YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE MANUSCRIPTS
Beinecke MS 280 France, s. XII^^2/4
Josephus, De bello Judaico, Lat. tr. Hegesippus
f. 1r blank; f. 1v [Inscription, in a slightly later hand:] Quam male
romulea tractetur ab urbe Iudea/ Narrat Egisippus ut docet istud opus.
[ff. 2r-117v:] Incipit Liber Egesippi hystoriographi. Quatuor libros
regnorum quos scriptura complexa est sacra...index negotij fuit. Opes autem
eorum appositus ab ipsis prius ignis consumpsit.
V. Ussani, ed., CSEL, v. 66 (1932) pp. 3-417.
Parchment (monastic, furry), ff. i (foliated 1, parchment, palimpsest with
spacious 2-column format that seems contemporary with text) + 116 (foliated
2-117) + ii (paper), 289 x 214 (230 x 161) mm. Written in 2 columns of 35
lines; single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines full length;
sometimes two horizontal rulings through center of written space. Ruled
faintly in lead; prickings in all margins except inner, occasionally
double prickings for horizontal bounding lines.
I-XII^^8, XIII-XIV^^10. Quire signatures, much trimmed, along lower
edge on verso.
Written by a single scribe in elegant French minuscule. Marginalia,
including "Nota" marks, by several later hands.
Good pen-drawn initial for Book 1 (f. 2v), 12-line, in brown, with
vigorous foliage swirls, modelled with fine striations, against a bright,
multicolored (green, blue, red, maroon) panelled ground; for the Prologue and
Books 2-5 (ff. 2r, 37r, 52r, 67v, and 82v), 7- or 5-line initials, in red,
blue, green, and light brown with delicate, stylized foliage (f. 2r: also with
two stylized heads). On f. 77v, a marginal drawing in red ink of a man pointing
to text with a note (s. xiii) in brown ink "Nota de iniquo Symone." Rubrics
throughout.
Binding: s. xviii. Edges gilt. Green goatskin gold-tooled, with a
brick-red label.
Written in Northern France (possibly the Loire region?) in the second
quarter of the 12th century; early provenance unknown. Unidentified
inscription on f. 1r: "MSS Biblioth. Coislozuch," with the number "240"; we
have not been able to verify the suggestion that the manuscript came from
the collection of the duc de Coislin (Faye and Bond, p. 49, no. 280).
Belonged to comte Justin MacCarthy-Reagh (1744-1811) and to Sir Thomas
Phillipps (nos. 3883, 3711; inscription on f. 1v). Acquired by George Dunn
(1865-1912) of Woolley Hall, Maidenhead (booklabel); his sale (Sotheby's, 11
Feb. 1913, v. 1, no. 464). From the Sholem Asch Collection of Judaica (L.
Nemoy, "The Shalom [sic] Asch Library," Gazette 18 [1944] p. 60;
idem,
Catalogue of Hebrew and Yiddish Manuscripts and Books from the Library of
Shalem [sic] Asch [New Haven, 1945] p. 24, no. 137, pl. of f. 2v
facing p. 24). Presented to Yale in 1943 by Louis M. Rabinowitz.
secundo folio: appropinquauit
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 49, no. 280.
Exhibition Catalogue, p. 187, no. 14.
Barbara A. Shailor