 19th/20th centuries

Single leaf as a cutting, reused.

Text on one side from an Antiphonary. Italy, 14th century
Painted image on the other. The image depicts an encounter outside a walled city between a solder and a lady, each with retinue. France, late 19th or early 20th century.

Artist: The Spanish Forger. (Active France, late 19th or early 20th century)
Catalogue, pp. 107–109 (with plate on p. 108)

4. Book of Hours, 15th century (MS. 6)

Book of Hours for the Use of Paris, in Latin and French
Catalogue, pp. 21–14 (with plate on p. 13)

Students will speak about their work on these materials; Ronald Patkus will speak about the provenance; and there will be scope for discussion.

2:00–2:30 pm
Break

3:30–4:00 pm
RGME Roundtable
“Looking at Manuscripts and Collections”

Collection of Jennah Farrell, Vulgate Bible Leaf, Recto. Photography by Mildred Budny.

This occasion offers the opportunity to share reflections about the materials demonstrated on our visit to both the Art Center and Main Library. Several of us might describe our research on some of them or relatives to them. We would consider their bearing on subjects which the RGME considers this year in its variety of events and projects.

1. Manuscript Fragments:
Challenges and Opportunities for Research

For example, recently the RGME has been examining the Farrell Leaf and the Weber Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, dismembered directly after sale in 1964 and widely distributed thereafter frequently through sale rooms. The original manuscript, a single-volume Latin Vulgate Bible, was produced in France, probably Paris, circa 1330-1340. See our Workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”

A leaf from the same book belongs to Vassar College. It is part of the Nicholas B. Scheetz Collection of Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts (Scheetz MS 27). About this leaf, see the entry in the recent catalogue:

Catalogue of Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts at Vassar College, compiled by Peter Kidd (Vassar College, 2024), p. 217.

It could be useful to compare notes about these relatives which formerly stood within the same covers of a single-volume Latin Vulgate Bible. Whereas many leaves known from the original manuscript in a variety of collections belong to the Old and New Testament portions of the Bible, the Vassar leaf from the Scheetz Collection belongs to part of the textual apparatus of the Interpretation of Hebrew Names in glossary form, arranged alphabetically, and specifically from within the section for terms beginning with the letter B.

Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Recto: Top Right. Photograph by Richard Weber.

2. Provenance: A Perennial Quest

Other subjects under consideration this year by the RGME fall into the sphere of the Visit to Vassar’s collections. Among them are issues of provenance for the objects, whether known, detectable, or unknown. Such issues can form an important part of the history of their transmission and, perhaps, of legitimacy, as in the case of forgeries.

Our roundtable might mention various points of contact between the visit and our other events for this year, which have led to the selection of objects to examine. The Vassar Visit stands poised between them:

our Spring and Autumn Symposia which explore aspects of “Agents and Agencies” in the realms of books
2025 Spring and Autumn Symposia
our sessions on “Manuscripts at Worlds of Knowledge” at the 2025 International Medieval Congress at Leeds
2025 International Medieval Congress at Leeds: RGME Program
our Autumn Colloquium on “Break-Up Books and Make-Up Books: Encountering and Reconstructing the Legacy of Otto F. Ege and Other Biblioclasts”
2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium at the University of Waterloo

The design of the Visit, selected by Ronald Patkus and John Murphey, responds thoughtfully and expertly to these shared interests for collective exploration in 2025.

Reception

A Reception will close the day’s visit.

Celebratory Reception
5:00–7:30 pm EDT
Class of 1951 Reading Room

We celebrate the visit, the sharing of expertise and experiences in studying the original sources at Vassar, and the generosity of the curators, donors, contributors, organizers, hosts, and student interns. We invite you to join us.

Dinner

Afterward, we would go to a local restaurant for drinks and/or dinner (at our own expense). There, we could continue conversation in the company of people interested in books, their care, their study, their ability to teach, their stories, and their delight.

Information for Visiting Vassar

For information on travel, directions, campus maps, accommodation, dining, and other features in the area, see:

Visit Vassar

A photo of the Thompson Library at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, taken by me [Noteremote] on November 2, 2007. via Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thompson_Library_(Vassar_College).jpg.

