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      • Abstracts of Congress Papers
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    • People
      • Mildred Budny — Her Page
      • Adelaide Bennett Hagens
    • Activities
      • Events
      • Congress Activities
        • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
          • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
        • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • History
      • Seals, Matrices & Documents
      • Genealogies & Archives
  • Bembino
    • Multi-Lingual Bembino
  • Congress
    • Sponsored Conference Sessions (1993‒)
    • Co-sponsored Conference Sessions (2006‒)
    • Abstracts of Congress Papers
      • Abstracts Listed by Author
      • Abstracts Listed by Year
    • Kalamazoo Archive
    • Panels at the M-MLA Convention
      • Abstracts of Papers for the M-MLA Convention
  • Events
    • The Research Group Speaks: The Series
    • Seminars, Workshops, Colloquia & Symposia (1989–)
      • Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Symposia on ‘The Transmission of the Bible’
      • The New Series
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Program: The Roads Taken
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration
        • 2019 Anniversary Symposium Registration Open
    • Abstracts of Papers for Events
      • Abstracts of Papers for Seminars on ‘The Evidence of Manuscripts’
      • Abstracts of Papers for Symposia, Workshops & Colloquia
    • Receptions & Parties
    • Business Meetings
    • Photographic Exhibitions & Master Classes
    • Events Archive
  • ShelfLife
    • Journal Description
    • ShelfMarks: The RGME-Newsletter
    • Publications
      • “Insular, Anglo-Saxon, and Early Anglo-Norman Manuscript Art at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge” (1997)
        • Mildred Budny, ‘Catalogue’
        • The Illustrated Catalogue (1997)
      • The Illustrated Handlist
      • Semi-Official Counterfeiting in France 1380-1422
      • No Snap Decisions: Challenges of Manuscript Photography
    • History and Design of Our Website
  • Galleries
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Another Leaf from a Portable Manuscript Bible in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez

May 18, 2022 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Another Latin Bible Manuscript Leaf
in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez

Single Leaf from a Latin Vulgate Bible
Folio “74[?]” with Part of the Book of Daniel

Daniel 9:11 ([. . . et declinaverunt / ] ne audirent)
– 11:30 (et cogitabit [ / advesum eos . . . ])

Double Columns of 56 lines

Written in Gothic Script
with Running Titles, Initials, Pen-flourishes, and Annotations
including a Modern Folio Number

Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez, Vulgate Bible Manuscript Leaf purchased in London around 2000: Recto with opening of Daniel Chapter X.

[Posted on 17 May 2022]

Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez, Framed Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 20’, Front-Facing Page (“Recto”).

Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez, Framed Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’.

Following our blogpost reporting Two Ege Manuscript Leaves and Two Ege Labels in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez, we learn of another leaf in the same collection, with a different provenance.  Those two Ege leaves and labels pertain to three manuscripts dismembered and distributed by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951).  That is,

  • with a leaf from “Otto Ege Manuscript 14” and its Ege Label,
  • an Ege Label from “Ege Manuscript 54”, and
  • a leaf from “Ege Manuscript 20”.

They all pertain to books of the Latin Vulgate Bible, either as full Bibles in large or small format, or as the Book of Psalms in a separate volume (or Psalter) in small format. They came to their collector in stages, by purchase at auction at the Dallas Public Library in 1998, or as a gift in 2003 from its former Librarian, Lillian Moore Bradshaw (1915–2010), with a mix-up at some stage between labels and leaves.

Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez, Otto Ege Label for “Ege Manuscript 54”.

The Next Leaf

The next leaf reaching our attention came from a small-format Vulgate Bible manuscript.  In correspondence, Ernesto Lopez reports that he purchased the leaf in London, England, around the year 2000.

The unframed leaf and its seller’s label tell the story of a pattern of transmission of a dismembered medieval manuscript leaf which, at some stage in transmission after dismemberment, lost a record of connection to the original book.  Here we examine the label and both sides of the leaf, as revealed in the collector’s photographs, generously supplied for study and for presentation here to a wider world.

The Seller’s Label

With the leaf is a folded rectangular paper label with printed or print-out text in two halves above and below the fold-line which would permit the label to stand upright, say in a case or on a shelf.  The upper half of the sheet, above the fold line, identifies the seller, the Parthenon Gallery in London, purveyor of “Ancient coins, antiquities & fossils”.  This gallery is still located in the same place, at 25, Bury Place, WC1A 2JH.

Within a rectangular frame, the lower half of the label calls the specimen “Early Medieval”.  Details cite the item as comprising “Illuminated manuscript pages [sic] from an early medieval bible written on vellum, with Latin written in a miniscule hand”; identifies the contents as part of the text of “I Machabees, relating the episode of “The Temple taken”; and dates the item to “Circa 1280 A.D. Not after 1300.”

At the bottom of the frame, at the left, there stands the printed identifier “9037   R  0”, in arabic-numbers-plus-letters (or-letter).   At the right, layered pieces of gauze tape cover the price identifier, which is partly visible in show-through, beginning with the currency-identifier for pounds sterling (£).

The Leaf

Side 1

To begin with, we saw a photograph of only one side.  The cropped edges of the photograph do not offer indications of which side of the leaf it is, whether recto or verso.  We decided to examine the image for what it might show.

The Text

Despite the label, this leaf does not belong to any part of the First Book of Maccabees (I Maccabees). Instead it has part of the text in the Book of Daniel.

The text on the page starts within Daniel 10:14 ([ . . . sunt populo / ] tuo in novissimis diebus, quoniam adhuc visio in dies).   The page ends in the middle of 11:30 (et faciet: reverteturque, et cogitabit [ / advesum eos . . . ]).

The enlarged initial signals the beginning of Chapter 11:1, which reads:  Ego autem ab anno primo Darii Medi stabam ut confortaretur et roboraretur.  Rendered in blue pigment, the initial E stands outside the column of text.  Above and below the letter extend pen-flourishes in red pigment, which reach most of the height of the column. In places, the flourishes form the outlines of foliate motifs, sometimes branching, with rippled contours in some places.

Show-through from the opposite side of the leaf indicates that a similar enlarged chapter-initial, with pen-flourishes, stands in the intercolumn, pertaining to a place in column b, about one-quarter of the way down its course.  Chapter 12 would begin with an initial I:  In tempore autem . . .  Chapter 10 would begin with an initial A:  Anno tertio Cyri regis Persarum . . .  On the strength of those different letter-forms, it is tempting to guess that that opposite side of the leaf carries the last part of Chapter 9 and the first part of Chapter 10.

Even the running title points to the Book of Daniel.  Centered at the top of the page, the bichrome red-and-blue capital letters designate the first part of the name:  “DANI-“.  Given the orientation, this portion of a bi-partite title on a verso would be complemented by the second portion on the formerly facing recto of the next leaf in the book.

An addition in ink in the left margin supplies a missing word confortare, with a signe-de-renvoi linking it with its place in the text, within Daniel 10:19

et dixit: Noli timere, vir desideriorum: pax tibi: confortare, et esto robustus. Cumque loqueretur mecum, convalui, et dixi: Loquere, domine mi, quia confortasti me.

The signes-de-renvoi take the form of an identical pair of triple dots in triangular formation in red pigment.  One twin stands at the upper left of the correction.  The other hovers in the interline at the place within the column of text where the insertion is to be supplied.  A wash of red pigment enhances the bow of the somewhat enlarged letter c, like various minor text initials in the columns of text.

At first, when I examined the photograph of this page, some features, including forms of the pen-flourishing, reminded me especially of a couple of Vulgate Bible manuscripts dismembered by Otto Ege and distributed in more than one of his several Portfolios of specimen leaves from manuscripts and printed books.

The pair of manuscripts, which I come on occasion to think of as “Otto Ege Manuscript 9 + Manuscript 54”, featured in my recent blogpost exploring the Two Ege Manuscript Leaves and Two Ege Labels in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez.  Their numbers derive from the different positions of cataloguing the two manuscripts in Scott Gwara’s Handlist of Ege’s Manuscripts.  They figure on the one hand as its Handlist Number 9 (for its position among the numbered specimens in the Fifty Original Leaves Portfolio, or FOL) on the one hand; and, on the other, as its Handlist Number 54 (for both versions of the Original Leaves from Famous Books Portfolio, respectively in Eight and Nine Centuries, or FBEC and FBNC).  For citations, please see that earlier blogpost.

The overlap or perhaps sometimes confusion between the two manuscripts results from the distribution of their respective specimens sometimes in FOL and sometimes in the versions of Famous Books, as substitutions might arise in the course of assembling individual sets of one or other Portfolio.  For example, the manuscript normally deployed for Number 9 in FOL sometimes did service in FBEC or FBNC.   The other manuscript sometimes or normally deployed instead for FBEC (as Leaf 1) or FBNC (as Leaf 2), has Gwara’s assigned Number 54.

