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Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, Family FOL Portfolio, Leaf 18 original recto, opening of Apocalypse Prologue.<\/p><\/div>\n
We offer an updated and illustrated list of some of the leaves \u2014 not all \u2014 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”.<\/p>\n
It takes its name from the owner, Otto F. Ege<\/a> (1888\u20131951), 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.\u00a0 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<\/em> (FOL for short), numbered 1\u201350.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 The label was worded so as, presumably, to suit many different leaves from a given book.<\/p>\n Within the frame, the manuscript leaf would stand behind the windowed mat which obscures some of its exterior features.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p><\/div>\n The former manuscript had many more leaves than the number required for the 40 numbered Sets of the FOL Portfolio \u2014 plus any unnumbered Sets, of which perhaps 1 or 2 are known.\u00a0 As characteristic of Ege’s distribution strategies, individual leaves could have their own mats and, often, their own labels.<\/p>\n The current locations of a number of Sets have been identified, and more may come to light.\u00a0 So too, many other leaves have turned up in various collections.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “The Long Shot”<\/strong><\/p>\n On display among “New Acquisitions” Exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library in November 2016, separate sections of the Bible stand in a row, accompanied by 2 Beinecke exhibition labels on paper boards.\u00a0 From left to right:\u00a0 “Lectern Bible” Label; 1 detached Board from the former Binding, with marbled endpaper and an effaced blue label or bookplate; 2 “stacks” or “piles” of segments of loose leaves in nested bifolia; “Family Album” Label; and 1 leaf from the “Family Album” in its Ege mat, with its Ege label for Leaf 14.<\/p>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, New Acquisitions Exhibition (2016). Ege MS 14 in pieces.<\/p><\/div>\n A closer view of the 2 “stacks” or “piles” of disbound leaves.\u00a0 They display respectively 3 and 4 segments of manuscript leaves or bifolia.\u00a0 Let us call them, from left to right, Stack 1<\/strong> (\u00d7 3 Segments) and Stack 2<\/strong> (\u00d7 4 Segments).<\/p>\n “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”. Photograph by Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n Stack 1<\/strong><\/p>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14 Segments, with verso for Numbers 5:88 – 6:26 on top. Photograph Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n Segments of Leaves from left to right<\/p>\n Segment 1.1:\u00a0 Esther 2:19 ([Mordocheus manebit<\/em> \/] ad regis<\/em>) \u2013 3:8 in column a on a recto<\/strong> (seen in part here)<\/p>\n Segment 1.2:\u00a0 Proverbs 13:22 ([et ne<\/em>-\/]potes et<\/em>) \u2013 14:28 in column a on a recto<\/strong> (seen in part)<\/p>\n Segment 1.3:\u00a0 Numbers 5:18 ([cum execra<\/em>-\/]tione<\/em>)\u2013 6:26 (convertat dominus<\/em> [\/ ultum sum<\/em>]), plus catchwords (ultum sum<\/em>) at the bottom, on a verso<\/strong> (seen in full)<\/p>\n Stack 2<\/strong><\/p>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14 Segments, with recto for Psalms 68:28 – 71:14 on top.<\/p><\/div>\n Segments of Leaves from left to right<\/p>\n Segment 2.1:\u00a0 1 Samuel 16:16 ([spiritum dei<\/em> \/] psallat manu<\/em>) \u2013 17:10<\/strong> in column a on a recto<\/strong> (seen in part here)<\/p>\n Segment 2.2:\u00a0 Tobias 4:5 ([compleverit tempus<\/em> \/] uite sue<\/em>) \u2013 5:4 in column b on a verso<\/strong> (seen in part)<\/p>\n Segment 2.3:\u00a0 Numbers 13:1 ([est Maria<\/em> \/] Profectus est<\/em>) \u2013 13:29 in column a on a recto<\/strong> (seen in part)<\/p>\n Segment 2.4:\u00a0 Psalms 68:29 ([deleantur<\/em> \/] de libro<\/em>) \u2013 71:14 (honorabile non<\/em> [\/ eorum coram<\/em>]) on a recto<\/strong> (seen in full)<\/p>\n Here follows an updated, but still partial, list of the Remnants, based on some materials to hand.\u00a0 The identifications of textual contents offer corrections for the published reports of a few leaves.<\/p>\n Please note that this list is not complete, even for the records that I know about, let alone the ones yet to emerge into view.\u00a0 For example, some of the sales catalogues remain elusive, but they may surface.<\/p>\n In this list, the order of the scattered leaves from the Books of the Bible mostly follows the standard Vulgate edition, but their order in the manuscript seems to have differed somewhat.