Beinecke MS 401A               England, s. IX^^in
Aldhelm, De laude virginitatis (bifolium)

Restricted material. May not be seen without the permission of the appropriate curator.

Conjugate leaves originally from the same manuscript as Beinecke MS 401;
probably the third and sixth leaves of a quire:

1. f. 1r-v  //squaloris nausiam perpetitur...et apertis
clatrorum obstaculis//

     Portion of ch. 36; Ehwald 283/4 - 284/7.

2. f. 2r-v  //Tempore scelestissimi Iuliani...Potissimum
uiridibus herbarum//

     Beginning of ch. 38; Ehwald 286/17 - 288/1.

     Parchment, ff. 2 (bifolium), 177 x 117 (145 x 100) mm., 22 long lines.
Ruled in hard point on the hair side; double vertical inner and outer
bounding lines with prickings along each of these double horizontal rulings. 
For the script see MS 401; MS 401A was written by Scribe 2.  Decorative T on
f. 2r, black initial surrounded by red dots.  Stitching holes in center of
bifolium; outer margins trimmed with some loss of text.

For the origin and early provenance of these two fragments see MS 401.
Belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 20688, ff. 9, 10) who acquired them
from Guglielmo Libri (1802-69; his sale, Sotheby's, 28 March - 5 April 1859,
no. 1111, f. 2r illustrated in pl. xxv).  In the Phillipps sale of 25 Nov. 1969
(Sotheby's, New Series,
Medieval Manuscripts, Part V) the leaves were joined together with the 26
leaves now comprising Beinecke MS 401 (Phillipps no. 8071) and sold as lot
442. Acquired from H. P. Kraus in 1970 as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke.

Bibliography: see MS 401.

Barbara A. Shailor