If this seems complicated, welcome to the world of Ege Manuscript Studies!  Fortunately, careful and precise examination of the individual cases can aid the process by bringing a strong dose of recognition of their specific characteristics.

Ege’s Labels for these two manuscripts, curiously interlinked or intermixed in Ege’s distribution patterns, identify them differently as

  • a Bible written written in France, specifically Paris, in the middle of the XIIIth Century (FOL), or
  • a Bible written by Dominicans in Paris circa 1240 (FBNC)
    — as seen above, in one of the Ege Labels in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez.

For the two books Gwara prefers an attribution of “France, ca. 1250” (No. 9 for FOL and FBEC); and “Northern France, ca. 1250” (No. 54 for FBEC and FBNC), with cross-references between both numbers.  Gwara’s list notes different numbers of lines for those two items, with script in double columns respectively of “53 lines” and  “57 lines”.

The variation in numbers of lines per column and page in a single volume with closely-spaced text is not unaccustomed in small-format Vulgate Bible manuscripts of the period, so that the span of 56 lines on the Lopez Leaf under examination here, like some stylistic variations in script and pen-flourishes, need not in themselves rule out a possible association or connection with that Ege manuscript.

The point is that the general resemblance only, without closer inspection, brings to mind rather similar manuscripts from Ege’s collection whose features I have been recently been surveying, in the quest to sort out the partly divergent evidence of the Ege Labels and Leaves with a Dallas Public Library in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez.

More information comes to light on the other side of the leaf from London.

Side 2

Next, upon request, we could see the other side, revealing the full expanse of the leaf, insofar as it survives, and with a scale to indicate size.

Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez, Vulgate Bible Manuscript Leaf purchased in London around 2000: Recto with Scale.

This page shows some tell-tale features pertaining to the structure, location, and forms of use of the leaf within its former book.  They include annotations which provide medieval references in ink in the outer margin and a modern folio number in pencil at the bottom right.  The edge of the gutter, or stitching line, remains at the right-hand contour, while the wider expanse of the outer margin on the opposite edge appears to represent its full original extent.

In that outer margin stand the blue Chapter numeral X; a mark designating the roman numeral lvii or lxii (“lvij” or “xlij”) opposite line 4 of the text; an abbreviated mark awaiting decipherment to its right; a vertical set of three marks at intervals down the page, in the form of triple dots in triangular formation atop a leftwards-curving tail (let’s cite it here as “;”); and the arabic numeral 74, 75, or 76[?] in the lower outer corner.

At the top of the page stands part of of a bipartite running title in bichrome Gothic Capitals, forming the second half of the name for the Biblical Book of [DANI-/]EL.

Evidently, this side of the leaf is the original recto.

Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez, Vulgate Bible Manuscript Leaf purchased in London around 2000: Recto.

The text begins within Daniel 9:11.

[11 Et omnis Israël prævaricati sunt legem tuam, et declinaverunt / ] ne audirent vocem tuam: et stillavit super nos maledictio et detestatio quæ scripta est in libro Moysi servi Dei, quia peccavimus ei.

The marks opposite line 4 in the outer margin, lvij or lxij, plus a larger abbreviation to its right, might signal the passage for reading.  The ‘;’ markings at intervals opposite more lines lower down might be related to the readings from Daniel for the 21-day fast.  See:

  • https://likeabubblingbrook.com/daniel-fast-scripture-readings/

The listed readings in that resource do not exactly line up with this version, but it is the closest which we have found so far.

*****

Further research might identify which Vulgate Bible manuscript gave this specimen, somehow to reach the antiquary shop in London.  As yet, it is unclear by which time and where the leaf acquired its modern folio number within the original volume, became separated from the book, and acquired its inventory number, selling price, and label, giving an attribution to a different text, and a particular passage, from a different Biblical Book in the Old Testament.  We might assume, say, given the plural “pages” in the label, that its text was drafted to identify a group of specimens from the specific manuscript, laid out in an array from which a purchase might be selected.  From them one, but not this one, could correspond to the specified passage about the Temple in I Macabees.

Perhaps the formula which the label assigns to the date-range of the specimen, like the citation of “I Machabees”, will provide a clue to its former location in a source-manuscript, according with a form of identification not unlike some employed by, say, Otto Ege, in labeling the dismembered pieces for distribution and perhaps offering a selling-point.  For now, we might begin to look for Vulgate Bible specimens in double columns of around 56 lines, with comparable dimensions, and with corresponding folio numbers, all of which are identified as dating from “Circa 1280 A.D. Not after 1300.”

The modern folio number points to a different manuscript than the one which first came to mind when I saw a photograph from its “first side”, perhaps probably because that manuscript was fresh in mind.  Some Ege manuscripts have modern folio numbers, entered before the books were taken to pieces.  (See, for example, More Leaves from “Otto Ege Manuscript 51”.) But not, apparently, any leaves from Ege MS 9 or MS 54.  The quest is open.

I invite your advice.

*****

Do you know of more leaves from this manuscript?  Do you recognize the hands of these scribes, artists, and annotators in other parts of this book or in other manuscripts?

You might reach us via Contact Us or our Facebook Page. Comments here are welcome too. We look forward to hearing from you.

Watch our blog on Manuscript Studies for more discoveries. Please visit its Contents List.

*****

Tags: Book of Daniel, Book of I Macabees, Latin Vulgate Bibles, manuscript fragments, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Otto Ege Manuscript 20, Otto Ege Manuscript 54, Otto Ege Manuscript 9, Otto Ege Manuscripts
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Two Ege Leaves and Two Ege Labels in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez

May 10, 2022 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Two Ege Leaves in Frames
with
Two Ege Labels

in the Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez

(Ege MS 14, MS 20, and MS 9 + 54)

Mildred Budny

Collection of Birgitt G. Lopez, Framed Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 20’, Front-Facing Page (“Recto”).

[Posted on 10 May 2022, with an update]

Acquired separately in Dallas, Texas, over the course of some five years and through the Dallas Public Library, two vellum leaves from manuscripts dispersed through Otto F. Ege (1888–1951) now belong to a single collection, that of Birgitt G. Lopez. The two leaves, differing in size, script, layout, and type of book, come from two different manuscripts from Ege’s collection.  With each leaf travelled a printed Label composed and printed by Ege to accompany the dispersed specimens of the particular manuscript.

Each leaf has been reframed.  Its identifying Label is retained and taped to the back of the frame.  Recently, after a visit to Dallas Public Library to examine its relative from one of those Ege manuscripts, Mr. Lopez contacted me, at the suggestion of the Librarian, and generously offered to share information about both Ege leaves in the collection with our and others’ study of Ege materials.

The Links of Transmission from Otto Ege

When reporting the existence of the leaves to me, Ernesto Lopez recollects that the first leaf was purchased at an auction benefiting the Dallas Public Library.  The second was a gift some five years later from Lillian Moore Bradshaw (1915–2010), long-time Director of the Dallas Public Library (1962–1984).

Mr. Lopez reports:

I purchased the first one in an auction benefiting the Dallas Public Library 1998 and the second one was a gift in 2003 from Lillian Bradshaw, the long-time Dallas Public Library Director.  Ms. Bradshaw told me at the time that she purchased the items directly from Mr. Ege; I have the letter laying out the provenance in Ms. Bradshaw’s hand.  . . . .  She told me [that] she was working in the Dallas Public Library’s Director’s office when Mr. Ege came to make a sales call. . . . I served eight years on the Dallas Municipal Library Board where I got to know Mrs. Bradshaw.

Also:

Several months ago, I went to the Rare Books collection at Dallas Public Library to do some research on the two leaves that I own.  The Rare Books Librarian gave me your email address so that my two leaves can be added to the body of work your group is doing on the Otto Ege manuscripts.

I framed both of the leaves leaving the explanatory text from Otto Ege on the back of the framed works.
The first leaf is similar to the leaf in the Dallas Public Library collection. It is roughly 15″ by 10″.

With permission, we publish images and report some preliminary research results, which can aid in allowing the leaves to become more widely known in their own right.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Collection of Birgitt G Lopez, Dallas Public Library, Ege FOL Portfolio, Ege Labels, Ege's Portfolio of Famous Bibles, Ege's Portfolio of Famous Books, Lilian Moore Bradshaw, manuscript fragments, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Otto Ege Manuscript 20, Otto Ege Manuscript 54, Otto Ege Manuscript 9
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Two Old Testament Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ at Smith College

March 11, 2022 in Manuscript Studies

Two Leaves
from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
at Smith College

Smith College Special Collections, MS 36-6, verso, top left, from ‘Otto Ege MS 14’. Photography by Hannah Goeselt.

