Beinecke MS 129 (2 vol.)                                            Flanders, s. XV ^^3/4
Petrus Comestor, Historia Scholastica, Fr. tr. Guyart des Moulins

     1. f. 1r    [Table of contents:] Cy aprez sensieuent les liures
     historiaux de la bible quy en ce present volume sont translatez et tout
     par histores. Les escollastres...Et premiers [E]n ce present volume est
     translate le livre de Genesis...les euvangilles exposees selon
     histoire. f. 2 blank

     2. f. 3r    Cy commence le prologue. En pallais de Roy du dempereur
     appartient a auoir trois mansions...[Vol. 2:] Et ce qui ensieut uisques
     en la fin du liure est translate de ledition theodoce. Explicit.

          Missing the beginning of Numbers (v. 1, one folio following f.
     115), the beginning of 3 Kings (v. 1, one folio following f. 236), and
     part of Luke (v. 2, one folio following f. 260). See S. Berger, La
     Bible francaise au moyen-age (Paris, 1884) pp. 166 and passim.

          Parchment, two volumes, v. 1: ff. ii (paper) + 266 + ii (paper);
     v. 2: ii (paper) + 294 + ii (paper). Both volumes 424 x 332 (267 x 184)
     mm., trimmed. Written in two columns, 35 lines. Ruled in red or violet
     ink. For the text, 4 vertical bounding lines, 2 for each column; between
	columns, three full-length bounding lines. 3 horizontal bounding lines,
	2 at top and 1 at bottom of written space; for the glosses, 2 additional
	vertical bounding lines in outer margin, outer full across (on many
	folios, several additional lines); 2 lines full across in upper margin
	for running headings; 2 in lower margin for catchwords. On some folios,
     single lines doubled.
          V. 1: 1^^2, II-XIII^^8, XIV^^6 ( + 1, f. 105), XV^^8, XVI^^8 (-3
     following f. 115), XVII-XXX^^8, XXXI^^8 (-5 following f. 236),
     XXXII-XXXIII^^8, XXXIV^^8 ( + 1 f. 264), XXXV^^2. V. 2: I-XXXII^^8,
	XXXIII^^8 (-5 following f. 260), XXXIV-XXXVI^^8, XXXVII^^6 ( + 1 following
	f. 293). Catchwords at the end of nearly all quires. Traces of original
	quire markings and folio numbers, lower right verso.
          Written in a formal batarde with some loops by one scribe.
     Marginal glosses in a similar but smaller script by the same hand.
     Corrections by a later hand (s. xv) in brown ink.
          Miniatures and decoration by the same artist as the Cite de
          Dieu
     (French translation of Raoul de Presles) made for Anthony of Burgundy
     and dated 1466 by the scribe. The codex was divided in 1720: the part
     in Turin, Bibl. Naz. MS L. I. 6 was almost completely destroyed in the
     fire of 1904; the other part is Turin, Archivio di Stato MS b. III. 12
     J (see A. de Laborde, Les Manuscrits a peintures de la Cite de Dieu de
     Saint Augustin [Paris, 1909] v. 2, pp. 371-87 and v. 3, pls. XXIIIa-
     XXVIIa and XLII-XLIII. We thank J. Marrow and A. van Buren for
     assistance with this manuscript). Miniatures in v. 2 by an assistant.
     One large, 2-column miniature, 18-lines, f. 3r, of three scribes, set
     in a wide (25 mm.) frame, brown, decorated with a continuous garland of
     flowers in gold, green and white, outlined on both inner and outer
     edges with bands of pink, gold and blue, highlighted in white. Text
     surrounded by a 3/4 band of pink and gold with white highlights, edged
     in black. Full border: curling sprouts of blue, gold and some red and
     light blue acanthus on green stems, largely confined to the corners and
     centers of the border, with blossoms containing animals, devils,
     knights; the intervening spaces filled with trailing vines of green and
     gold leaves with varied flowers in red, blue, light blue, strawberries,
     grapes and beans as well as denser vines in black ink with leaves in