Registration

You can register for the RGME Vassar Visit through the RGME Eventbrite Portal. See:

RGME Eventbrite Collection

There you will be able to register to attend either in person or online.

We encourage you to make a Voluntary Donation when you register. It will help to support our small nonprofit educational organization powered principally by volunteers.

1. Sunday 4 May 2025

To register for the preliminary presentation on Sunday afternoon, please use these links:

1) In Person:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunday-in-person-for-2025-rgme-vassar-visit-symbols-of-vassar-architecture-tickets-1347124799539

2) Online:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sunday-online-2025-rgme-vassar-visit-symbols-of-vassar-architecture-tickets-1348928243689

2. Monday 5 May 2025

To register for the Visit to the Art Center and the Main Library on Monday 5 May, please use these links:

1) In-Person Visit

For in-person attendance, space is limited. In registering for in-person attendance, for the catering you will be given the opportunity to indicate any dietary requirements.

2025 RGME Visit to Vassar College IN PERSON

2) Online Visit

For online attendance, once you register, the Zoom Link will be sent to you shortly before the event.

2025 RGME Visit to Vassar College ONLINE

Thank you for your interest and support. We look forward to welcoming you.

*****

Thanks

For arranging this visit, we thank:

Ronald D. Patkus, Head of Special Collections and College Historian, Adjunct Associate Professor of History on the Frederick Weyerhaeuser Chair
John P. Murphy, Philip and Lynn Straus Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

We thank the speakers for their contributions to share their work on manuscript materials at Vassar College: Rachel Wise, Ronald Patkus, John Murphy, and Vassar students Ben Gerrity and Tara Peterson. Thanks go to Thomas E. Hill, Art Librarian, for arranging the visit to the Murphy Room, to Francine Brown of the Art Center, and Amanda Burdine. Thanks go to the 2025 RGME Visit Student Interns for help behind the scenes: Betsy Subiros (Class of 2025), Anna Gilsdorf, and Rachel Stanger (Class of 2027).

We give thanks to the staff and others at Vassar College for this visit.

We look forward to the visit. You are invited to join, whether in person or virtually.

*****

Questions or Suggestions?

Please let us know.

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We look forward to seeing you and welcoming you to our events.

*****

Tags: Archives & Special Collections of Vassar College, Books of Hours, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Manuscript Cuttings, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, RGME Visits to Collections, The Spanish Forger, Vassar College, Virtual Visits to Collections
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The Weber Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible

February 22, 2025 in Manuscript Studies, Workshops on "The Evidence of Manuscripts"

Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible
in the Collection of Richard Weber

Double columns of 46 lines in Gothic Script
with Decorated Initials, Bar-Extensions,
and Running Titles
Acts 26:14 (est tibi) – Acts 28:9 (insula habe[/-bant] )

Northern France, circa 1330

Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Recto: Top Right. Photograph by Richard Weber.

[Posted on 21 February 2025]

In connection with our new series of RGME Workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”, our Associate, Richard Weber, revealed another leaf in his collection. This discovery joins the posts about different items in his collection which have been reported in our blog on Manuscript Studies.

Our workshops began by examining a leaf on loan to the RGME with part of the text of the Book of Numbers in a Latin Vulgate Bible in double columns of 46 lines in Gothic script, with decorative elements. See the reports of our discoveries about that leaf:

Collection of Jennah Farrell, Single Leaf from the Book of Numbers in a Medieval Latin Vulgate Bible manuscript: Recto, top. Photography by Mildred Budny.

The collaborative work in our workshops, crowdsourcing the quest to identify the leaf, has revealed that it most probably came from the dismembered Saint Albans Bible, produced in Northern France in the 1320s or 1330s and formerly owned by Saint Albans’ Abbey. Our search among online resources, such as blogposts and vendors’ sites, and in printed works, ranging from books and journal articles to catalogues of sales or individual collections, followed up clues leading from one collection or sales room to another.

Collection of Jennah Farrell, Single Leaf from the Book of Numbers in a Medieval Latin Vulgate Bible manuscript: Recto. Photography by Mildred Budny.