\u00a0 Where it differs, the actual order can be determined, at least in part, by the Known Folio Numbers (see above) and the text on some survivors which end one Book of the Bible and begin another.\u00a0 A case in point here is the leaf which begins Paul\u2019s Epistle to the Hebrews, directly followed by the Acts of the Apostles.<\/p>\n I cite all the Known Numbers as locators in the series, even where the survival of those very leaves might remain uncertain.\u00a0 For emphasis, they are shown in *red<\/span>, together with their asterisk.\u00a0 In the analysis following this list, any conjectured, rather than recorded, folio numbers are preceded by a question mark, also in the red (?*300<\/span>).\u00a0 As I hope you might see, keeping track of these details has a purpose, sometimes (as here, hurray) with a payoff.<\/p>\n It is useful to track leaves according to their “find-place” or distribution method, that is:<\/p>\n Several sellers or collections list groups of leaves which include, or might include, non-consecutive leaves and\/or leaves acquired at different times from different sources.\u00a0 Sometimes they cite the contents in some detail, sometimes not.<\/p>\n Examples include non-continuous leaves listed in a single lot number, gathered in a single collection, or grouped in a large batch in a single collection.\u00a0 As here:<\/p>\n 2016 ‘Words & Deeds’ Symposium Poster.<\/p><\/div>\n Here I list the contents in their Biblical places, insofar as they are revealed.\u00a0 Some leaves do not have available photographs, or available photographs for the other side (whichever side of the leaf that might be).\u00a0 Some leaves I know only through the sales catalogues, not their destinations.<\/p>\n This list represents an advance on the earlier version posted in my first post on parts of this manuscript: A New Leaf from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’<\/a>.\u00a0 Here, by gathering my notes and photographs from on-going research on Ege manuscripts and other materials, the list might accompany others’ reconstructions based on their familiarity with other collections.<\/p>\n Thanks are due to scholars, collectors, curators, and students, including Barbara Shailor, Giles Constable, Lisa Fagin Davis, Raymond Clemens, Diane Ducharme, Peter Kidd, Joshua Benaer, the staff at the Morgan Library & Museum, Kent State University Library, the Cincinnati Public Library, and many others.<\/p>\n Important discoveries have emerged in the past several years. Examples include the deposit of the Otto Ege Collection at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Yale University and the beginnings of its detailed study.\u00a0 A report on some of its features appeared in the Research Group Symposium on \u2018Words & Deeds\u2019<\/a> in March 2016, with illustrations from Ege MS 14 on the Posters and in the Symposium Booklet<\/a>.<\/p>\n With generous permission, I have been able to consult some parts of that Collection in visits to New Haven, in connection with the symposium celebrating it and subsequently.\u00a0 While continuing to wait for the Collection to be catalogued and made accessible for outside readers, I examine my photographs as records or glimpses of parts of its materials for, and from, ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’.\u00a0 Recently, the work by Joshua Benaer on the lection marks and their signifcance has inspired me to advance with work on other aspects of the book, including its material evidence.<\/p>\n Some discoveries for the manuscript are reported in our blog.<\/p>\n See also The Illustrated Handlist<\/a> (Number 4).<\/p>\n Note that Leaf 4 at Stony Brook University has a ‘starring role’ in the video of Unscattered Leaves:\u00a0 Digitizing the Otto F. Ege Manuscripts<\/a> (2018).<\/p>\n See below.<\/p>\n According to the Beinecke exhibition label for parts of this “Lectern Bible” (see above), a note entered “at the end of this Bible”, written by “a later hand”, states it had “502 folios”.\u00a0 It is not clear (at this distance) if the count included any endleaves apart from the original medieval manuscript.\u00a0 The leaves themselves are not numbered, apart from some quire-numerals.<\/p>\n The Sotheby’s sale catalogue of 1931 for this book, while intact, cites 15 specific folio numbers for some significant decorative elements, and adds “B” to the number to indicate a verso.\u00a0 Here I indicate them in red<\/span>.\u00a0 Although those numbers do not appear on the leaves themselves, they locate 10 historiated initials \u2014 among a total of “Seventy-eight large miniatures” \u2014 in these places:\u00a0 folios 46<\/span> (Book of Numbers), 155<\/span> (II Chronicles), 191<\/span> (Judith), 220<\/span> (Psalm 54), 253<\/span> (Ecclesiasticus), 266B<\/span> (Isaiah), 308B<\/span> (Ezekiel), 345B<\/span> (Nahum), 440<\/span> (Acts of the Apostles), and 457<\/span> (Apocalypse).