Beinecke MS 440               Northern Italy, s. VII/VIII
Bible (bifolium)

//monumenti.  Maria autem magdalenae et maria joseph aspiciebant...et sermonem
confirmante sequentibus signis.  Amen.//

     Mark 15.46-16.20; text is continuous.

     Parchment, ff. 2 (bifolium), 327 x 236 (265 x 197) mm.  2 cols., 19 lines.
Ruled in hard point on flesh side before folding; impression of ruling has
sometimes cut through parchment; single vertical bounding lines.  Prickings
(slashes) in upper, lower, and outer margins; those in upper margin close to
first line of text.  Written in large uncial script, with very fine strokes
for vertical lines of N and for triangular shaped bow of a.  Unpainted
initial, 2-line, on f. 1r, with rope and fish motif.

Written at the end of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century in Northern Italy
(E. A. Lowe, CLA, II.142; Supplement, pp. 45-46); early provenance unknown.
Belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps (no. 1329, pp. 11-14 only) who apparently
acquired it from the bookseller Royer or from the collection of Amans-Alexis
Monteil (1769-1850).  Sotheby sale, 23 Feb. 1959, lot 229a.  Purchased the
same year from H. P. Kraus by Mark Lansburgh; his stamp in inner margin, f. 2r;
see An Illustrated Check-List of Manuscript Leaves in the Collection of Mark
Lansburgh (Santa Barbara, 1962) no. 1, pl. 1.  Acquired from Goldschmidt's
in 1964 as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke.

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 24, no. 1 (while in Lansburgh collection).
     P. McGurk, Latin Gospel Books from A. D. 400 to A. D. 800 (Paris, 1961)
pp. 26-27, no. 7.
     T. E. Marston, "A Collection of Early Manuscript Leaves," Gazette 39
(1965) p. 8.

Barbara A. Shailor