Beinecke MS 282               Belgium [?], s. XII^^2
Josephus, De bello iudaico, Lat. tr. Rufinus

f. 1r blank, ff. 1v-109v Post antiquitatis libros uiginta hi sequuntur
qui captiuitatis iudaice et excidij iherusalem inscribuntur numero vii^^te.
Flauij iosephi hystoriographi liber primus de bello iudaico incipit
capitulum .i. Quoniam bellum quod cum populo romano gessere iudei omnium
maximum que nostra etas uidit...quod eam solum per omnia que scripsi habuerint
coniecturam.  [colophon at bottom of folio:]  Solus ego iosephum scripsi
totumque peregi./ Non socius mecum scriba uel alter homo./  Ergo domus felixque
penus cui talia condo./ Nunc mihi redde uicem multiplicando precem./  Liber ut
an euo sim iamiam proximus euo./ Vt superis iungar hostis ab ore trahar./
Spiritus astra petat gaudens in pace quiescat. amen./ Anima Waltheri scribe
requiescat in pace. orate fratres. amen.

     Parchment, ff. i (parchment) + 109 + i (parchment), 465 x 315
(365 x 220) mm.  Written in 2 columns of 48 lines; single vertical, single
lower horizontal, and double upper (widely spaced) horizontal bounding lines.
Ruled lightly in crayon; prickings prominent in all margins.
     I-XIII^^8, XIV^^6 (-6).  Quire signatures (I, II, etc.) in center of lower
margin, on verso.
     Written in bold and elegant early gothic bookhand; some looped flourishes
in upper margins contain red dots.
     Seven initials, 17- to 10-line (ff. 1v, 27v, 48r, 60r, 67v, 75v, 89v), in
red, filled with red swirling foliage on orange and green grounds, with touches
of blue, against irregular grounds of blue and/or orange panels.  6- to 2-line
initials, green and/or red with red or green foliate flourishes, set both
outside and into text column; initials sometimes incorporate simple facial
features.  1-line red initials for rubrics.  Rubrics throughout; remains of
notes to rubricator.
     Binding:  s. xix.  Brown goatskin, blind-tooled.

Written possibly in Belgium, to judge from the decoration, in the second half
of the 12th century, by a scribe named Waltherius (see colophon above); early
provenance unknown.  Belonged to Ambroise Firmin-Didot; see his Catalogue
illustre des livres precieux manuscrits ...(Paris, 1881) v. 3, p. 72,
no. 54.  From the collections of M. Zagajski and Hannah D. Rabinowitz
(bookplates).  Presented to Yale by William S. Glazier in 1960.

secundo folio:  [dissensi]onibus est euersa

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 49, no. 282.

Barbara A. Shailor