Large-format Latin Vulgate Lectern Bible
made in France
late 13th- or early 14th century

Single Leaf within a matted frame
Double columns of 50 lines

Exodus 25:31 (procedentia) – 28:21 (cela-[/buntur singuli])
with Ege Label

and
Ezekiel 16:43 ([irascar amplius /] eo quod) – 17:14 (sic reg/-num humile et])

[Posted on 12 March 2022.]

We warmly thank Hannah Goeselt, responding to our blogposts, for sending information and images for parts of ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. The ‘moniker’ for the manuscript derives from the decisive impact upon it effected by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951) and the place-number which its selected specimen leaves occupied in his monumental Portfolio of Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts, Western Europe, XIII–XVI Century, issued in forty numbered sets. Ege assigned the date of “1300 A. D.” to the Bible and its specimens.

Smith College Special Collections, MS 35-14, verso, from ‘Otto Ege MS 14’. Photography by Hannah Goeselt.

Discoveries for other parts of this dismembered and dispersed manuscript, a large-format Lectern Bible in the Latin Vulgate Version in Gothic Script, with historiated and decorated elements, have been reported in our blog.

  • A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
  • More Discoveries for ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
  • A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’ and Ege’s Workshop Practices
  • Updates for Some ‘Otto Ege Manuscripts’ (Ege MSS 8, 14, 41, and 61)
  • Some Leaves in Set 1 of ‘Ege’s FOL Portfolio’ (Ege MSS 8, 14, 19, and 41)
  • Patch Work in ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
  • A Leaf in Dallas from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’.
  • A Leaf of Deuteronomy from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ in the Rosenbrook Collection

See also The Illustrated Handlist (Number 4).

The Smith College Leaves comprise two separate single leaves respectively from the Books of Exodus and Ezekiel. At least one retains the standard printed Ege Label, albeit displaced and rearranged.

The pair augment understanding of the original state of those Biblical Books in the manuscript, and also of habits in the transmission of leaves from it as they were prepared for distribution from Ege’s collection and accommodated in their next collection, where they remain. That their chain of transmission revolves around Mrs. Otto Ege — Louise Hedwig Lange Ege, an alumna of Smith College, and an active partner in the distribution of materials from the Ege Collection both during and after her husband’s lifetime — infuses the presence of these and other Ege leaves at her alma mater.

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Tags: Book of Exekiel, Book of Exodus, Ege Family Portfolio, Ege Manuscript 40, Ege's FOL Portfolio, manuscript fragments, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Otto Ege Manuscript 27, Smith College
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A Leaf of Deuteronomy from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ in the Rosenbrook Collection

February 8, 2022 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Brent Rosenbrook Collection, Leaf from Ege Manuscript 14, ‘Recto’ (original Verso), top: Running title.

An Old Testament Leaf
from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
with part of Deuteronomy
in the Rosenbrook Collection

Large-format Latin Vulgate Lectern Bible
made in France
late 13th- or early 14th century

Single Leaf within a matted frame
Double columns of 50 lines

Maximum measurements circa 16 1/8″ × 10 11/16″ <written area circa 11″ × 7 3/8″>

Deuteronomy 11:21 ([quam iuravit] /) dominus patribus)
– 14:15 (strutionem ac noc-(/tuam et larum])

With bichrome running titles and chapter numbers,
polychrome decorated initials and border ornament with geometric and foliate motifs,
and added lection marks

[Posted on 8 February 2022, with updates]

Virginia Lazenby O’Hara Fine Books Division, Dallas Public Library, Framed Leaf from Otto Ege MS 14, ‘Recto’ (original Verso).

Brent Rosenbrook Collection, Matted Leaf from Otto Ege Manuscript 14, ‘Recto’ (original Verso).

Continuing the series of posts for our blog on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny describes another leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’, a large-format copy on vellum of the full Latin Bible in the Vulgate Version.

A leaf from this manuscript recently reached the collection of Brent Rosenbrook, who generously sent images and information about it, in response to the blogpost reporting More Discoveries for ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’.

A similar response several months ago brought to our attention the Dallas Leaf from the same manuscript, now kept at the Virginia Lazenbury O’Hara Fine Books Division of the Dallas Public Library in the City of Dallas, Texas. A report of that leaf, which carries the end of the Book of Joshua and the beginning of Judges in the Old Testament portion of the manuscript, appears in our blog on A Leaf in Dallas from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’.

The ‘new’ leaf likewise comes from one of the early Books of the Old Testament. In the sequence, it stood one Book ahead.

Otto Ege Manuscript 14 and Manuscript Studies

Some discoveries for the manuscript have been reported in our blog.

  • A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
  • More Discoveries for ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
  • A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’ and Ege’s Workshop Practices
  • Updates for Some ‘Otto Ege Manuscripts’ (Ege MSS 8, 14, 41, and 61)
  • Some Leaves in Set 1 of ‘Ege’s FOL Portfolio’ (Ege MSS 8, 14, 19, and 41)
  • Patch Work in ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
  • A Leaf in Dallas from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’.

See also The Illustrated Handlist (Number 4).

Brent Rosenbrook Collection, Leaf from Ege Manuscript 14, ‘Recto’ (original Verso), middle right: Deuteronomy 14 opens.

The Rosenbrook Leaf

When contacting me about the Leaf, its collector described the origins of his collecting spirit and the development of his book-collecting.

I wanted to give you a little bit of backstory and brief history. I am a layman in this field but have always been a collector of things since my childhood. I was a bibliophile long before I ever heard the term or would have understood its meaning. And although I am new to collecting illuminated manuscripts, I have always felt drawn to the beauty of them. As a teenager and young man I was especially stuck by the intricate, amazing imagery and knotwork in the Book of Kells. In 1998 I was fortunate to have visited Trinity College in Dublin and see it firsthand along with other books on display. It was a moment of wonder to finally be in the presence of that book. Although I never lost that sense of awe, for the next many years that was the extent of my experience and attention concerning manuscripts.

In December of 2016 my wife and I were visiting a friend’s home for the holidays when I noticed on the wall a large framed musical page of some sort. I could tell that it was hundreds of years old, handwritten, on animal skin. He knew little about it other than it belonged to a relative down the line and that at some point it was gifted to him. It was of course an antiphonal as I later discovered by searching online. It was (is) likely early 16th century and had one very large, but simple rubricated initial. Although it wouldn’t be considered elaborate or rare to a person knowledgeable in such things, for me the affect was basically “Wow, that’s really cool. I’ve got to figure out what that is. I want one of those”. The collector bug bit me again. . . .

Brent Rosenbrook Collection, Leaf from Ege MS 14, ‘Verso’ original Recto), bottom left.

My interest and enjoyment of looking at and learning about illuminated manuscripts (especially Bibles with historiated and zoomorphic initials) grew as I visited multiple websites over many weeks and scrolled through countless images of various western manuscripts. In March 2017 I acquired my first true illuminated leaf when I bid on and (unexpectedly) won a large Bible leaf which was from a manuscript previously owned by the famous collector Chester Beatty. As far as the Otto Ege leaf, it was a spontaneous purchase.

I received a notification . . . when this page was listed recently by Rodger Friedman Rare Book Studio. It wasn’t on my radar (or necessarily in the budget) to make a purchase but after glancing at the listing throughout the day I committed to buying it. I only knew the name Otto Ege vaguely through my reading up on manuscripts.

When I received the package and saw the leaf for the first time it evoked a lot of emotion. Although I knew its measurements when I purchased it, I still wasn’t prepared for the size and beauty of seeing it firsthand – it is stunning. It was only in the last few weeks after this acquiring this that I began reading up on and watching video postings about this famous biblioclast and the sets he sold off. . . . It was just this past Thursday night when I came across the RGME website and decided to reach out to you.

As for the Leaf itself, the collector reports that “It remains in the original matting that Ege used when he compiled these books.” Thus, this specimen qualifies for the group of survivors from the manuscript which circulated on their own, as a ‘Rogue Leaf’. Many of them traveled within one of Ege’s standard mats of a uniform size, accompanied by Ege’s printed Label giving a generic description of his Leaf 14. They resemble the presentation designed for specimen leaves from various manuscripts in Ege’s ‘FOL’ Portfolio of Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts, in which leaves from the dismembered Lectern Bible have the position of Number 14.

Now, with the collector’s permission, the Leaf might begin to assume its place within the virtual Reconstruction of the manuscript, as known from its fragments.  Brent Rosenbrook observes:

I think it’s nice for others to know that there are those who aren’t necessarily part of academic institution but still would like to contribute what they can to the advance of manuscript study.

We greatly admire this view!

A Note on the Photographs of the Leaf 

The images here show the Leaf and its details under several forms of light, taken at different times and at different angles. Their variety shows multiple aspects, including some 3-dimensional features which views at an angle can reveal of the curvature of the surface(s) of the animal skin and the furrows of the ruled lines upon it in drypoint.

