Vulgate Bible; England, s. xiiiin.

Title

Vulgate Bible; England, s. xiiiin.

Shelfmark

Christ Church MS. 107

Associated place

Oxford

Place of origin

England

Date

s. xiiiin

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment (FSOS)

Physical extent

Fols: i + 459 (foliation jumps from fol. 277 to fol. 279, and then misses a folio between fol. 321 and 322).

Hands

Punctuation by point, punctus interrogativus, and occasional punctus elevatus.

Decoration

Headings in red. At the openings of the chapters, alternate one-line red and blue lombards, unflourished, with the chapter number in the margin in alternate red and blue lombards, prefaced by a red or blue paraph in alternation with the lombard at the chapter opening. Running titles for books in alternate red and blue lombards, underlined in red or blue (alternating across the opening).

At the openings of the books, large painted capitals, often with bar borders the length of the column and with painted tabs at the ends. Many are simply floral, or include animal forms (winged monsters [eg fol. 179ra, 370va], fish [eg fol. 343ra], etc.), but several are historiated initials, according to AT, probably retouched:

Fol. 1ra (the prologue): an unfilled space (now with a blue majuscule ‘F’), probably intended to house an image of Jerome as author

Fol. 3va (Genesis), partly cut away, with seven roundels and the top of an eighth remaining, depicting the Creation

Fol. 43va (Numbers): Miriam, with her leprosy, and the horned Moses

Fol. 57rb (Deuteronomy): the horned Moses addressing the Hebrews

Fol. 78va (Judges): an enthroned judge

Fol. 89ra (I Kings): the judgement of Solomon

Fol. 101rb (II Kings): a mounted armoured knight

Fol. 111rb (III Kings): Solomon, enthroned with a book and heeding the Lord’s wisdom (an implement held to his ear)

Fol. 134rb (I Chronicles): a long-haired man blessing two younger ones with crossed hands (thus Jacob blessing Manasseh and Ephraim)

Fol. 144ra (II Chronicles): an angel lecturing a king

Fol. 165rb (III Ezra): above two dogs fighting, below a man killing a birdlike monster with a spear (perhaps alluding to the Messiah destroying the eagle, IV Ezra 11–12)

Fol. 170va (Tobit): Tobias asleep, with the swallow

Fol. 193rb (Psalms): Jesus blessing seated above the crowned David harping

Fol. 199ra (Ps. 38): David as prophet, unrolling a phylactery

Fol. 201ra (Ps. 52): the ‘insipiens’

Fol. 203rb (Ps. 68): two winged monsters

Fol. 212va (Ps. 109): the enthroned Christ blessing

Fol. 249ra (Isaiah): Jesus appearing to the sleeping Isaiah with a scroll reading ‘egredietur’, in reference to Isaiah 11:1 ‘Et egredietur virga de radice Iesse’

Fol. 264rb (Jeremiah): the prophet, tonsured, pointing to a book he holds in his left hand

Fol. 287rb (Ezechiel): the hand of God reaches down to Ezechiel half submerged in the river populated by fish (alluding to Ezechiel 47:5)

Fol. 304rb (Daniel): Daniel in the lions’ den

Fol. 313va (Joel): seated and nimbed Joel holding a book in his left hand

Fol. 317ra (Jonah): Jonah falling from a ship into the mouth of the whale in the sea

Fol. 369vb (Luke): John the Baptist, inspired by an angel, lecturing Herod

Fol. 378ra (Romans): seated Paul reading

Fol. 386ra (II Corinthians): Paul holding his sword and book

Fol. 389vb (Ephesians): Paul holding a sword as a cross

Fol. 392vb (I Thessalonians): Paul preaching

Fol. 394ra (I Timothy): Paul holding a sword and sceptre

Fol. 395vb (Titus): Paul seated preaching

Fol. 399va (Acts): the gathered apostles above a seated Luke with his book

Fol. 411ra (I Peter): Peter with his keys in his right hand and a book in his left

Fol. 414va (Apocalypse): nimbed John, book in right hand, preaching to a dog on its hind legs, tail curled between its legs

See AT no. 184 (20), dating s. xiii2/4.

