Beinecke MS 674

Petrus Comestor (12th cent.).  Scholastica Hystoria.

Latin.  Northern France or Belgium, ca. 1200.

1. ff. 1r-179v  Incipit prologus epistolaris magistri Petri manducatoris  ad
Willelmum senonensem archyepiscopum de continuatione hystorie veteris ac novi
testamentis.  Reverendo patri et domino suo Willelmo  dei gratia senonensi
archiepiscopo  petrus servus christi presbiter trecensis vitam bonam et
exitum beatum Causa suscepti laboris fuit instans petitio
sociorum...[Prologue ends f. 1r:]...vera splendorem et auctoritas
perhennitatem. Per omnia benedictus deus. Amen. [Text begins f. 1v:] Incipit
scholastica hystoria.  Imperatorie maiestatis est; in palatio tres habere
mansiones.  Auditorium vel consistorium in quo iura decernit... [Text ends f.
179v:]......qui est extra civitatem ubi fiebant dolia et ita paulus
honrabiliori morte mortuus est quia gladiatus.  Gladio enim perimebantur
nobiles et in loco magis honorabiliori. scit in cathacumbis.
	Petrus Comestor (Manducator).  Historia Scholastica [Stegmueller
	6543-6564; PL 198: 1049-1722].

Parchment.  ff. i (paper) +179 +i (paper), 400 x 275 (360 x 210) mm.  2
columns, 44-51 lines.  Double vertical bounding lines and three lines between
columns.  Double horizontal bounding lines.  Ruled in lead and ink.  Prickings
visible in inner margin.

I^^8-2, II-XXII^^8, XXIII^^8-3.  Roman numeral quire signatures in the lower
margins of the first and last leaves of quires IX-XXIII.

Written by two scribes (Scribe 1: ff. 1r-47r; Scribe 2: ff. 47r-179v) in
proto-gothic script.

Large initial on f. 1v embodying 9 miniatures (depicting, top to bottom, God
the Father enthroned, Noah and the Ark, Abraham and Melchisidech, Abraham and
Isaac, Elijah pouring water around his altar, a king kneeling before an
altar, a prophet, David playing the harp, and Petrus Comestor at work). 
According to Hanns Swarenski (cited in the Kraus catalogue) the initial
suggests an origin at Stavelot.  19 large decorative initial letters in light
green, dark green, yellow, blue, and red with interlace and leafy
decorations, often employing zoomorphic ornamentation.  Hundreds of smaller
painted initials.

Binding: Eighteenth-century brown calf, with gilt embossed ornamentation on
spine and the legend: "Historia | Scholastica | Petri | Manducatori" and a
label with the printed number 3742.

Provenance: A note on the front pastedown identifies this ms. as from the
collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps (ms. 3742; from Allard, Paris).  Munby
cites a note in the collection which assigns this manuscript to Pontigny
abbey.  Purchased from H.P. Kraus, 1987.

secundo folio: erat verbum

Bibliography: A.N.L. Munby, The Formation of the Phillipps Library up to the
year 1840 (Phillipps Studies No. 3; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1954), p. 152;  H.P. Kraus Catalogue 165 (New York, 1983), lot 2.

Albert Derolez