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Tags: 'Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts', Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Book of Deuteronomy, Brent Rosenbrook Collection, Dallas Public Library, Ege's FOL Portfolios, FOL Portfolio Set Number 39, Latin Vulgate Bible, Lectern Bible, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege, Otto Ege Collection, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Reconstructing Manuscripts Virtually, Running Titles, Stony Brook University Library
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A Leaf in Dallas from “Otto Ege Manuscript 14” (Lectern Bible)

January 11, 2022 in Manuscript Studies

Virginia Lazenby O’Hara Fine Books Division, Dallas Public Library, Framed Leaf from Otto Ege Manuscript 14, ‘Recto’, top right: Initial P for ‘Post’ of Judges 1:1.

An Old Testament Leaf
from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
with the end of Joshua
and the beginning of Judges
in the
Virginia Lazenby O’Hara
Fine Books Division
of the Dallas Public Library
City of Dallas, Texas

Large-format Latin Vulgate Lectern Bible
(“the Bible of ‘Mirmelus Arnandi’ “)
made in France, late 13th- or early 14th century

Single Leaf mounted behind glass within a matted frame
Double columns of 50 lines

Visible side of the leaf (‘Recto’):
Joshua 24:18 ([igitur Dominus quia /] ipse Dominus – 24:38 (end)
and Judges 1:1 –15 (ending the verse with inriguum inferius [/ Filii autem . . . beginning 1:16])

With rubricated and polchrome elements, running titles, concluding-and-opening titles,
decorated and historiated initials, border ornament,
embellished pen-line line-fillers, and added lection marks

[Posted on 10 January 2022, with updates]

Continuing the series of posts for our blog on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny describes another leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’, a large-format copy on vellum of the full Latin Bible in the Vulgate Version.

The image shows the two columns of main text, its corrections, and its decoration and illustration.

Virginia Lazenby O’Hara Fine Books Division, Dallas Public Library, Framed Leaf from Otto Ege Manuscript 14, ‘Recto’ of Leaf.

With thanks to Molly Tepera of the Dallas Public Library of the City of Dallas, Texas, I can report details of a single, framed Leaf in its Virginia Lazenby O’Hara Fine Books Division from one of the celebrated manuscripts owned by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951). Now fragmented, the book has become known as ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’. The Dallas Leaf can be cited thus:

Framed Leaf from Otto Ege Manuscript 14
Virginia Lazenby O’Hara Fine Books Division
Dallas Public Library.

From the Old Testament portion of the manuscript, the Leaf carries the end of the Book of Joshua and the beginning of the Book of Judges. A principal highlight is the framed illustration within its opening initial for Judges.

Many features of the Leaf correspond closely with other leaves from the same book. They include its representation of the Vulgate Version with some textual variants, its layout in double columns of 50 lines on the page, its Gothic script for the main text and for corrections inserted in the margins, its expansive decoration with foliate and zoomorphic ornament which often extends into the margins, its illustrated (or ‘historiated’) initial with a scene relating to the text, and its supplied lection marks in the margins (for reading aloud). Some features with the Leaf are unusual in the manuscript or specific to this Leaf, as with the full-line stretches of pen-line line-fillers on the one hand, and the present frame for the object on the other.

Some discoveries for the manuscript have been reported in our blog.

  • A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
  • More Discoveries for ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
  • A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’ and Ege’s Workshop Practices
  • Updates for Some ‘Otto Ege Manuscripts’ (Ege MSS 8, 14, 41, and 61)
  • Some Leaves in Set 1 of ‘Ege’s FOL Portfolio’ (Ege MSS 8, 14, 19, and 41)

See also The Illustrated Handlist (Number 4).

As more research and discoveries continue apace for Otto Ege’s dispersed manuscripts by various scholars, curators, owners, vendors, and others, it might suffice, for this report, to mention the publication in print recently of an account by Peter Kidd of a detached New Testament leaf from this manuscript in the McCarthy Collection, along with a list of known leaves having historiated initials.

Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, Volume III: French Miniatures (London: Ad Ilissum, 2021), number 60, “Historiated initial on a leaf from the Bible of Mirmelus Arnandi” (pp. 199–202).

That leaf carries the end of one of the Pauline Epistles and the beginning of the next: the Epistle to the Colossians and the beginning of that to the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, with a historiated initial on its recto. The initial shows Saint Paul, traditionally regarded as the author, sitting and holding both sword and book.

Peter Kidd’s title for the manuscript derives from the purported name of a medieval owner, “Mirmelus Arnandi” (a lawyer and judge), recorded within its pages. The attribution is, however, subject to revision, because modern views of that name may represent a misreading. See, for example:

  • MS 223: SEMI-QUADRATA BIBLE
  • The last leaf of the Psalms, from a very large Bible, in Latin [France (Paris), c.1300]
  • No. 6, From the so-called Bible of “Mirmelus Arnandi”
  • McCarthy Catalogue Vol. III (French Illuminations), note for Catalogue no. 60, with Kidd’s update for its entry.

Cornerstone of the Dallas Public Library’s original Carnegie Library in downtown Dallas, Texas. Photograph from Wikimedia via Creative Commons.

The continuing flow of publications, in print or online, of yet more leaves from Otto Ege’s dispersed manuscripts, including his ‘Manuscript 14’, bring their features into view. Images reproduced from the individual remnants, while always useful, vary greatly in degree, quality, and size of reproduction. Sometimes those publications include recognition — by images, descriptions, or mentions alone — of the frames, mats, or other accompaniments for the leaves. More often they do not.

In the case of the Leaf in the Dallas Public Library, the images supplied by Molly Tepera fortunately show and share some accompanying material evidence.

Thus, this Report might set the Leaf both into the context of the manuscript, as the dispersed book becomes better known from its remnants, and into the context of Otto Ege’s workshop practices in preparing individual leaves (or occasionally bifolia, in a pair of connected leaves) for distribution and sale. The Report builds upon, and advances, my earlier reports about parts of Ege Manuscript 14 itself (see above) and my cumulative observations recorded for

  • A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’ and Ege’s Workshop Practices.

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Tags: 'Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts', Bible of Mirmelus Arnandi, Book of Joshua, Book of Judges, Dallas Public Library, Ege Family Portfolio, Ege's FOL Portfolio, Ege's Printed Labels, Historiated Initial, Image-Enhancement, Lectern Bible, Line-Fillers, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Running Titles, Vulgate Bible Manuscripts
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Patch Work in ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’

September 10, 2020 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Patched Repairs in ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
With Pieces
of Text and Decoration
Extracted From the Same Manuscript

[Posted on 20 September 2020, with updates]

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Recto, Detail of Patch.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Recto, Detail of Patch.

In a nutshell:  Patches Work.  Cut-Outs and Patches are recognized genres (sadly) in the history, transmission, plunder, and showcasing of medieval manuscript glories, plus efforts in some cases to cover the tracks.

Tracking those Traces?  Call it Forensics.  Detection Works.

Continuing our series of reports for some of the manuscripts dispersed by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951), we focus upon a little-recognized feature in one of them, which incorporates reused pieces from leaves in the same book for filling holes in other leaves.  Previous accounts of the manuscript have taken scare notice of the feature; it could be more widespread in the book than their individual reported cases would indicate.

About this manuscript see, for example:

  • Ege Manuscript 14
  • More Discoveries for ‘Ege Manuscript 14’
  • Updates for Some ‘Otto Ege Manuscripts’ (Ege MSS 8, 14, 41, and 61)
  • Some Leaves in Set 1 of ‘Ege’s FOL Portfolio’ (Ege MSS 8, 14, 19, and 41)

[And also now:

  • A Leaf in Dallas from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ (Lectern Bible)
  • A Leaf of Deuteronomy from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ in the Rosenbrook Collection]

See also The Illustrated Handlist (Number 4).

We look forward to further publications about this manuscript by other scholars, including Joseph Bernaer and Peter Kidd.  Joseph has kindly responded to our invitation to contribute his discoveries for publication, and Peter Kidd offers photographs which aid the quest.  Peter’s publication of Volume 3 of The McCarthy Collection: French Miniatures (forthcoming, 2020) is eagerly anticipated.  [On this publication and its report of surviving illustrated portions of Ege Manuscript 14, see A Leaf in Dallas from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14″ (Lectern Bible).]

Patchwork

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, 'Ege Family Album', Leaf 14 verso, detail.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, ‘Ege Family Album’, Leaf 14 verso, detail.

Some leaves of ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ have patches which fill gaps made in excising decorative elements, presumably for display in their own rights as cuttings.

Many Western medieval manuscripts survive either with cuttings or from cuttings, which forcibly extracted portions of a leaf, resulting in a hole within its original expanse. Although very many of Ege’s leaves themselves constitute cuttings in the form of “whole leaves”, I distinguish these fragments from the related phenomenon of “snippets of decorated borders and isolated initials”, as described and illustrated from collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Library, and the Walters Art Museum.