Binding

Dirty white (but some signs on rear turn-ins of red tint) leather over wooden boards (thicker at centre than edge but not shaped at the edge), s. xiv. Sewn on six thongs, taken straight into the board as depicted by Pollard, fig. 4 (57). On the upper board, recessed slots to hold straps, their bases, each held down by two tacks, present; staple-like metal clasps set into the leading edge of the lower board. Nail stubs from a chain staple in Watson’s position 7, probably dating from after its arrival in the collection (see Appendix I). Pastedowns old parchment, a ChCh bookplate on the front pastedown. At the front, conjoint with the pastedown a single medieval parchment flyleaf (both it and the final text leaf apparently raised pastedowns from an earlier binding). When Kitchin examined the manuscript, he saw two leaves at the front, containing ‘fragmentum sermonis gallice scripti’ (46); they were removed at the start of the twentieth century to the ‘Book of Orts’, our MS 378 (no. 28. Flyleaf text: Fol. i: a table of equivalents in pounds for various numbers of ‘centum’, ie 2s 4d. (anglicana, s. xv)

Acquisition

There is no indication, however, of the book’s route to Christ Church, though the evidence of the chain staple, which is in the same position and very similar in size to that on MS 157, given c. 1632, would suggest that it may have arrived in the early 1630s (see Appendix I). Certainly, it was in the collection by 1676, when it was included in the Archives catalogue; the relevant shelfmark ‘A.5’(cancelled) appears at the front pastedown of the manuscript (see Appendix I), as does the New Library ‘G.6’ (see Appendix IV).

Provenance

There are signs of use from the volume’s earliest days: it might be the person who writes the catchwords who also notes in plummet at the foot of the folio at the start of some books the name of the commentator to be consulted (fol. 34: ‘Expositor huius libri Esichius’; fol. 43v: ‘Expositor huius libri Origenes’ etc), perhaps suggesting the reader’s access to those works; it may also be this early annotator who adds some marginalia (eg fol. 134, 184). Another reader of similar date adds notes in brown ink (fol. 34v, 35v).

The first indication of the book’s ownership comes from a couple of centuries after production: ‘Biblia magistri Roberti Wrangwys quam emit a Iohanne mowre pro xl s. Anno domini MºCCCCºlxº2º’ (fol. 459, below last line of added text 3; the transcription by Kitchin (46) is in error). Wrangwys was at Queen’s College 1461–83, after a BA in 1456; he eventually was a DTh in 1477/8 and rector of various Yorkshire churches until his death in 1517 (BRUO, 2093). On John More, a Catte Street stationer, and his service to the University 1439 × 1472, see M. B. Parkes at HUO, 2:419–20 (now reprinted in Pages from the Past (Aldershot, 2012), as ch. XIV), and [Bodleian Library exhibition catalogue], Duke Humfrey’s Library and the Divinity School (Oxford, 1988), no. 93, 105, 109 and 110.

The book remained in Oxford in the mid-sixteenth century; below the Wrangwys inscription are two erased notes of ownership, followed by a further boxed ownership inscription: ‘Radulphi Welchei 1553.12’ (cancelled). He received an Oxford BA in January 1555/6, but his college is unknown (AO, 1594). Also: ‘liber Thomæ Beneti 1553 liber Thomæ Atkynsoni 1553’ (fol. iv, beneath what may be an old shelfmark ‘l.... xiij’). Bennett and Atkinson were presumably at Lincoln College together. The first received a BA and MA, the latter in 1553/4; the second was a fellow of the College and MA in 1554 (AO, 107 and 42, respectively). It may be Bennett who adds a concordance of Gospel passages, in an italic script at fol. 343r-v.