Beinecke MS 150 (2 vol.)                                           Byzantium, s. XI^^1
Seymour Gospels (in Greek)

     Vol. 1: 1. ff. 1r-67v    [Text begins in the middle of Matthew 5. 17]
     [[Greek]]//[Greek] f. 68r blank; portrait of Mark on f. 68v

     2. ff. 69r-115v    [In gold uncials:] [Greek]. [text begins:] [Greek].

     3. ff. 116r-117r    [Table of chapter headings for Mark, written in red
     uncials:] [Greek].

     Vol. 2: 1. ff. 1r-3r    [Table of chapter headings for Luke, written in
     red uncials:] [Greek]. [portrait of Luke on f. 3v]

     2. ff. 4r-86r    [Heading in gold uncials, badly rubbed:] [Greek] [text
     begins:] [Greek]. f. 86v blank

     3. f. 87r    [Table of chapter headings for John, written in red
     uncials:] [Greek]. [portrait of John on f. 87v]

     4. ff. 88r-147v    [Heading in gold uncials, badly rubbed:] [Greek]
     [text begins:] [Greek]. f. 148r-v ruled, but blank

          C. R. Gregory, Textkritik des neuen Testamentes (Leipzig, 1900-
     1909) v. 3, p. 1173, no. 1701; K. W. Clark, A Descriptive Catalogue of
     Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America (Chicago, 1937) pp. 194-95,
     pl. XXXVI. For the text of Vol. 1, arts. 1-2 and Vol. 2, arts. 2 and 4,
     see E. Nestle and K. Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, ed. 26
     (Stuttgart, 1979) pp. 10-319.

          Parchment, Vol. 1: ff. i (parchment) + 117 + i (parchment); Vol.
     2: ff. i (paper) + 148 + i (paper). Both volumes exhibit the same
     physical format and were clearly bound together at an earlier date: 172
     x 139 (114 x 78) mm., written in 20 long lines, ruled in hard point on
     the hair side before folding; double vertical bounding lines for
     written space, additional pairs of guidelines in upper, lower, and
     outer margins (the upper pair was used for running titles, in red; the
     area between the two sets of lines in outer margin was used for
     notations; the lower pair are usually left empty); prickings consisting
     of horizontal slits in lower margin.
          Vol. 1: I-VIII^^8, IX^^4 (4, f. 68 with portrait of Mark, seems to
     have been sewn in later, though the binding is too tight to determine
     precisely the composition of the quire), X-XIV^^8, XV^^8 ( + 1 additional
     leaf).
          Vol. 2: I^^3 (bound in separately in front of text; f. 3 with
     portrait of Luke), II-XI^^8, XII^^4, XIII-XIX^^8, XXI^^6 (-6). There are no
     signatures or catchwords present in either volume.
          Written by a single copyist in minuscule script, with headings and
     tables of chapters in uncials; writing runs through guide-lines rather
     than sitting on them.
          Full page portraits of Mark, Luke, and John; all are depicted on
     gold. Mark holds a codex in his left hand and touches his chin with the
     right. Luke (f. 3v, Vol. 2) writes in an open codex he is holding in
     his lap, while John (f. 87v, Vol. 2) holds a scroll bearing the opening
     phrases of his gospel. Illuminated headpieces and ornamental initials
     in gold with stylized foliage, before each book (except Mark); red
     initials at beginning of first, tenth, and twentieth lines of text. The
     style of decoration shows many similarities with a series of Gospel
     Books of the tenth through the eleventh century. See K. Weitzmann,
     exhib. cat. L'art byzantin, art europeen (Athens, 1964) no. 334; G.
     Vikan, exhib. cat. Illuminated Greek Manuscripts from American
     Collections (Princeton, 1973) pp. 74-75, no. 9, fig. 14.
          Bindings: Volume 1, ca. 1904. Vellum case, gold-tooled.
          Volume 2, 1961. Orange goatskin gold-tooled, bound by Sidney
     Cockerell.

          Written in Byzantium in the first half of the 11th century; early
     provenance unknown. Vol. 1: Belonged to private owners in Serres,
     Macedonia. The Gospel of Matthew was purchased by Professor Thomas Day
     Seymour in 1903 through Dr. John Henry House, an American missionary
     with the Thessalonika Agricultural and Industrial Institute in
     Salonika. Professor Seymour then purchased the Gospel of Mark from a
     second unidentified source. The two portions were bound together by him
     in modern vellum, ca. 1904 (bookplate of Prof. Seymour inside front
     cover). The volume passed to his daughter, Mrs. George C. St. John in
     1914 and was then presented to Yale by Mrs. St. John and her family in
     1947.
          Vol. 2: Purchased by H. P. Kraus in 1960 from Sotheby's, where it
     had been consigned "by a lady" (Kraus, Catalogue 100: Thirty-Five
     Manuscripts [New York, n.d.] no. 2; idem, Catalogue 107: A Selection of
     Rare Books and Manuscripts [New York, n.d.] pp. 36-37, no. 42). Bought
     by Yale in 1967 with the Beinecke Rare Book Endowment Fund.
          The history of the reuniting of these two volumes is given by T.
     E. Marston, Gazette 42 (1968) pp. 211-14.

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 35, no. 150.
     Exhibition catalogue, pp.
     182-83, no. 8, pl. 2.
          T. E. Conrad, "The Seymour Gospels," Private edition, University
     of Chicago Libraries (Chicago, 1942) [Discusses V. 1 only].

     Barbara A. Shailor