So far as I know, studies of the manuscript and attempted reconstructions of the extant pieces of Ege Manuscript 14 do not take much account of the patches, apart from occasional mentions for some individual leaves.

While working to update an account of surviving parts of the manuscript, presented in More Discoveries for ‘Ege Manuscript 14’, I took care to inspect anew images of the leaves available for viewing online.  In the process, I was struck by the references to patches on a couple of different leaves described by catalogue entries.  Those references call for attention.

Their notices appears in 2 catalogue entries known to me.  Both are “Rogue Leaves”, a term applied to some pieces of Ege’s manuscripts.  That is, they were distributed otherwise than through the customary sets of Ege’s FOL Portfolio (Fifty Original Leaves from Western Medieval Manuscripts), in which specimens from Ege MS 14 — usually single leaves, but rarely a pair of leaves in a bifolium — were selected for Leaf Number 14.

An example, within its Ege mat:

The original manuscript is mostly known as Ege Manuscript 19 (Gwara, Handlist, No. 19, page 124).  The numbering follows Ege’s numbering for his FOL Portfolio.  Some identified parts are listed in Scott Gwara’s Handlist, by which we cite them here.

Via the Handlist

1. Gwara, Handlist 14.1.

Boston University = Judith H. Oliver, Manuscripts Sacred and Secular (1985), number 36 [but no plate]

  • End of Kings, Prologue to I Chronicles, and beginning of I Chronicles,
    with a ‘patch taken from another illuminated page of the same manuscript’ covering the cut-out from the ‘theft of initial for I Chronicles’.

One wonders which other page yielded its riches to patch up this leaf.  (See below.)

2.  Gwara Handlist 14. Ref 14.

Sold at Sotheby’s 10 July 2012, lot 2(b)

The leaf carries the Opening of the Catholic Epistle of James on its verso; I have not seen an image of its recto (But see below and Update).

The leaf is described in the Sotheby’s catalogue thus:

leaf from a lectern Bible, 400mm. by 270mm., with a large initial ‘I’ (opening “Iacobus ihesu christi seruus …”, the epistle of James) in burnished gold with a coloured architectural roof and arch, enclosing a bearded James with a golden halo pointing at the opening of his epistle, angular foliage forming text-frame around all sides of one text column, terminating in golden leaves and a dragon, 3-line initial enclosing ivy-leaf, similar text-frame on verso with a dragon and a 5-line initial containing a sprig of foliage ending with a dragon’s head, double column, 50 lines in a regular gothic hand, area of one column cut away (90mm. by 95mm., presumably once with a large initial), now repaired with another cutting from same volume [highlights added], once mounted on card with remains of tape on recto, France or southern Flanders, early fourteenth century

Its contents:

  • Part of the Prologue to the Catholic Epistle of James (from [ut quia Petrus /] est primus in ordine apostolorum) and the opening of this Book, with 1:1–2:4 (nonne iudacitis [/ apud vosmet])

— plus a replacement patch with lines of script from 2 columns of text

Pasted to the recto of the leaf, on the verso the patch shows through the acquired hole, which functions as a form of ‘windowed mat’, across the end of column a and most of column b in their lines 25—37 on the damaged verso of the leaf.  Viewed from the recto, the more-or-less rectangular patch, which has unevenly trimmed edges, can be seen to its full extent.  Viewed from the verso, the extent and shape of the cut-out itself is known.

The mention of “remains of tape on recto” by which the leaf was “once mounted on card” shows that Ege’s matting turned the leaf front-to-back to display the verso.  This is the same side as showcased in the Sotheby’s view online for its auction.  The removal of part of the leaf presumably addressed an attractive historiated initial which began the Prologue on the recto.

The text on the patch identifies the leaf from which it was extracted in turn.  (See below.)

[Update on 8 February 2022:

This leaf has returned to the market.  The current online offering by Stephen Butler Rare Books & Manuscripts of Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom — via both the firm’s website (St James Preaching in an historiated initial on a leaf from a Bible in Latin [Paris, late 13th or early 14th century]) and AbeBooks — illustrates the leaf in two full-page views (recto and verso) and three details (initials and zoomorphic/foliate finials).  The description reports travels from the 2012 Sotheby’s sale:

Sotheby’s, 10 July 2012, lot 2(b), the initial reproduced in colour in the catalogue; bought by:  Robert Weaver, London; recently deaccessioned. Text: The main text is from Acts 27:40 to the end of Acts, a prologue to James (Stegmüller [Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi,] no. 809), and the start of James as far as James 2:4, but a portion of text has been cut out and replaced by a patch of parchment from the following leaf of the same manuscript, containing parts of James 2:10 3:9 and 4:8 5:20. This leaf both confirms that Acts appeared between Hebrews (the last of the Pauline Epistles) and James (the first of the Catholic Epistles), and that Acts had an historiated initial. . . . The parent manuscript is discussed, and the known leaves listed, by Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, III: French Miniatures (London, 2021), no 60, pp.199 202, citing the present leaf on p. 201, no. 80, when still in the collection of Robert Weaver.

On that publication and its list of known illustrated leaves, see above and A Leaf in Dallas from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14″ (Lectern Bible).  On the texts on the leaf and the patch, see below, reporting the fruits of study already from photographs kindly provided by Peter Kidd before the publication of his catalogue.]

In the “Otto Ege Collection” now at Yale

Another case has emerged in the Otto Ege Collection.  This “find-place” demonstrates that the patch was in place within Ege’s collection, not in some subsequent handling after it left his hands.  That same chronological sequencing evidently pertains to other leaves from the same manuscript with similar patching.

3.   First leaf of Genesis

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection

Genesis opens with a full-page initial I (for Initium) and carries the text from Book 1:1 to 3

Recto

Opening page of the Book of Genesis, with a full-page illustrated initial I for 'In' ('In Principio'), showing scenes from Creation to the Crucifixion. Dismembered leaf from 'Otto Ege MS 14'. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Manuscript and Rare Book Library, Yale University. Reproduced by permission.

First page of Genesis from ‘Otto Ege MS 14’. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Manuscript and Rare Book Library, Yale University. Reproduced by permission.

Verso

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Verso.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Verso.

The Patched Repair

Recto

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Recto, Detail of Patch.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Recto, Detail of Patch.

Verso

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Verso, Detail of Patch.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Verso, Detail of Patch.

From Which Leaf?

Without (apparently) text on the patch to serve as a guide, it is uncertain to which leaf this decorated element belonged.  At least, to judge by the animated decoration, with a dragonesque biped and branching, scrolling foliate tail, the element belonged to part of a major decorated initial.

The blank side of the patch could be suggestive.  Can we know if originally the decorated element stood on a recto, with a blank verso, or the reverse?

As it now stands on the Genesis leaf, the decorated portion of the patch stands on the recto, with the blank side on the verso.  If the pasted portion of the patch, hidden from view at the edges of the patch where it is pasted to the verso of the leaf, carries any text, the quest might become easier.

Might the hidden side of the patch itself, wherein the pasted parts of its ‘recto’ attach to the verso of the Genesis leaf, hold further clues in any other elements of script or decoration?

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Recto, Detail of Patch.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Recto, Detail of Patch.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Recto, Patch Rotated.

At present, in its patched position, the supplied decorative feature stands with the head of its dragonesque creature facing left with opened jaws.  Seen in profile, the biped spreads both legs — appearing as hindlegs — in a striding pose, appearing to march forward, while its elaborate foliate tail creates a nest of branching, coiling scrolls below its body, plus an extension which descends into the lower margin.  There, the tail branches again to form an opposed pair of foliate terminals.

On this side of the leaf, the patched portion neatly fits into the gap.  The supplied segment with its creature nestles below the flat base of the initial I (for Initium).  The letter comprises a vertical row of 8 block-like panels containing figural scenes illustrating episodes which culminate in the Crucifixion.

The tapering downward curve of the creature’s tail in the supplied portion appears to flow more-or-less seamlessly into an existing part of the decoration on the patched page, namely the downwards extension of a foliate strand which produces the pair of foliate terminals.  Thus, the supplied patch and the existing decoration form a new, remedied, form of elaborate terminal for the full-page initial.

Who can say at present from which leaf came the patch? Might its decorative creature have stood in some other alignment on its original page (for example, as shown on the right)?  That alternative, however, seems unlikely, given the orientations of similar decorative terminals to major initials in other parts of the book.

It is appropriate to wonder which major decorated element within the book was mostly ‘sacrificed’ for the sake of taking a patch from it.  And what forms, perhaps, of damage which that element and its leaf had undergone already to be deemed to ‘merit’ such treatment.  Relevant cases of significant damage could be, for example, the leaf near or at the front of the volume and now at Randolph College, with part of Jerome’s 2 Prologues to the Vulgate Bible.

