One nearly complete vellum leaf. 196 x 167 mm. 25 out of probably 30 long lines. Caroline minuscules. The leaf had served in a binding. (Description by Prof. Marvin Colker, Dept. of Classics. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. 1983) Provenance: Sotheby's, Dec. 11, 1979, lot 12. The fragment is stored in a binder from The Schoyen Collection, MS 626.
PSEUDO-JEROME, Breviarium in Psalmos, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [west Germany, 2nd quarter 9th century]
Among the earliest known witnesses to the text of the Breviarium in Psalmos, once attributed to St Jerome: an interesting textual survival given the many scribal mistakes, errors and omissions.
1 leaf, 197 x 170mm, blind-ruled for one column of 25 visible lines written in brown ink in a rounded west German Caroline minuscule, early annotations in the margin, one initial touched with green and the cropped remains of a 3-line initial at the beginning of line 2 on the recto, double bounding lines and prickings visible (some marginal staining and creasing from use as a pastedown, some text cropped). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.
Provenance:
(1) Solomon Pottesman (1904-1978); sold by order of his executors at Sotheby's 11 December 1979, part of lot 12.
(2) Bernard Rosenthal, his 'I/252'. A letter by Bischoff dated 15 May 1983 accompanies the documentation of this lot.
(3) Bernard Quaritch, Bookhands V, cat.1147 (1991), no 4.
(3) Schøyen Collection, MS 626.
Text:
The manuscript tradition and the authorship of the Breviarium in Psalmos is somewhat complicated. Once attributed to Jerome, it is now accepted as an amalgam of Jerome's Commentarioli in psalmos and his Tractatus sive homiliae in psalmos, as well as drawing on other authors. Arguments have been made for an Irish authorship: characteristics of the text, such as the repeated designation of certain verses of the Psalms as 'vox Christi, vox ecclesiae' and its Christocentric exegesis indicate an Irish origin. In the commentary on Psalm 15, the Breviarium incorporates Jerome's Commentariolus but then goes on, in Irish fashion, to speak of the inscription ('titulus') which was on the cross in 'the three languages', Hebrew, Greek and Latin. For more on the possible authorship of the Breviarium see B. Fischer, Bedae de titulis psalmorum liber, 1971, p.93 and M.J. McNamara, The Psalms in the Early Irish Church, 2000, p.49.
There are several extant manuscripts of the Breviarium in Psalmos. The most comprehensive census of these lists some 14 manuscripts from the 9th century, and of these only 7 are of comparable date to the present fragment. These are: Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek Aug. Perg. 26 and Aug. Perg. 99 (both beginning of 9th century); Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana C.301.Inf. (late 8th or early 9th century); Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm 6276 (beginning of 9th century), Clm 14314 (2nd quarter 9th century), Clm 14369 (2nd quarter 9th century) and Clm 18168 (late 8th or early 9th century).
The text is a commentary on Psalm 83 (Patrologia Latina 26, cols. 1072-1073).
Script:
The script is a competent west German hand dated by Bischoff to the 2nd quarter of the 9th century. Ascenders are thickened at the top with a slight serif veering on a wedge in form. It slopes slightly and the ductus is fairly smooth. To judge from the 's' and 'a' forms, it was rapidly written, and although the pen is lifted between letters, some of the m-forms in particular indicate cursive and writing at speed, as do a number of both deliberate and inadvertent ligatures. The manuscript is notable for its many scribal mistakes, peculiar word divisions, and errors of omission, suggesting that this was not the original text, but one copied by a scribe unfamiliar and uncomfortable with his exemplar, itself perhaps written without word divisions in a Frankish uncial or half uncial. There are, for example, 5 lines of text omitted from the bottom of the recto, and a further 25 lines, virtually an entire page, between 'in loquo [sic for 'loco'] quem [dis]posuit' and 'Ad agonem hoc est ad certamen'; also 'incor desuo posuit' is written instead of 'in corde suo posuit', among other things. As such, it is a fascinating and valuable survival for the light it sheds onto methods of copying, the quality and skill of the copyist, and the effect this could have on the final text.
Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A443163/datastre...
