Beinecke MS 193                                                    France, s. VIII^^in
Bible (fragment)

          //Misit in renibus meis filias faretrae suae/...Oculus meus
     depredatus// [a large portion of the verso is covered by a fragment of
     a 15th century German manuscript glued to the leaf in an attempt at
     repair] 

          Lamentations, 3.13-51 [52-56 obscured]. Fifteen folios from the
     original codex survive; for bibliography on the Beinecke fragment and
     for information concerning its relationship to the other leaves see
     CLA, v. 11, p. 35, no. 1337 (eleven fragments listed; four leaves
     appeared in the sale catalogue of Sotheby Parke-Bernet and Company,
     Catalogue of Twenty Western Illuminated Manuscripts from the Fifth to
     the Fifteenth century [1982] pp. 16-19).

          Most of the verses have received neumes. According to K. D.
     Hartzell these were certainly added much later than the leaf's own
     date. The ink is a medium brown which has been rubbed here and there.
     The neumes on the verso are much fainter than those on the recto. They
     were written in an unknown center by a scribe who practiced a mixed
     style, possibly in the eleventh century. No examples of climacus or
     porrectus are present. The virga's head turns to the right in the
     Lorraine manner, but the punctum is not the Lorraine form. The clivis
     is closer to the French style than the German, but the torculus is
     decidedly Germanic. The podatus, made in one stroke, resembles that in
     a Gradual-Lectionary from St. Bertin (St. Omer, Bibliotheque Municipale
     MS 252; Paleographie musicale, III, pl. 184b). The result is thus
     eclectic. Although he probably learned to write neumes from a German,
     the scribe modified his script under French influences.

          Parchment, 1 f., 326 x 262 (265 x 212) mm. 2 columns of 29 lines.
     Rulings in hard point on the flesh side barely visible.
          Written in elegant Luxeuil minuscule, with headings in uncials.
          Large initial at beginning of each verse filled with yellow, red,
     and/or green; headings in green or red.
          Removed from a bookbinding; text suffers from holes, stains,
     creases, and repairs.

          Written at Luxeuil or one of its affiliated houses at the
     beginning of the 8th century. Most of the remaining fragments (except
     for those in Munich which are from the binding of CLM 17738 from
     Stadtamhof near Regensburg [see CLA, v. 9, p. 29, no. 1337]) may be
     traced to the Benedictine abbey of Admont in Austria. The handwritten
     inventory of J. Wichner (Catalogus codicum manu scriptorum
     Admontensis
     [1889] p. 330, no. 12] contains a marginal notation that three leaves
     "Fragmenta Ezechielis et Jeremiae, Perg. VIII" were acquired by
     Goldschmidt's of London in 1936. The Yale fragment was presumably one
     of these since it was bought from Goldschmidt's in 1938 by Clarence
     Mendell who presented it to the Branford College Library of Yale
     University. Deposited in the University Library in 1953.

     Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 39, no. 193.

     Barbara A. Shailor