The Patch for the “Sotheby Leaf” Sold on 10 July 2012
(Now in a Private Collection)

[Update:  Full-page images of the leaf in color now appear online by its vendor, via both the firm’s website (St James Preaching in an historiated initial on a leaf from a Bible in Latin [Paris, late 13th or early 14th century]) and AbeBooks.]

Viewed from the Verso

On the verso of the Sotheby leaf from the opening of the Epistle to James — seen online via  Sotheby’s 10 July 2012, lot 2(b) — the patch ‘fills in’ parts of 13 lines of text on the patched page.  Pasted onto the recto, on the verso the patch supplies the right-hand side, or end, of column a and most of column b on the page, as it peeps through the irregularly-shaped ‘window’ cut into the leaf.  In column b, the framed view of the patch covers most of the column between its line having mun-/tiam et habundantiam malitiae in man-[suetudine] of James 1:21 and its line with religio / Religio munda et immaculata apud deum et pa-/trem of James 1:27. The patch covers most of the lines in between, leaving visible the last few letters of the original column.

The patch provides the text of 13 lines from parts of 2 columns of text, presenting the narrow portion of a right-hand column and the wider portion of a left-hand column from some other leaf.  Its own column b carries most of the lines of text from James 3:5 to to 3:9.  Here I separate those transcribed lines into groups of 5, for convenience in keeping track of their span.  Square brackets enclose the lost, or hidden, letters at the ends of lines, as spaced within the original column.

  • Verso of Patch:  Text in parts of 2 columns from the Catholic Epistle of James 2:8–12+ (in one column) and 3:5–9 (in the next)

Column b:

lines ‘1–5’

quidem membrum est, et magna ex[altat.  Ecce]
quantus ignis quam ignis quam magnam [silvam incen-]
dit. Et lingua ignis est universitas [iniqui-]
tatis.  Lingua constituitur in mem[bris nostris]
quae maculat totum corpus, et inflamm[at ro-]

lines ‘6–10’

tam nativitatis nostrae inflammata [a genen-]
na; Omnis eni natura bestia[rum et volu-]
crum et serpentium, et ceterorum do[mantur,]
et domita sunt a natura humana: li[-nguam]
autem nummus hominum domare potest: [?]

lines ’10–12′

inquitum malum, plena venendo [mortifer-]
o .  In ipsa benedicimus Deum et Patrem [et in ipsa]
maledicimus homines, qui ad simili[tudinem . . . ]

The portions of column a on the patch show a few letters at the ends of lines of text apparently from James 2:8 to 12 and beyond.  For example, starting opposite line ‘2’ of the column b of the patch:

Column a:

lines 2–5

[ . . . proximum tuum sicut teipsum bene facitis]: si au–
[tem personas accipitis, peccatum operam]ini, re–
[darguti a lege quasi transgressores] Quicum–
[que autem totam legem servaverit, offendat] autem in

lines 6–7

[uno, factus est omnium reus. Qui enim] dixit
[Non moechaberis, dixit et:  Non occides. Qu]od si

[Etc.]

The other side of the patch would show the flow of text in its course either from or to these columns, so as to establish which side represents the original recto, and which the original verso.  (See below.)

Rate of Text-per-Column or Text-per-Page on the Manuscript Leaf
Versus the Printed Vulgate Edition

However, even without seeing that side of the patch, estimating the rate of text-per-column which the script and layout of the Vulgate text customarily accomplished on its pages in the manuscript, apart from decorated initials of various sizes and opening or closing titles, allows for an educated guess as to where the patch would once have stood on its original page, and to which leaf it would have belonged.

The span of text missing between the bottom of the verso on the “Sotheby’s Leaf” (which ends within James 2:4) and the top of its inserted patch (beginning within James 3:5) amounts to some 3 columns of text as printed in a standard edition of the Latin Vulgate.

I chose as standard the “Weber” critical edition, also known as the “Stuttgart Vulgate”, edited by Robert Weber, Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem (Stuttgart, 2 volumes, 2nd revised edition, 1969), although that edition exists in later forms. My copy has served faithfully over the years since I purchased it in Dublin in the early years of my postgraduate research dedicated to a magnificent large-format Vulgate Bible manuscript, also despoiled, made in Canterbury in the 9th century and surviving in fragments in different places. That manuscript, too, has patched portions which remedy cut-out holes and corner-sections.  (See below).

A note on available Vulgate editions (from Wikipedia, “Stuttgart Vulgate”):

  • Weber, Robert; Gryson, Roger, eds. (2007). Biblia sacra : iuxta Vulgatam versionem.  Archive.org. Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, Phillips Academy (5th ed.). Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.  ISBN 978-3-438-05303-9.
  • Weber-Gryson (Stuttgart) Vulgate – text only
  • Latin Vulgate with Parallel English Douay-Rheims and King James Version, Stuttgart edition, but missing 3 and 4 Esdras, Manasses, Psalm 151, and Laodiceans.

In the Weber edition, like some other editions of the Vulgate version of the Bible, the double columns of text per page are laid out per cola et commata, as arranged by its translator Jerome.  That is, the lines are set out in clause- and phrase-units, as an aid to readers, in accordance with long-standing tradition — rather than in continuous lines or paragraphs, as happens in Ege Manuscript 14.  The printed pages have critical textual apparatus in the lower margin to report significant variants found in certain manuscript witnesses and some earlier printed editions.  Note that the textual apparatus, reporting certain variants from the standard edition, can be useful in approaching late-medieval copies of the Vulgate, as I have found in examining portions of text in Ege Manuscript 14, including the ones here.

In Ege Manuscript 14, other cases of the rate-per-page can be seen on the first leaf of Genesis (also patched).  Its recto, with a full-page initial at the left-hand-side of its column a, introduces that significant decorated variable or disruption in the standard rate.  In contrast, its verso, without such major interruption or diversion within one of the columns, carries the text from Genesis 2:2 (et requirevit / de septimo ab universo) to within 3:19 (in pulverem reverteris et uo-[cavit Adam]). That span corresponds roughly to 3 1/2 columns of printed text (set out per cola et commata). 

So, counting the rate of coverage in the manuscript, roughly 3 columns of text, as printed, would have stood between the “Sotheby’s Leaf” and the top of the patch on that leaf when still part of its own leaf.  Which means the leaf following the Sotheby’s Leaf.

The patch extracted from James and 3:5 to 3:9 (on one of its sides) came conveniently from the very next leaf in the Bible; the recto of the patch served to remedy the recto of the cut-out portion on the restored leaf.  The cutting from the Sotheby Leaf itself would have carried the decorated, and perhaps or probably historiated, initial on its recto.

Viewed from the Recto

And now, in a development for the unfolding research, Peter Kidd has kindly sent me a photograph of the recto of the Sotheby Leaf, now in a Private Collection, and photographs of both sides of the patched leaf in Boston University.

Sotheby Leaf

  • Recto of Patch:  Text in parts of 2 columns from the Catholic Epistle of James2:8–12(+) and 3:5–9

The Patched Leaf at Boston University

As described in Judith Oliver’s Catalogue of Manuscripts Sacred and Secular (1985), the leaf with a patch at Boston University has the

  • End of Kings, Prologue to I Chronicles, and beginning of I Chronicles (as above)

It is now possible to refine the description, with thanks to Peter Kidd’s photographs.

The leaf is Boston University, School of Theology Library, MS Leaf 38.  The leaf itself contains, albeit with gaps front and back from the cut-out section:

  • the end of IV Kings 25:17 [cubitor altitudinis/] habeat columna) to the end (verso 30),
  • the text of Jerome’s Prologue to Paralipomenon (Chronicles) [however numbered as XXVI in the margin], including the decorated initial S of Si, and
  • the beginning of I Chronicles to 1:41 (Dison filii [/ Dison Amaran]), but without the decorated initial of the Book and parts of its column b (cut out and lost)

On the verso, seen in full, the patch covers part of column a, between the last few lines of the Prologue, following the words ipsi et / meis iuxta], and the first lines of Book 1 up to the last line of the column, preceding [Rif-]ath et Thorgorma filii autem Ie[-van Elisa].

The Patch carries portions of text from the same Catholic Epistle.  The framed recto of the patch shows 12 lines of text, while the full, unframed, extent of the verso shows 14 lines.  Seen in full, the verso demonstrates that the patch came from the bottom of its column, as it retains not only the last line of text but also the upper portion of the lower margin (some 2 lines’ worth of space), including parts of the foliate ornament of the lower terminal descending from the vertical band which frames the left-hand-side of the column.  The expanse of margin at the left beyond that border bar demonstrates that the column stood at the left in the pair of columns on its original page, and not in the narrower intercolumn between the pair.