The process of discovery persuaded us, from the resemblances between the leaf in hand and features of some surviving leaves from the Saint Albans Bible, that this leaf very likely came from the same manuscript — if not from another much like it by some of the same scribes and artists. We believe that proof positive (or the like) for this conjectured identification might come were one or both of the leaves which formerly directly preceded and directly followed the leaf to emerge into the light so as to demonstrate an exact match in the flow of text from one to the next.

And so we continue our search among the survivors, as we track the leaves from both the Old and New Testaments in the Saint Albans Bible, especially from the Book of Numbers. In view might be, were time and resources available, the creation of a virtual reconstruction of the manuscript, as has been accomplished or begun for various other manuscripts which now survive in fragments scattered across many locations.

Learning from our workshops that the Farrell Leaf is identifiable most probably as part of the dismembered Saint Albans Bible, our Associate, Richard Weber, reported the presence of another leaf from the same manuscript in his collection. With his permission, for which we give thanks, we introduce it to you and our Workshop Series, starting with RGME Workshop 4: “Manuscript Fragments Compared”.

The Weber Leaf
from the Saint Albans Bible

Acquired on May 23, 2023, from The Raab Collection (Nathan “Nate” Raab and Karen Pearlman Raab), this leaf preserves part of the Acts of the Apostles in the Saint Albans Bible, which was dismembered for resale in 1964. The leaf comes from the last part of the Book of Acts. It breaks off mid-word in its final chapter, about one-third of the way through it.

The Apostle Paul, His Travels, and His Travails

The text on the leaf presents the text from within Chapter 26 to within Chapter 28 of Acts in the Latin Vulgate Version. It opens within verse 14 ([persequeris durum /] est tibi contra) of Chapter 26, completes the chapter, turns to the full span of Chapter 27, and opens the last chapter of the Book up to its verse 9, whereupon it breaks off mid-word (insula habe[/-bant infirmitates]). That is, the span of text encompasses Acts 26:14–32 (the latter portion of the chapter); Acts 27:1–44 (the full chapter); and Acts 28:1–9 (the first third).

The leaf contains most of the extended first-hand account by the Apostle Paul (circa 5 – circa 64/65 AD) of his life’s adventures in his defense before King Herod Agrippa II of Judea (27/28 – 92 or 100 AD). From his own viewpoint, we hear about his transformation from soldier and Roman citizen to apostle in locations stretching from Tarsus in Asia Minor to Jerusalem, Antioch, Thessaloniki, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Malta, and finally Rome.

The scope, range, and variety of his exploits or adventures are illustrated vividly in some medieval manuscript illustrations. Notable among them is the full-page, multi-tiered cycle of scenes rendered by an exceptional master artist in the large-format Carolingian version of the Latin Vulgate Bible prepared at Tours for presentation to the monarch Charles the Bald (823–877). On this imposing Bible, see, for example, Latin 1.

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 1, fol. 386v. Image Public Domain via https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8455903b/f780.item#.

The Leaf, Its Contents, and Its Presentation

Sections of the text are demarcated by

1) enlarged, decorated initials rendered in polychrome or in ink,
2) ornamental vertical bars extending from the 2-line inset polychrome Chapter Initials to foliate terminals,
3) ornamental or figurative motifs embellishing the enlarged pen-initial in the top line of all but one column,
4) polychrome chapter numerals,
5) polychrome running titles in the upper margins, rendered partly in alternating pigments and partly in pen-line flourishes, and
6) a marginal ‘insertion’ of script to correct an omission in the text.

Let us have a closer look.

The Recto

The recto of the Weber Leaf

Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Recto. Photograph by Richard Weber.

Lively decorated letters rendered in ink rise to considerable heights in the first lines of each column of text, one to each column. In column a, E for Ego opens Verse 15 of Chapter 26. In column b, T completes the opening word UT of Chapter 27:1.

The two-part running title at the top spaces its words at a distance from each other. It keeps the first part (Actus) more-or-less centered above the two columns and places the second, abbreviated word (Ap[osto]lor[um]) offset extending partway into the margin.

