Testamenta duodecim patriarcharum; Joseph and Asenath; Richard de Bury, Philobiblon; Jean Gerson, De laude scriptorum; etc. Germany, 15th century, second half

Title

Testamenta duodecim patriarcharum; Joseph and Asenath; Richard de Bury, Philobiblon; Jean Gerson, De laude scriptorum; etc. Germany, 15th century, second half

Shelfmark

MS. Add. C. 108

Place of origin

German

Date

15th century, second half

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

paper

Physical extent

ii + 48 + vi leaves

Hands

Gothic hybrida.

Decoration

2- and 3-line initials in plain red

Binding

Bound in brown cloth, matching MS. Add. C. 109 and MS. Add. C. 110, probably for Bliss by David Nutt, of Winchester (see MS. Add. C. 110); the spine stamped in gilt with the shelfmark and ‘MSS | I–II’. The edges of the leaves speckled red.

Acquisition

Purchased from Bliss by the Bodleian, 26 June 1868, for £1 10s 0d.; inscribed ‘purchased in 1868’ (front pastedown). Former Bodleian shelfmarks: ‘MSS. Addit. Bodl. Π. E. 19’ (‘Π. E. 19’ cancelled by encircling and superseded by ‘C. 108’, also encircled).

Provenance

Edward Lumley (1806–1874), bookseller of Chancery Lane and High Holborn, London.

William Henry Bliss (1835–1911), scholar, priest, convert to Catholicism, Keeper of Periodicals at the Bodleian, and representative of the Public Record Office in the Vatican Archives; with his armorial bookplate (with his shield, crest, name, and motto ‘Quod severis metes’) inscribed in pencil ‘1854.’; his name in pencil (fols. 18r, 20r); an ink stamp with his family crest, a sheaf of wheat, and motto ‘They that sow in tears shall reap in joy’ (fol. i recto); inscribed ‘These MSS, and three others bound up in two volumes similar to this one were purchased of Mr Lumley bookseller, of Holborn; being part of a volume in the original oak & stamped leather binding & which contained a copy of Walter Burley’s Lives of the Philosophers – [printed by] Coburger of Nuremberg 1477’ (fol. i recto; the latter is now Auct 2 Q inf. 2.73); with further notes on the MSS texts on fol. ii r–v and within the volume.