  • Recto of Patch:  Catholic Epistle of James 3:17 ([sucedib-/il[is] bonis consentiens) to 4:4 (est Deo Quicum[/-que ergo]), including the opening initial U of Unde for Chapter 4
  • Verso of Patch:  Catholic Epistle of James 5:4 ([uestras qui] fraudata est) to 5:10 (patientiae prophetas [quo locuti])

Note:  The reading sucedibilis + bonis consentiens in James 3:17 corresponds to a variant attested in some other witnesses, shown in the textual apparatus for the Weber edition (1975), volume II, page 1862.

The Source Leaves

The gap in text between Patch ‘1’ from the Epistle of James and Patch ‘2’ — that is, the text between James 3:9 and 3:17 — amounts to roughly 3/4 of a printed column in the Weber edition.

It appears that the patch on the Boston University Leaf may have come from the same leaf as the one sacrificed to patch the ‘Sotheby Leaf’.

We might presume that the work of patching both these leaves belonged to a single operation.  Perhaps the patch for the Genesis opening leaf now at Yale likewise belongs to the same operation?

Styles of Cutting and Styles of Patching

It might be true that “A Rose is a Rose is a Rose”.  But the same does not pertain to “A Patch is a Patch is a Patch”.  Patches in medieval manuscripts come in many different shapes and sizes, and their styles of application vary, too.

Exhibit A

The 9th-century Royal Bible of Saint Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury:  London, British Library, Royal MS 1 E. vi., available for view in a digital facsimile.  It is the subject of my Ph. D. dissertation, “British Library Manuscript Royal 1 E.vi:  The Anatomy of an Anglo-Saxon Bible Fragment” (University of London, 1985), published online.

The large-format Vulgate Bible has been reduced to a fragment of its former splendor.  Originally a Bible of some 1,000 leaves in large format, it has lost very many leaves, as well as some part-leaves.  At least some of them were apparently severed at knife-point for elements of illustration, decoration, and decorated text.  The losses belonged to more than one campaign of spoliation, which took place apparently at the home of the manuscript in the medieval period, Saint Augustine’s Abbey.

Here we consider the surviving patches, of uncertain date, which inelegantly fill the gaps introduced when portions of decorated script were cut out, perhaps to serve as specimens.

Patches adhere to 3 surviving leaves.  Each patched leaf has decorated text on its recto, while the verso was originally blank.

Folio 1

Folio 1 at the front of the Gospel or New Testament unit is a purple-dyed leaf written in lines of monumental capitals which alternate between lines of gold and (oxidized) silver pigment.  The centered last line of the inscription was cut out at some stage; presumably its letters were gold.  Its gap was filled with a stained and now darkened patch pasted to one side.

The process of cutting involved drawing the point of a knife along the surface of the leaf while it lay against the following leaves.  The cutting mark incised a corresponding flap in folio 2; the severed lines were stitched back into place.

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 1v. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 1v. Reproduced by permission

The next leaf has a stitched repair for the cut-out flap which resulted from the drawing of the knife point against the sought-after recto of the preceding folio while the book lay open.  The stitching is visible just above the British Museum stamp centered below the columns of text.

© The British Library Board. Royal MS 1 E VI, folio 2r.

© The British Library Board. Royal MS 1 E VI, folio 2r.

Folio 28 (with a Patch similar to Folio 68)

The unevenly cut-out lower outer corner of the leaf with the Chapter List for the Mark Gospel was filled with an unevenly trimmed patch, similar to the patched repair on the John Chapter List.  In both cases, the Chapter List occupies the recto of the leaf; the verso is blank.  Presumably the tapered text of column b led to an embellished element of some kind, for which the excision was effected.  The patch is pasted to the verso.

Recto

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 29r. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 29r. Reproduced by permission

Verso of Patch

On the back, the full extent of the patch shows itself.

© The British Library Board. Royal MS 1 E VI, folio 68v, detail. Verso of patch

© The British Library Board. Royal MS 1 E VI, folio 68v, detail. Verso of patch.

An Example of the Decorated Titles

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 28v. Reproduced by permission

© The British Library Board, Royal MS 1 E vi, folio 28v. Reproduced by permission

The patches at least fill gaps on the leaves of the Bible, but their function solely replaces pieces of parchment.  In the case of Folio 1, the patch offers an attempt to colorize the patch, so as to try to match or mask the purple-dyed original leaf.  Over time, the color on the patch has faded or changed to brown, revealing its different stage in the non-original work on the manuscript.

Cuttings Galore

Specimens of cut-outs, once they are extracted from their original books, sometimes gather in collections dedicated to specific dates, regions (say, Italy), and types of decoration.  For example, The British Library’s collection of Italian illuminated cuttings. Described thus:

The British Library’s collection of Italian illuminated cuttings consists of around 675 initials, miniatures, and single leaves. These were predominantly cut from liturgical manuscripts of northern and central Italian monasteries and churches that were suppressed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Cuttings from non-religious manuscripts, such as miniatures from law text-books, and frontispieces from doge’s commissions of the Venetian Republic, are also represented in the collection.

The Victoria & Albert Museum has many such specimens, besides its collection of manuscripts.  The range is summarized thus:

The National Art Library at the V&A holds over 300 Western illuminated manuscripts dating from the 11th to the early 20th century, including books of hours, bibles, missals, choir books, classical works, patents of nobility, and grants of arms and illuminated addresses.

In addition to these, the museum’s collections also include about 2,500 manuscript cuttings representative of different styles, periods and regions. While a few Islamic and Ethiopian manuscripts are held in the National Art Library, most of the non-Western material is part of the museum’s Asian collections.

Etc.  Somewhere, perchance, the cuttings from Ege Manuscript 14 might survive, awaiting discovery.  Perchance might the leaves from which the patches were extracted also survive?

The Extant Patches in Ege Manuscript 14 as Cuttings
and Its Extant Leaves with Cut-Outs

So far, we know of no extant leaves from Ege Manuscript 14 which have holes left-over from decorated elements cut out from them, say in the form of cuttings for display on their own.

Perhaps it is worth considering scrapbooks or collections of cuttings as possible locations for dispersed parts of the book.  Peter Kidd’s website for Medieval Manuscripts Provenance reports admirable cumulative research on these subjects.

Are we in a position to know when the cuttings were extracted from Ege Manuscript 14?  All at once?  Neither of the sales catalogues which showcased the manuscript while still intact, at Sothebys in 1936 and at Parke Bernet in 1948, mention such cuttings, nor such repairs.   Does that omission indicate an unremarked or unmentioned feature, or did the cut-outs exit later?  Are we certain that the sale in 1948 went directly to Ege, or instead to some intermediary?

Clues toward the ‘workshop’ which patched the cuttings might reside in the ‘style’ of patch work.  That is, the choices of patches and their methods of placement and positioning upon the leaves exhibit an elevated degree of attention to design and layout.

The recto of the patched Sotheby’s leaf shows pencil markings in the form of arrows which guide the placement of the patch to fit within the ‘window’ of the hole.  See its image:  Sotheby’s 10 July 2012, lot 2(b) .  Might we guess whose marks are these?

More research on the fragments of Ege Manuscript 14, as more become visible to study, may help to answer such questions.  They may, for example, reveal further aspects of Ege’s workshop practices in dismembering his manuscripts or other books and presenting them for display and distribution.

Contributions to that research is presented on our blog.  For example:

  • A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’ and Ege’s Workshop Practices
  • Contents List for the blog on Manuscript Studies

*****

Do you know of other patched leaves in this manuscript?  Do you know of cuttings from it?

Please let us know.

Add your Comments here, Contact Us, and visit our Facebook Page.

Watch this space and follow our blog for further research on dispersed manuscripts, those of Otto Ege included.  See the Contents List.

*****

Tags: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Cut-outs from Manuscripts, Despoilated Manuscripts, Fragmentology, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege Collection, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Patches in Manuscripts, Peter Kidd, Royal Bible of Saint Augustine's Abbey
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More Discoveries for ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’

August 3, 2020 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

Some Known Leaves
from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’
In Sequence

[Posted on 3 August 2020, with updates.]

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, Family FOL Portfolio, Leaf 18 original recto, opening of Apocalypse Prologue.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, Family FOL Portfolio, Leaf 18 original recto, opening of Apocalypse Prologue.

We offer an updated and illustrated list of some of the leaves — not all — which have come to light from the dismembered and widely dispersed copy of the Vulgate Bible in large format now known as “Otto Ege Manuscript 14”.

It takes its name from the owner, Otto F. Ege (1888–1951), who took it to pieces and destroyed its integrity as an intact volume which had been purchased at auction in New York after World War II.  It takes its Number from the number which Ege assigned to it in the series of specimens from similarly dismembered medieval manuscripts arranged in his Portfolio of Fifty Original Leaves from Western Manuscripts (FOL for short), numbered 1–50.

There the specimens are presented in matted frames of uniform size and provided with a printed label which cites the Leaf Number and offers a paragraph with some generic observations about the manuscript, the author, the type of script, the genre of text, and suchlike.  The label was worded so as, presumably, to suit many different leaves from a given book.