<\/p>\n \n<\/div>\n The Bible opens with 2 of Jerome’s epistolary Prologues for his Vulgate Version.\u00a0 His Epistle to Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, serves as a general preface, beginning Frater ambrosius tua mihi minuscola preferens.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em> Beginning Desiderii mei desideratas accepi epistulas<\/em>, Jerome’s Epistle to Desiderius serves as preface to the Pentateuch, the first 5 Books of the Old Testament.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n These prefatory texts spread across 3 leaves.<\/p>\n Rogue Leaf (1 of 2 from the Esther Rosenbaum Collection). Location unknown<\/p>\n Rogue Leaf = Gwara Handlist<\/em> 14.8.\u00a0 Randolph College<\/a> (available via the Internet Archive) Photograph Courtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc. \u00a9 29 November, lot 326, plate on page 118<\/p><\/div>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection<\/p>\n The recto was reproduced as the fold-out plate for the Sotheby\u2019s catalogue of 6\u20137 July 1931, lot 389; The plate from the Parke-Bernet catalogue is also reproduced in Gwara, Otto Ege\u2019s Manuscripts<\/em>, figure 79.<\/p>\n The leaf disappeared from view until resurfacing in the Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.<\/p>\n First page of Genesis from ‘Otto Ege MS 14’. Otto Ege Collection, Beinecke Manuscript and Rare Book Library, Yale University. Reproduced by permission.<\/p><\/div>\n Verso<\/p>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14, Genesis Opening Leaf: Verso.<\/p><\/div>\n Rogue Leaf. Maggs Bros, Papyrus to Paper<\/i>. Catalogue 1059 (1985), Rogue Leaf.\u00a0 Maggs Bros, Papyrus to Paper<\/i>.\u00a0 Catalogue 1059 (1985), number 42 (no plate)<\/p>\n Location unknown:\u00a0 Rogue Leaf (2 of 2 from the Esther Rosenbaum Collection) Rogue Leaf (3 of 3) sold by Bruce P. Ferreni, Catalogue One:\u00a0 Important Western Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts & Illuminated Leaves<\/em> (1987), Location unknown [Update<\/em>:\u00a0 Now see Two Old Testament Leaves from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’ at Smith College<\/a>.]<\/p>\n Location unknown<\/p>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection<\/p>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, “New Acquisitions Exhibition”, Ege MS 14: Recto of Leaf from the Book of Numbers (5:88 – 6:26).<\/p><\/div>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection<\/p>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collection, MS 14 Segments, with recto for Psalms 68:28 – 71:14 on top.<\/p><\/div>\n Set 27.\u00a0 University of South Carolina<\/a>, reproduced also here<\/a><\/p>\n Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Otto Ege Collecdtion<\/p>\n Rogue Leaf (1 of 2).\u00a0 Sotheby\u2019s, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures<\/em> (21 June 1994), lot 10(a.1), without plate<\/p>\n Set 19.\u00a0 Otto F. Ege: Fifty Original Leaves<\/em>, Leaf 14, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University Libraries<\/a><\/p>\n Recto of leaf<\/p>\n Otto F. Ege, “Fifty Original Leaves”, Leaf 14 recto, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University. Image Public Domain.<\/p><\/div>\n Verso of leaf<\/p>\n Otto F. Ege, “Fifty Original Leaves”, Leaf 14 verso, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University. Image Public Domain.<\/p><\/div>\n Spectator Included<\/p>\n Otto F. Ege, “Fifty Original Leaves”, Leaf 14 verso, detail top left. Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University. Image Public Domain.<\/p><\/div>\n Location unknown<\/p>\n [Update<\/em>: See A Leaf in Dallas from ‘Otto Ege Manuscript 14’<\/a>.]<\/p>\n Rogue Leaf (2 of 3) = Gwara Handlist<\/em> 14.9.\u00a0\u00a0 ![\"Beinecke](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_5637-2-Beinecke-Ege-FOL-Leaf-14-Apoc-Initial-in-mat-730x1024.jpg\")
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Some Known Remnants<\/h2>\n
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Complete Vulgate Bible
\naccompanied by Prologues
\nand the Glossary of Interpretationes Nominum Hebraicorum<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n
\nMetropolitan Museum of Art<\/a> = William D. Wixon et al<\/em>., Mirror of the Medieval World<\/em><\/a> (1999), pages 118\u2013119 (number 141),Leaves \u20181\u2019, \u20182\u2019, and \u20183\u2019,
\nwith Portions respectively ofEzdra > Nehemiah [?]