The distant, offset half of the running title appears like an afterthought, although apparently as the work of the same scribal artist and during the same campaign of operation (if not at the same sitting). Could it represent a correction to supplement the ‘mistake’ of putting the first component, Actus, on the recto of an opening, rather than on the verso?

On the verso of a two-page opening, with the verso of one leaf facing the recto of the next, customarily a bipartite running title for one set text on both pages might have the first half or portion of a single title on the verso and the continuation in the second half or portion on the recto. What if this leaf received the Actus as if it were a verso, so that its match or completion, Apostolorum, was deemed to need to be fitted in? We wonder what the verso originally facing this leaf had for its running title.

Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Recto: Top Right. Photograph by Richard Weber.

The Verso

Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Verso. Photograph by Richard Weber.

This side of the leaf retains the use of a tall ink-drawn letter in the top line, but only for one column. The initial U or V for Valida opening 27:18

The running title keeps to its short form of one word (or syllable) only. Presumably the second part of the title appeared facing it on the recto of the next leaf. We are uncertain what intentions were in place for this enigmatic running title comprising DE (“Of”, “About”), which seems to stand in a suspended state awaiting the completion of a name or phrase on the formerly facing recto. Here is another mystery awaiting resolution, if possible, with the discovery of the next leaf in the sequence in the original book.

Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Recto: Top Center. Photograph by Richard Weber.

The first stem of the animated pen-initial U atop Column a (the left-hand column of the pair on the page) on the verso rises to a backwards and downwards curve containing the shaggy neck and head of a wide-eyed creature with opened jaws with exposed teeth and fangs. One might wonder if the apparent ferocity of the creature emulates or evokes the stormy text of the verse which this initial opens (27:18), as it reads: Valida autem nobis tempestate jactatis sequenti die jactum fecerunt (“And we exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship.”) Might we think of this creature as presenting the Jaws of a Tempest?

Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Verso: Top Left. Photograph by Richard Weber.

The Seller’s Description

Richard shares with us the description which accompanied the leaf in preparation for its sale by The Raab Collection in 2023. This description deserves to join the growing group of sellers’, collectors, scholars’, curators’, and others’ descriptions of individual leaves or groups of leaves which are present, for a time, in their hands and before their eyes.

As such they can constitute direct witnesses to surviving portions of the manuscript. Our work toward a collaborative virtual reconstruction of the original will also assemble the descriptions as a contribution toward fuller knowledge of the manuscript and its stages of ownership, study, and wider understanding.

We quote:

The Saint Alban’s Bible started life in Paris in the 1320s or 1330s. Likely, three artists worked together in an atelier, or workshop, to create the high quality product. The workshop to which Christopher de Hamel attributes the creation is that of the famed Parisian artist, Jean Pucelle, one of the most important and influential artists for the Gothic style. While the Saint Alban’s Bible is not in the hand of John Pucelle, it is in the hands of his associates, the Saint Louis Master, whose name has been identifed as Mahiet (Kuroiwa, “Working with Jean Pucelle”). On the margins of another manuscript illustrated by the Saint Louis Master, housed in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris, a marginal note from Pucelle to an illuminator, Mahiet, confirms the Saint Louis Master’s identity. Through the association of the Saint Albans Bible with Mahiet and Pucelle, a complex network of Parisian bookmakers opens up, and their works can be traced.

From its manufacture on the Rue de la Parcheminerie, the Bible was likely a gift from Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham to the Abbey of Saint Albans after his 1320-1330s visit to Paris (de Hamel, “Leaf of a Bible Manuscript”). Leaves have ended up in collections such as the Tokyo National Museum of Western Art, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of British Columbia, with others in private hands. The post-medieval lives of manuscripts, as they fragment and change hands, demonstrates their endurance as status symbols and works of art— as a whole and as a part.

The text gives part of Paul’s recount of his life story to King Agrippa who is almost persuaded to become a Christian. The imprisoned Paul’s ship runs aground and he is shipwrecked in Malta on his way to face trial in Rome. The barbarians of Malta show Paul and the shipwrecked crew kindness by building a fire, but a viper emerged from the ashes and bit Paul’s hand, though he did not die.