Within the frame, the manuscript leaf would stand behind the windowed mat which obscures some of its exterior features.  The hinged mat allows (if permitted by the owner) for opening the frame to inspect the full extent of the leaf and, it may be, to lift the leaf so as to observe features on its other side.  Not infrequently, Ege turned the original rectos of the leaves to the verso position in the frame, so as to display whichever features might be deemed preferable for display.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, Leaf with the opening of the Book of Revelation within Ege's mat, which turns the original verso to the front.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, Leaf with the opening of the Book of Revelation within Ege’s mat, which turns the original verso to the front.

The former manuscript had many more leaves than the number required for the 40 numbered Sets of the FOL Portfolio — plus any unnumbered Sets, of which perhaps 1 or 2 are known.  As characteristic of Ege’s distribution strategies, individual leaves could have their own mats and, often, their own labels.

The current locations of a number of Sets have been identified, and more may come to light.  So too, many other leaves have turned up in various collections.  The work of identifying them as belonging to Ege Manuscript 14 and discovering where they are preserved represents a significant stage in the recovery process.  That many have passed through the sales rooms of auction houses and book-sellers, sometimes more than once, introduces challenges to that process of discovery.

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Tags: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscri, Fragmentology, History of Bindings, Interpretation of Hebrew Names, Interpretationes Hebraicorum Nominum, Lectern Bible, manuscript fragments, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Reconstructing Manuscripts Virtually
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A Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’ and Ege’s Workshop Practices

May 1, 2020 in Manuscript Studies, Uncategorized

An Old Testament Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’

And Ege’s Workshop Habits
in Assembling His Portfolios

Opening of the Book of Macabees in Otto Ege MS 19. Private Collection.

Portable Bible in the Latin Vulgate Version
Italy, circa 1275, with Illuminations made apparently in Paris

Double columns in 48 lines
circa 235 × 170 mm <written area circa 153 × 107 mm>

End of Malachi (within 2:13 – 4:10),
Jerome’s Prologue to Maccabees, Argumentum,
and Opening of I Maccabees (1:1 – within 1:21)

J. S. Wagner Collection

[Posted on 1 May 2020, with updates]
A detached leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 19’, now in the J. S. Wagner Collection, provides the transition from one Old Testament Book to the next.  In reporting its survival and setting it into the context of its former manuscript and the known patterns of Otto Ege’s distribution of his dismembered manuscripts, we examine the leaf, its presentation as part of a larger series (initially as Ege’s Number 19, altered for some reason to a Number 13), and Ege’s evolving “workshop practices” in mounting and distributing manuscript leaves to wider audiences.

[Note:  This post began as the report of a Leaf from one of the manuscripts dispersed by Otto F. Ege, to follow our earlier reports for some other manuscripts of his.  It grew into a report also of Ege’s varying workshop practices over time in assembling or reassembling his Portfolios of specimen Leaves extracted from manuscripts and other books.  Selected specimens would be mounted in mats, often with identifying labels or inscriptions in print or pencil, arranged in groups (notably in the Portfolios, but also in other batches) or distributed as left-overs, and sold far and wide.  Mercifully, apart from cutting the individual leaves out of the books, Ege did not crop them except by the rectangular windows of their mats.

As reported in other posts on this blog (see the Contents List), our cumulative examination of various Portfolios, individual sets thereof, and individual leaves either extracted from Portfolios or distributed on their own (as “Strays”), has yielded detailed grounds for conjectures about Ege’s evolving and revolving practices over an extended period of intense activity dedicated to maximizing the teaching (and commercial) potential of his collection.  We share some results of that research here.]

Opening of the Book of Macabees in Otto Ege MS 19. Private Collection.

Wagner Leaf from Ege Manuscript 19, verso, detail.

With thanks to the present collector, J. S. Wagner, who drew this find to our attention on account of our blog (You are Here), we present the images, front and back, of a detached leaf from a small-format 13th-century Vulgate Latin Bible dispersed by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951).  The leaf was formerly part of Ege Manuscript 19 (Gwara, Handlist, No. 19, page 124).

Already, in our blog on Manuscript Studies (You are Here), we have considered leaves from other manuscripts distributed by Ege.  See our Contents List for the series of discoveries, which so far principally concern Ege Manuscripts 8, 14, 41, 51, 61,  and 214; we begin work also on Ege Manuscript 56 in Armenian.

This new opportunity opens the possibility to consider another of Ege’s dismembered manuscripts showcased in his Portfolio of Fifty Original Manuscripts (= “FOL”), for which a core study was developed with the website devoted to a group of its survivors as ege.denison.edu, and for which work has continued to advance apace in multiple centers.

This Portfolio is one of several which Ege devoted to specific titles or genres of books in manuscript and/or print (such as the Bible in several languages).  Ege gave this one the title of Fifty Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts, XII–XVI Century [sic for the plural].  Ege numbered its Leaves as “1–50”, in the sequence which he chose for their presentation there.  Their source manuscripts, accordingly, in Scott Gwara’s Handlist of Ege’s manuscripts are known as “Ege Manuscripts 1–50” (of at least 1–325, and counting).  A provisional summary of the contents of this Portfolio and some of its known sets appears online in The Otto F. Ege Palaeography Portfolio: Towards a Virtual and Interactive Reconstruction of Fifty Dismembered Manuscripts.  Virtual reconstructions of one and another of its manuscripts continue to emerge, as with FOL Leaf 15, the 14th-century Beauvais Missal.

J. S. Wagner Collection. Leaf from from Prime in a Latin manuscript Breviary. Folio 4 Recto, Initial C for "Confitimini" of Psalm 117 (118), with scrolling foliate decoration.

Already, in this blog, we have presented 2 leaves from the J. S. Wagner Collection:

  • The Penitent King David from a Book of Hours
  • A Leaf from Prime in a Large-Format Breviary .

Now we turn to the Ege Leaf in that Collection.

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Tags: "Fifty Original Manuscripts", Bible Manuscripts, Charles Carmichael Lacaita, Ege's Portfolios, Ege's Workshop Practices, J.S. Wagner Collection, Latin Vulgate Bible, manuscript fragments, Otto Ege, Otto Ege Manscript 61, Otto Ege Manuscriipt 23, Otto Ege Manuscript 13, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Otto Ege Manuscript 19, Otto Ege Manuscript 41, Otto Ege Manuscripts, Portable Bibles, Sir Joseph Lacaita
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Updates for Some “Otto Ege Manuscripts”

March 23, 2018 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition, Reports

More is More

New Acquisitions Exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in November 2016: View of Some Parts of "Otto Ege Manuscript 14".

“A Long Shot”. New Acquisitions Exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in November 2016: View of Some Parts of “Otto Ege Manuscript 14”.

Continuing our series on Manuscript Studies, Mildred Budny (see Her Page) adds new evidence to her earlier reports of some leaves from medieval manuscripts dispersed by Otto F. Ege (1888–1951).

Revisions are now in order.  As we continue to look at, and for, evidence of the dispersed materials, the old and new evidence shows more.  While giving some answers, the observations also raise new questions. 

Time now for more Updates for Some “Otto Ege Manuscripts”.

[Published on 15 December 2017, with updates]

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Tags: Ege Memorial Microfilm, Medieval Manuscript Fragments, Otto Ege, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Otto Ege Manuscript 41, Otto Ege Manuscript 51, Otto Ege Manuscript 61, Otto Ege Manuscript 8
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A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’

September 6, 2015 in Manuscript Studies, Photographic Exhibition

Part of the ‘Interpretation of Hebrew Names’
from a 50-line Lectern Bible
in the Vulgate Version

Budny, Handlist Number 9
A Leaf From ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’

Alcath – Ananias in the A-Group
From the Interpretationes Hebraicorum Nominum
In the partly alphabetized Version beginning Aaz Apprehendens (or a Variant thereof)
At the end of a large-format Bible used for lectern reading

Circa 312 × 212 mm <written area circa 225 × 157 mm >
Triple Columns of 50 lines written in Gothic Formata bookhand
Produced probably in Flanders or Northern France, circa 1325

In our series on Manuscript Fragments, Mildred Budny examines some leaves dispersed into various collections, both private and public, through the methods of Otto F. Ege. Earlier posts on those leaves considered Lost and Foundlings, A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 41’, and A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 8’.  Later posts considered A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 61’ and New Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 51’.

Now we focus on a large-format leaf which, despite its relatively unembellished contents, formerly belonged to a large-format single-volume Bible amply endowed with decoration, illustrations, and glittering gold.

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Tags: 'Aaz-Apprehendens' Version, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Bible Manuscripts, Budny Handlist, Gothic Manuscripts, Interpretationes Hebraicorum Nominum, Lectern Bible, Otto Ege Manuscript 14, Otto Ege's Manuscripts, Parke Bernet Galleries, Sothebys
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