     gold and green, with flowers, as above; the entire border densely
     filled with pen flecks, black, with gold dots.
          Historiated initials (one column, 8-line), for the Seven Days of
     Creation (ff. 4v, 5r, 5v, 6v, 7v, 8v and 10r), roundels, with circular
     frames, brown with garlands as above, in some cases with the top and
     bottom of the roundel lopped off, set against a field of acanthus
     and/or flowers, as above, and set between two thin gold bands, edged in
     black. Short, thin borders of acanthus, vines, and flowers as above,
     divided from text by gold and pink bands, edged in black. Other
     miniatures (11- or 10-line), v. 1: f. 49r (Genesis) The Selling of
     Joseph; f. 63r (Exodus) Moses with the Children of Israel; f. 101r
     (Leviticus) Sacrifice of Burnt Offerings; miniature for Numbers missing
     (following f. 115); f. 166r (Joshua) Joshua's Dream; f. 176v (Judges)
     Battle Scene; f. 196r (1 Kings) Presentation of Samuel in the Temple;
     f. 217v (2 Kings) The execution of a soldier; miniature for 3 Kings
     missing (following f. 236). V. 2: f. 1r (4 Kings) Elijah in the fiery
     chariot; f. 41v (Job) God the Father enthroned addressed by the Devil;
     f. 43r (Tobias) Death of Tobias; f. 50r (Daniel) Daniel interprets
     Nebuchadnezzar's dream; f. 70r (Judith) Judith decapitates Holofernes;
     f. 100v (1 Maccabees) Scene of an Army; f. 126r (2 Maccabees) Four
     soldiers on horseback; f. 142r (3 Maccabees) Four soldiers on horseback
     leaving a city; f. 153v (Gospels) Birth of John the Baptist; f. 285v
     (Jeremiah) Jeremiah seated at a writing desk with Jerusalem in the
     background; f. 289v (John) John the Evangelist holding the poisoned
     chalice, with three men, one with short wings attached to his head.
     Diagrams (in purple ink) of the tabernacle in lower margins of ff. 87v
     and 166v. Each miniature with a 5-, 4- or 3-line initial, blue with
     white highlights, filled with strapwork and blue and pink ivy with
     white highlights, on irregular gold ground (cf. Waddesdon Manor, MS 9,
     ff. 226-88, a Book of Hours made in Bruges ca. 1450-75, reproduced in
     Delaisse, Marrow and de Wit, Waddesdon Manor, figs. 16-18). 2-line
     initials throughout, gold filled with red set against a blue ground or
     vice versa, trailing black hairspray with gold, red and blue dots.
     Initials cruder in v. 2. Line-fillers in both text and glosses in
     similar fashion. Running headings (in v. 1 only), and keys for glosses
     in red throughout. Traces of tabs in outer margins.
          Binding: 1981. Bound in a brown, linen buckram case in the Yale
     Library Conservation Studio to replace an 18th century brown calf
     binding. One board of this binding retained in box.

          Written in Flanders (perhaps Bruges, judging from the miniatures)
     in the third quarter of the 15th century; early provenance unknown.
     Belonged to Capt. John Harrison-Broadley of Welton House, Brough, East
     Yorks; sold at Sotheby's (13-14 Feb. 1922, no. 33; with illustration of
     v. 1, ff. 63r and 217v). Sold by Maggs (1928, catalogue 500, no. 31).
     Presented in 1949 by Louis M. Rabinowitz.

     secundo folio: [of text, f. 4] Cest a dire

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 33, no. 129. 
     Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 242-43, no. 67, and pl. 23 (v. 1, f. 3r).
          T. E. Marston, "The Comestor Manuscript," Gazette 34 (1950) pp.
     172-73.
          Clive R. Sneddon, "The 'Bible du XIII^^e Siecle': Its Medieval
     Public in the Light of its Manuscript Tradition," in The Bible and
     Medieval Culture, ed. W. Lourdaux and D. Verhelst, in Mediaevalia
     Lovaniensia, Series 1, Studia 7 (Louvain, 1979) p. 130, n.
     8.

     Barbara A. Shailor