Beinecke MS 414               France, s. XII^^in
Bible

Presumably the second of a two-volume Bible, the codex is arranged as follows
(numbers in parentheses refer to prologues that precede the text, as they are
listed in Stegmueller):  Isaiah (482); Jeremiah (487);  Lamentations (ending
at 4.22);
Baruch; Ezekiel (492); Daniel (494); Prologue to Minor Prophets (500); Hosea
(507); Joel (511); Amos (515, 512); Obadiah (516, 519 + 517);
Jonah (524, 522); Micah (526); Nahum (527); Habakkuk (529);
Zephanaiah (532; followed by the concluding portion of 534,
without rubric; Iosiam regem iude cuius temporibus...lectionis
denunciauit); Haggai (535, 538); Zechariah (540); Malachi (544);
Job (344, 357, 349, 355; at conclusion another prologue: 350);
f. 92v ruled, but blank; Proverbs (457); Ecclesiastes; Song of Songs;
Wisdom; Ecclesiasticus (with Multorum nobis et magnorum treated
separately as a prologue; Prayer of Solomon at end);
f. 124r-v (originally blank) Cronica ysidori vel ieronimi vel
augustini. Brevem temporum expositionem per generationes et regna
primus ex nostrus tribus...[description of the Creation up to
Solomon; Isidore of Seville, Chronicon, PL 83.1017-30];
Matthew (595, 596, 581, 590) + capitula; Mark (607) + capitula;
Luke (620) + capitula; John (624) + capitula; Acts (640) + capitula;
Catholic Epistles (809); Apocalypse (835); Romans (670, 674, 677);
l Corinthians (685; ends imperfectly at 4.15).

     Parchment, ff. i (parchment) + 197 + i (parchment), 273 x 187 (202 x 121)
mm., trimmed. Written in two columns of 48 lines, above top line. Double
vertical and horizontal (widely spaced) bounding lines, full length and full
across. Two horizontal lines at center, full across. Ruled in hard point
on the hair side.
     I-VII^^12, VIII^^4 (+ 4 leaves, ff. 85-88, before 1), IX-X^^12, XI^^4 (+ 4
leaves, ff. 117-20, before 1), XII-XVI^^12, XVII^^12 (+ 1 leaf, f. 197, after 12).
     Written in an elegant French minuscule, chapter divisions added in
margins by a later hand.
     Twenty-seven fine aniconic initials, 20- to 7-lines, are most closely
related to similar decoration in a group of manuscripts from Albi and its
region; Albi, Bibl. Mun., MSS 5, 6, and 13 and Paris, B.N. lat. 776;
more generally to the group of Limousin manuscripts produced around 1100, of
which the most important is the Second Bible of Saint-Martial (Paris, B.N.
lat. 8). See Exhibition Catalogue pp. 186-87, no. 13, pl. 4 (f. 1r);
W. Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination (Ithaca, New York, 1982) cat.
no. 77, p. 274, fig. 125 (fol. 1r--incorrectly labeled 1v), and D.
Gaborit-Chopin, La decoration des manuscrits a Saint-Martial de
Limoges et en Limousin du XI^^e au XII^^e siecle (Paris-Geneva, 1969) p.
219. The initials are drawn in black pen, filled with yellow, brown or blue,
most with interlace knots at midpoints and terminals, some with dragon heads,
infilled with intertwining palmette foliage against irregular red, blue, green,
and yellow panelled grounds. Prologues open with 10- to 4-line initials, red
and blue with terminals in the leafy "arabesque" design as defined by J.
J. G. Alexander in Essays presented to N.R. Ker (London, 1978) pp. 87-116.
Chapters with 3-line initials in red. 1-line initials, running headings, and
rubrics throughout. Marginalia sometimes outlined in red. A hole in the
parchment on f. 183 has also been outlined in red. On f. 43v, a Tau sign drawn
in the margin by a later hand.
     Binding:  s. xix.  Red velvet case.  Leather placemarks on fore edge.

Written in the area of Limoges or in Aquitaine at the beginning of the 12th
century; early provenance unknown. Belonged to Leon Gruel, Paris. Acquired
from him by A. Chester Beatty in 1920 (E. G. Miller, The Library of A. Chester
Beatty ... [Oxford, 1927] v. 1, pp. 104-07, with Pls. LXXIX-LXXXI of ff. 159v, 1r,
18r, 41r, 73r, 59v, 81v, 83r, 127r, 103r, 169v, 138v, 146v, 146r).
Sotheby's sale (24 June 1967, no. 44). Purchased from H. P. Kraus in 1969 by
Edwin J. Beinecke, for the Beinecke Library.

secundo folio: idola argenti

Bibliography: Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 186-87, no. 13; pl. 4 of f. 1r.

Barbara A. Shailor