\n<\/strong>Joshua
\n<\/strong>Ephesians 1:1 \u2013 2<\/strong><\/li>\n
\nIts full contents are not known to me.
\nRequests for further information have yielded no details.The specimen image on the collection\u2019s website shows a detail of the page withPaul\u2019s Epistle to Philemon and the beginning of his Epistle to Hebrews<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nA Preliminary Reconstruction of the Original Sequence of Leaves<\/h3>\n
![\"Poster](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/PosterStork-done-with-border-232x300.jpg\")
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The Former Bindings<\/h3>\n
The Manuscript Leaves<\/h2>\n
Old Testament with Prologues<\/h3>\n
Prefatory Texts<\/h3>\n
Jerome’s Prologues for the Vulgate Bible and the Pentateuch<\/h3>\n
\nSotheby\u2019s, Catalogue of Single Leaves and Miniatures from Western Illuminated Manuscripts<\/em>, 25 April 1983, lot 83(a), without plate
\n\u2014 described in the catalogue as the<\/p>\n\n
\nand extending to labiis personaret<\/em><\/strong>, \u2018which shows the secundo folio<\/em> to have begun\u2019 with the words ignorabat eum<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nPart of Jerome\u2019s 2 Prologues to the Vulgate Bible (that is, 2 of his own Epistles applied to his translated work as guides and explications):<\/p>\n\n
\nall of Jerome\u2019s [Second] Prologue Desiderii me<\/em>i,
\nand Opening Title for the Book of Genesis<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"Opening](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/SKM_C284e15090910270-3-cropped-to-plate-206x300.png\")
Old Testament with Prologues<\/h3>\n
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\nand as the first of two plates for the Parke-Bernet catalogue of 29 November 1948, lot 326 (plate on page 118)
\n\u2014 in both cases while the manuscript remained whole.<\/p>\n![\"Opening](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Ege-MS-14-Genesis-recto-unspecified-at-200-dpi.jpg\")
![\"Beinecke](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Ege-MS-14-Genesis-opening-verso-unspecified.jpg\")
\nnumber 49, \u2018a leaf with four dragons\u2019 (with plate on page 28, of top half of verso)<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nSotheby\u2019s, Catalogue of Single Leaves and Miniatures from Western Illuminated Manuscripts<\/em>, 25 April 1983,
\nlot 83(b), with plate from the upper part of one side (unspecified)<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nnumber 27 (page 44), without plate<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n[Update<\/em>:\u00a0 Identified as having been “bought by Ber\u00e9s.\u00a0 Photos at the Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art.” Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection<\/em>, Volume III:\u00a0 French Miniatures<\/em> (London:\u00a0 Ad Illissvm, 2021), no. 60, pp. 199-202, at pp. 201\u2013202 note 5.]<\/p>\n\n
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\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"Otto](\"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Stony-Brook-Ege-MS-14-recto-spc_ege_000104080_14_001-683x1024.jpg\")
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