Provenance: 1. From an incomplete Bible sold at Sotheby’s, 6 July 1964, lot 239, to the dealer and book-breaker Philip C. Duschnes [1897–1970], who dispersed it. Other leaves had already been removed, with some ending up in the collections of E.H. Dring (1864-1928), one reappearing in Bernard Quaritch, cat. 1036, 1984, no. 76).

Then identified in 1981 as from the medieval library of St Albans Abbey, Hertfordshire, and perhaps to be identified as one of ‘duas bonas biblias’ acquired by Abbot Michael de Mentmore (C. de Hamel in Fine Books and Book Collecting, 1981, pp. 10–12).2.

More details:

Leaf from the St Albans Abbey Bible, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern France (Paris), c. 1330] Single leaf, with double columns of 46 lines in a fine gothic bookhand (Acts 26:14–32; Acts 27:1–44; Acts 28:1–9), with hairline penwork ornamenting the V with a grotesque animal head biting the ascender, versal numbers (27, 28) in alternate liquid gold and blue capitals with contrasting penwork, running titles in same, two 2-line initials (one each side of leaf) each in faded pink with white ornamentation on gold background and enclosing foliage, one medieval correction in the margin indicated by a signe-de-renvoi, modern pencil numerations (3, 73), 295 by 200mm or 12 by 8 inches.

*****

Join the Quest

Would you like to join the quest? Do you know of other leaves from the Saint Albans Bible? Do you know of other works by the same scribes or artists? Are you curious about books and ways of looking at them?

Join our Workshops!

*****

Collection of Richard Weber, Leaf from the Saint Albans Bible, Recto: Top Right. Photograph by Richard Weber.

Tags: Acts of the Apostles, Book of Numbers, Collection of Jennah Farrell, Collection of Richard Weber, manuscript fragments, Manuscript studies, Medieval Vulgate Bibles, Saint Albans Bible
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“The Methodology of Credulity: Assessing the Manuscript Witnesses to Beatus of Líebana, On the Apocalypse“

Reflections on A Project Proposal

The 2025 RGME Session on Beatus Manuscripts

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The Once-Upon-A-Time Project Proposal on Beatus Manuscripts

The Material The Nature of the Problem The Scope and Aims of the Project The Collaborative Process The Stage of Development of the Project Institutional Resources to be Consulted and Travel Plans Results

AfterLife and Renewal

A Treasured Memory

Two Leaves in the Book of Numbers from the Chudleigh Bible

Text written in Gothic Bookhand Laid out in Double Columns of 56 lines with Running Titles, Rubrication, Text-Initials in Red and Blue, and Marginalia within Frames

I. Two Leaves from the Book of Numbers

The Two Leaves

Leaf 1: Folio 38

Recto

Verso

Leaf 2: Folio 43

Recto

Verso

Contents: Text

Leaf 1 (recto and verso)

Leaf 2 (recto and verso)

II. Once Upon a Time: A Single-Volume Vulgate Bible

I. As a Single Volume

II. As Individual Leaves or Groups of Leaves

The Collection of Robert McCarthy (No. 17)

Some Specimens

Old Testament

Leaves of Text from the Book of Numbers (Folios 38 and 43)

Currently on Sale: A Leaf from Ezekiel 41–44 (Folio 269)

Openings of Prologue and Book of Joshua

Opening of the Book of Esdras

Opening of Prologue for the Book of Malachi

Three Leaves with Historiated Initials: Openings of Prologues for the Books of Tobit, Zephaniah, and I Samuel

Opening of II Samuel

Prologue and Opening of Sapientia/Wisdom

Opening of Ecclesiastes

New Testament

Opening of Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians

Opening of the Epistle to the Philippians

Epistle to the Hebrews 8–18

Companion Textual Apparatus

Interpretation of Hebrew Names (Leaf with Glossary for Da–Du Entries)

Questions? Suggestions?

RGME Workshops on “The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”

Workshop 6 “What’s In a Name? Guides to Nomenclature for Manuscript Studies” Sunday 27 April 2025

The Name ‘Game’

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2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies: Program of RGME Activities

60th ICMS Thursday through Saturday, 8–10 May 2025 (with Sessions variously in Person, Online, or Hybrid)

Medieval Manuscript Fragments at the DRAGEN Lab

Part 1:

Leaf of Latin Chants

Part 1: Latin Kalendar Leaf for February from Northern France

I. Kalendar Leaf for February

Recto

Verso

The Feast Days

Manuscript Fragments at the DRAGEN Lab

Part 2: Leaf of Latin Liturgical Chants

II. Leaf with Liturgical Chants

Recto

The Text:

Compare:

Verso

2025 RGME Spring Symposium

“Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books: From Author/Artist/Artisan to Library”

Friday to Sunday, 28–30 March 2025

(Online by Zoom)

2025 Spring and Autumn Symposia: “Agents and Agencies” Parts 1 and 2

“Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books: From Author/Artist/Artisan to Library”

Friday to Sunday, 28–30 March 2025

“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books: From Page to Marketplace and Beyond”

Making

Posters

Program

Program Overview

Detailed Program

“The Methodology of Credulity:
Assessing the Manuscript Witnesses
to Beatus of Líebana, On the Apocalypse“

Reflections on
A Project Proposal

The 2025 RGME Session
on Beatus Manuscripts

“Rending the Veil:
The Rupture of Image and Text
in Medieval Apocalypse Commentaries”

The Once-Upon-A-Time
Project Proposal on Beatus Manuscripts

The Material
The Nature of the Problem
The Scope and Aims of the Project
The Collaborative Process
The Stage of Development of the Project
Institutional Resources to be Consulted and Travel Plans
Results

Two Leaves
in the Book of Numbers
from the Chudleigh Bible

Text written in Gothic Bookhand
Laid out in Double Columns of 56 lines
with Running Titles, Rubrication,
Text-Initials in Red and Blue,
and Marginalia within Frames

II. Once Upon a Time:
A Single-Volume Vulgate Bible

The Collection of Robert McCarthy
(No. 17)

Three Leaves with Historiated Initials:
Openings of Prologues for the
Books of Tobit, Zephaniah, and I Samuel

Interpretation of Hebrew Names
(Leaf with Glossary for Da–Du Entries)

RGME Workshops
on
“The Evidence of Manuscripts, Etc.”

Workshop 6
“What’s In a Name?
Guides to Nomenclature
for Manuscript Studies”
Sunday 27 April 2025

2025 International Congress
on Medieval Studies:
Program of RGME Activities

60th ICMS
Thursday through Saturday, 8–10 May 2025
(with Sessions variously
in Person, Online, or Hybrid)

Medieval Manuscript Fragments
at the DRAGEN Lab

Part 1:
Latin Kalendar Leaf for February
from Northern France

Manuscript Fragments
at the DRAGEN Lab

Part 2:
Leaf of Latin Liturgical Chants

“Makers, Producers,
and Collectors of Books:
From Author/Artist/Artisan
to Library”

2025 Spring and Autumn Symposia:
“Agents and Agencies”
Parts 1 and 2

“Makers, Producers, and Collectors of Books:
From Author/Artist/Artisan to Library”

“Readers, Fakers, and Re-Creators of Books:
From Page to Marketplace and Beyond”

Images as Inspiration:
Agents and Agencies

The Manuscript
as
Creative Undercurrent:

Reflections on the Reissue of
Glassgold’s “Englishings” of Poems by Boethius

Undercurrents—
Pictorial, Methodological, and Ekphrastic

2025 RGME Visit
to Vassar College

Medieval & Renaissance
Manuscripts & Cuttings
at
The Archives & Special Collections Library
and
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

Sunday 4 May 2025
4:00 – 6:00 pm
and
Monday 5 May 2025
11:00 am – 4:30 pm
In person and Online by Zoom

Prequel:
Our 2024 Spring Symposium

Morning
10:30–11:30
Art Center, Seminar Room

12:00–1:00 pm
Lunch

1:00–2:00 pm
Spotlight on Special Collections

2:00–2:30 pm
Break

3:30–4:00 pm
RGME Roundtable
“Looking at Manuscripts and Collections”

1. Manuscript Fragments:
Challenges and Opportunities for Research

Celebratory Reception
5:00–7:30 pm EDT
Class of 1951 Reading Room